Dogs With Cats

[Dogsfevr]

Personally, I wouldn't get a sighthound if I had cats, especially not a greyhound.

Some greyhounds are great with cats but those dogs are the exception, rather than the rule. And even then, I'd be very careful about where you got the dog from. GAP Vic or GSN are the only two mainland groups I'd trust to test dogs properly.

What a load of rubbish & those aren't the only places that you can trust ,many of the show greys are brought up with cats & sighthounds doesn't equate to cat killer/chaser & its comments like this that then make people feel Greys are bad news or sighthounds in general

Whippets & cats are often the best buddies in the world .

AS for Setters yes i have owned all 3 you mention & many have cats & setters & get on like a house on fire but irrespective of that its what breed you want to live with & how much coat & grooming you want

[Steph M]

Our English Setter loved our cats, we adopted a stray kitten once and couldn't find her for dinner, went into the bedroom and Perry the setter had the kitten between his paws, fast asleep purring and drenched in spit from the licking. He was an awesome surrogate mother.

[Maddy]

Personally, I wouldn't get a sighthound if I had cats, especially not a greyhound.

Some greyhounds are great with cats but those dogs are the exception, rather than the rule. And even then, I'd be very careful about where you got the dog from. GAP Vic or GSN are the only two mainland groups I'd trust to test dogs properly.

What a load of rubbish & those aren't the only places that you can trust ,many of the show greys are brought up with cats & sighthounds doesn't equate to cat killer/chaser & its comments like this that then make people feel Greys are bad news or sighthounds in general

Those are the only place I would trust. Do you understand what "opinion" means? I'll clarify it for you- in my opinion, those are the only two places to trust as far as getting cat safe rescue greys. And my opinion comes from rescuing the breed for several years (and cleaning up the tragic messes of greyhounds rehomed inappropriately with cats).

It sh*ts me endlessly that people here aren't given the information they need to make informed and sensible decisions. A few fluffy stories about how lovely greyhounds are with cats is not the reality. Roughly 5% of racing bred greyhounds are cat safe. Those are not good odds to be playing with. If you think that's rubbish.. good for you :)

[Rebanne]

Personally, I wouldn't get a sighthound if I had cats, especially not a greyhound.

Some greyhounds are great with cats but those dogs are the exception, rather than the rule. And even then, I'd be very careful about where you got the dog from. GAP Vic or GSN are the only two mainland groups I'd trust to test dogs properly.

What a load of rubbish & those aren't the only places that you can trust ,many of the show greys are brought up with cats & sighthounds doesn't equate to cat killer/chaser & its comments like this that then make people feel Greys are bad news or sighthounds in general

Those are the only place I would trust. Do you understand what "opinion" means? I'll clarify it for you- in my opinion, those are the only two places to trust as far as getting cat safe rescue greys. And my opinion comes from rescuing the breed for several years (and cleaning up the tragic messes of greyhounds rehomed inappropriately with cats).

It sh*ts me endlessly that people here aren't given the information they need to make informed and sensible decisions. A few fluffy stories about how lovely greyhounds are with cats is not the reality. Roughly 5% of racing bred greyhounds are cat safe. Those are not good odds to be playing with. If you think that's rubbish.. good for you :)

argh must remember next time not to post fluffy stories about my greys and cats, nor the foster greys I have had that have been fine. And as so many greyhounds never make it to adoption and are killed instead maybe you could give the actual figures from GAP. They seem to rehome more then 5% of their total intake as cat safe.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Rebanne

[dancinbcs]

Thanks everyone for the great replies so far. So many cute photos too :)

Putting together what everyone has said, I think my number one choice is an older dog (of just about any medium to large breed) being rehomed by a breeder, from health-tested parents and raised around cats. That would be perfect! I'd also consider a rescue dog fostered with cats, although I'd be more careful with this option as recommended by others. Also a puppy from a breeder with cats could be good too.

Someone recommended a setter to me yesterday - I've haven't really encountered many English/Irish/Gordon setters so not sure about that idea. Like everyone says it's also the individual dog and cats too. Anyway any further recommendations are welcome and keep the photos coming! If anyone can suggest anywhere to look for an older dog other than the mature dogs section on DOL or Pet Rescue please let me know! Or if there are any breeders that raise their large-breed pups around cats and have available pups this year, please speak up :)

Either a mature dog from a breeder with cats or a puppy that the cat can raise would be the best solution. Most Border Collies are great with cats and seem to understand that the resident cat is to be respected, even when visiting other homes. I had a cat with 4 Borders and the 3kg cat was definitely in charge. She also wandered through the puppy pen when I had litters and that made all my puppies cat proof.

If you want to go smaller, Japanese Spitz seem to get on very well with cats as they are almost as feline in nature as they are canine.

[kelpiecuddles]

There's pretty much dogs of every type and fur type, etc, etc you could imagine that can make good cat home dogs. Maybe go in to details about the type of dog you are interested in and that might make it easier for people to suggest things. Energy levels, fur type, biddability, do you want to run offlead, etc, etc. I'd gladly plug basset hounds, they pretty much get along with everything(ours runs free with 2 day old chickens having been raised around small animals) but they'd be no good to someone wanting a biddable dog that they could do well in agility with for example.