5 Ways to Harmonize Dogs and Cats Living Together

When we first adopted Sadie, we owned 3 cats already.  One of them, Patty, was definitely the “top cat”.  She was not afraid of Sadie at all and a few swipes at her nose was all it required for Sadie to learn Patty was top animal, not just top cat.  When we adopted Carly, though, Patty had already gone to the rainbow bridge and our current 4 cats were still sorting out who was top.  Here is what we learned about keeping the peace with dogs and cats living together.

• Teach your dogs “leave it!” command. If your dog lays chase to one of the cats, this is a very useful command to have.  The “no” command is not specific enough in that situation.

• Feed them separately. At meal times, the dogs ate faster and were quick to push the cats out of the way and eat their food too.  Now we use a kitchen gate to separate them with cats on one side and dogs on the other.

• Make sure cats have quiet places for litter box.  The rule of thumb is that the number of litter boxes you should have is the number of cats plus one.  Cats like low traffic areas for their litter boxes anyway, but this is even more important with dogs around.  They need to be able to do their business in peace.

• Provide escape routes.  Cats instinctively climb to escape predators.  If a dog does decide to chase one of the cats, it’s good to have places they can go that are out of the dogs reach.  Cat trees, trellesses, and wall paths are great additions to any cat home

• Give the dogs permission to use their voices at the cats.  This can come in the form of growls and barks.  If the dog is punished for growling at a cat, then it may go straight to biting next time.  A growl is a dog’s way of warning that it’s getting upset.  Instead of punishing the dog, help it get out of whatever situation it’s in by distracting the cat for example with a toy

The most interesting thing I noticed about dogs and cats interacting is that they don’t speak the same language.  As responsible pet owners we have to understand both languages and help interpret.  Do that, and harmony follows.