[GoldenPupe]

This question had been in my mind for a long time " Does Dogs really hate Cats if they do WHY!?!?!?!

Dog: I Hate CATS!

Cats: WHY!?!?!?!

Dogs: its happen since the beginning of our existence

WHY!?!?!?!

I say this becuz my uncle brought a new born cant even stand up puppy to our home and our cat....thats was bigger than him like 2 months gave his this glare my uncle put him on the table and when my uncle got a distance from the table my cat climbed up to the table and SMACKED the puppy on the floor then the puppy went doo doo of fear......that reminds me ...My cat died....then i got a puppy

 

[RonE]

Dogs don't automatically hate cats.

I had a beagle that had no issues with cats until he trotted up to a big farm cat, offering friendship, and the farm cat smacked him halfway to the next county. After that he had a huge issue with cats and it took some real effort to get him to tolerate my sister's cat, who spent some time with us.

My big lab liked to chase cats but encountered one that was accustomed to dogs (and lived with five of them.) That cat refused to run away, so my lab stopped short, looked at me, looked at the cat, then at me again and finally walked away, completely deflated. It was no fun if it wasn't going to run.

Esther would probably kill a cat if she had the opportunity, so we work very hard to make sure she doesn't have the opportunity. To her, cats, raccoons, squirrels, bears, deer and just about anything that is neither canine nor human is prey.

Many cats and dogs live together in perfect harmony.

 

[valsh]

I don't think dogs hate cats at all. I think a dog not introduced to cats at a young age will act on a prey drive(?). My new pup just wants to play with our cats, only problem is the cats are a bit intimidated by our pups size I think. Our last dog loved cats and was a dingo, aussie shepherd, pit mix. He trained cats as he would bark at them if they got on the counter. He would also run up to them and give them belly nuggies, (nosing the belly and licking a lot). Also I think it helps if a puppy is put in there place by a cat, those claws can be a painful reminder not to play to hard or corner them.
Just my $.02

 

[mostlymutts]

I suppose it can have a lot to do with environment.

When we are in the house, my cats can run their tails under the dog's nose. If a cat gets caught out in the yard, all bets are off.

I feel like my AS would catch them and not know what to do... The English Setter I am not so sure about.

 

[RonE]

GoldenPupe, I'm going to strongly recommend you stick with the default font size and color. Otherwise, you're going to blind the most experienced (re: oldest) of the members here and get minimal feedback.

My son's dog lives with a huge Himalayan cat and they appear to be great friends. The cat will sometimes ambush the dog, but nobody has ever gotten hurt.

 

[mostlymutts]

GoldenPupe, I'm going to strongly recommend you stick with the default font size and color. Otherwise, you're going to blind the most experienced (re: oldest) of the members here and get minimal feedback.

My son's dog lives with a huge Himalayan cat and they appear to be great friends. The cat will sometimes ambush the dog, but nobody has ever gotten hurt.

Ha Ha.

I went by the opening post so fast the big stuff hadn't even loaded...

FWIW--it was hard on my eyeballs too. And I am inexperienced (and old )

To the OP. I am sorry your cat died. And glad you got a puppy. And that given previous experience, you won't set him/her on a table.

 

[KBLover]

I've heard it was a body language thing. Supposedly canines and felines have some of the same signals but they basically mean the opposite. Like when a cat has her tail standing straight up - it's a friendly gesture, almost like the canine play bow.

To the canine, though, that's a sign of a highly aroused creature that's thinking of attacking.

Likewise with eye contact. Cats stare. In fact, it's a sign of affection according to what I've read. To a dog, a stare is a threat/social pressure.

 

[Love's_Sophie]

My poodle puppy LOVES our cats...we have four of them; my two black kitties especially love to purr and rub on him. They will rest next to each other, and would probably share food if I let them! My Border collie mix was the same way...they would all cuddle up together and sleep; it's what dog and cat mixed homes would all love to see, but not always do we get!

Our Terrier while she will tolerate them, has a very high prey drive, so it's not so much that she hates them, it's more of a 'safety' thing, that we have to keep her from them as much as we can, because with her, she can be nice to them, one moment, and be trying to chase to kill or mutilate the next. It's not her fault, it's just the way she, in particular, is wired.

 

[angel_baby]

Dogs hate cats? Well to answer this question I've simply got to add a picture and ask the OP...does this look like hate to you?

Mind you these aren't mine but some of my favs on the net.

Not all dogs dislike cats, all mine were raised with cats and love them.

 

[Elana55]

I have had, in my lifetime, 2 poodles, several mixed breed dogs and 2 German Shepherds. NONE of them hated the cats. And the cats eventually accepted and liked the dogs.

Dogs are scale stupid.. for lack of a better term. A Chi or a Jack Russel or a Fox Terrier will take on a dog or other animal 20 times bigger and not back down. I have ridden horsback and had a Chi come out and go after the HORSE. No sense of scale.

Cats, OTOH, have a tremendous sense of scale. They KNOW their size and their best defense is to go up higher and to fend off something they find threatening with their claws. They greet each other face to face (dogs greet nose to butt). Dogs find face to face rude or a challenge and will sometimes react negatively to a cat staring and approaching face to face. Cats, OTOH, find the whole butt sniffing routine completely gross, some what threatening and absolutely beneath their dignity... (just throwing in a little cat anthropomorphising).

Now.. you introduced this new puppy and the puppy did what puppys do.. it saw the cat moving and followed it. The cat found the puppy (something new) a threat and smacked the puppy and scared him. Another time it might make the puppy aggressive toward cats.. and that is 100% unnecessary. The cat smacking the puppy and the puppy pooping out of fear is, BTW, ALL YOUR FAULT.

Dogs and cats need to be introduced slowly. NEVER allow the dog to approach the cat. Put the dog on a leash or in a crate and let the cat do the approaching and NEVER let the puppy chase the cat (even in fun). Chasing can escalate to something very ugly.

Dogs and Cats can be great friends. Oliver (one of my cats) plays with Atka (my dog). Fireball will sleep on the dog's bed and rub on the dog looking for doggy kisses. Peanut will too. Atka LOVES cats. We go to Petsmart and she wants to bring all the rescue cats home. We go on walks and if she sees a cat she wants to go and make "friends" (and unless the cat comes to us, we don't do this.. no need to terrify cats with a slobbering cat luvin' German Shepherd).

So, no, dogs and cats do not automatically hate each other. They are different species with different communication and greeting protocol and absolutely different sense when it comes to size and scale and vulnerability.

 

[Independent George]

Please be sensible with regard to font size & color. I'm sure you know the 'No Shouting' rule with regard to all-caps; please understand that this is much, much more obtrusive and distracting.

As to the original question, I think it's a case of dogs & cats having different 'langauges'. Can you imagine what an 80-lb Lab racing up to you screaming 'Hey hello hi what are you doing let's go play?' looks like from the perspective of an 8 lb. cat? Even if it starts 'friendly', things can escalate pretty quick.

 

[KBLover]

Dogs are scale stupid.. for lack of a better term. A Chi or a Jack Russel or a Fox Terrier will take on a dog or other animal 20 times bigger and not back down. I have ridden horsback and had a Chi come out and go after the HORSE. No sense of scale.

I wonder if it's because dogs often deal with things bigger than them - like sheep, cows, deer, moose, bulls, etc?

Maybe less scale "stupid" than just them not size intimidate them. I do think dogs are aware things are bigger than them.

 

[Elana55]

Maybe less scale "stupid" than just them not size intimidate them. I do think dogs are aware things are bigger than them.

With the Chi that came out after the horse.. a very annoying dog BTW, I let the horse turn around and chase the Chi a little ways.

The Chi got this look of and took off yipping for the house. At that moment the Scale of a 1300 pound horse vs. an 8 pound dog (I am being generous to the dog here) suddenly sank into his little Chi brain. The horse stood there pawing the ground as if to say, "You want more of this??"

I will also add the this particular dog made the connection really well. From then on I rode past that house and the little Chi would bark Bravely.. from the porch.

 

[Inga]

My dogs live happily with my cat. My cat is mostly happy too. She isn't real excited about my youngest boy since he is still in the "I MUST SNIFF YOU" stage of his development. He is huge and she gets juicy when he sniffs. To her that is the most appalling thing that could happen. I try to give him the "leave it" command when I see him thinking about going to sniff her. Sometimes I am a little late. All in all though, I think most (NOT ALL) dogs could get along with cats just fine if brought up with them, trained and socialized properly.

 

[mostlymutts]

With the Chi that came out after the horse.. a very annoying dog BTW, I let the horse turn around and chase the Chi a little ways.

The Chi got this look of and took off yipping for the house. At that moment the Scale of a 1300 pound horse vs. an 8 pound dog (I am being generous to the dog here) suddenly sank into his little Chi brain. The horse stood there pawing the ground as if to say, "You want more of this??"

I will also add the this particular dog made the connection really well. From then on I rode past that house and the little Chi would bark Bravely.. from the porch.

Yep. Seen this happen.

I had a horse that would not tolerate being chased. It was pretty much her idea to turn around and ask the dog if that is what they really wanted to do.

We never had a dog stop and argue...

 

[midnight mojo]

Mojo loves our cats! The cats aren't quite so big on Mojo but they have always tolerated him and get more comfy with him every day. I definitely agree there are some "language" issues though! Halen, our 20 lb 10 year old cat wanted to play with Mojo (4 lb, 7 months) so he laid on his side on the floor and stretched out his paws waiting for Mojo to come up to him. Normally, Pumpkin (other 10 year old cat) would pounce on him and they'd swat and tumble for a bit but Mojo had no idea what to do! Instead of playing the way Halen expected, Mojo got in a play bow about a foot away and then barked, which the cats don't care for at all. They both walked away from the exchange a bit disappointed I think.

So far the only "play" they both understand and enjoy is the cats being on furniture higher than Mojo and swatting while he dodges and/or tries to catch their swinging paws (or sometimes tail). It's quite funny when the cats initiate it because they'll run over and do a drive-by swat so Mojo will chase and then hop into position on some furniture so they can play.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

My dogs don't hate cats at all. In fact, when we go to a friends house, they have 7 or 8 cats and my girls can go in their house with no issues at all. They lived with cats before I got them, so that was a plus. Now Betty on the other hand, would want cat for dinner, lol. But she's now on a ranch where she's going to have a wonderful life.

 

[bfoster]

My dogs are indifferent to cats--sniff sniff and walk away.
Now squirrels--thats another story
All four of them want to catch the squirrels--they get so upset when they see one,their hair stands up, they shake and drool--I think THAT is instinct--terriers were bred to hunt the vermin.
I wish they would catch the one that is always in my bird feeder.

 

[KBLover]

With the Chi that came out after the horse.. a very annoying dog BTW, I let the horse turn around and chase the Chi a little ways.

The Chi got this look of and took off yipping for the house. At that moment the Scale of a 1300 pound horse vs. an 8 pound dog (I am being generous to the dog here) suddenly sank into his little Chi brain. The horse stood there pawing the ground as if to say, "You want more of this??"

I will also add the this particular dog made the connection really well. From then on I rode past that house and the little Chi would bark Bravely.. from the porch.

LOL

That is too funny. That Chi got owned

See - they just need to be...reminded of how out-classed they are sometimes

 

[spotted nikes]

Until I met my DH I always had dogs and cats. They all got along. One Cocker was funny, because if I'd tell her "Go kiss kitty", she'd go over and lick the cat in the face, then come running back to me.

When I was a kid, we found a female cat that had kittens. The cat stayed w/the kittens for a couple days, then finally left them to go use the litter box. The male Lhasa we had used to lay outside the closet, where the kittens were and just watch momma and babies. As soon as Momma kitty left, he climbed in w/the kittens and started "cleaning" them. Unfortunately, while he meant well, he licked their fur all the wrong way. When Momma cat came back she gave him a disgusted look and climbed in and started grooming them properly, trying to fix their fur.