Marerose678 wrote:Hello, I have a cat and I would like to get a dog soon I would like to ask, does anybody have 'cat vs dog' kind of problems.Do they fight.Does the cat or dog get stressed out if one or another tries to play with eachother ?Would love the anwser :3
Going through the exact same thing right now xD
I have a resident cat who I've had since 2010 and yesterday we picked up our foster dog. Our cat was freaked out since the dog was more than twice his size. His tail was puffed up and his back was arched. Most of the time the dog roams around the first floor of the house and the cat stays in a bedroom on the second floor.
We've tried positive reinforcement and giving them both a treat when they don't bark or hiss at each other. It's sort of works but we might hire a trainer to deal with the situation. The cat will come near the living room when the dog is on a leash and tethered to the sofa. They stare at each other, while we try to distract the dog with "look at me" (still working on it). Then the dog will bark and the cat will run away to either the basement or upstairs. Part of the problem might be that the dog is in a new environment with new people, new smells, and a cat who's hissing at him.
The dog has also been going through a lot lately (surrendered to an overcrowded shelter down south where he was scheduled to be euthanized, a foster home in Kentucky, and another foster home up north before coming to us), so part of the reason might be stress. Because of this, we think that the cat might tolerate the dog before the dog can tolerate the cat.
I recommend getting a smaller dog so your cat won't get totally freaked out. My grandma brought over her tiny little toy rat terrier over and our cat was actually larger than her. Make sure you set up a "safe space" for your cat a few days before you bring your dog home. This should be someplace where the dog cannot reach the cat (we use the basement). Before you cat absolutely trust the dog and the cat together overnight, keep the dog in a crate or in a locked bathroom.
Before diving into this too quickly, I recommend that you do your homework and take the time to research bringing a new dog into a home with a resident cat. It helps c: