Can I introduce a cat to my 5 year old lab? advice welcome!?

[Liz M!]

I am equally a cat and dog person. I love my british shorthair cat, but she lives with my dad on the other side of the country, so I never see her. I really want to own a cat, probably another british shorthair or an exotic shorthair. The problem is my 5yo labrador! She is very boisterous and hyperactive for her age and although I've never seen her harm another creature, she barks at cats in the streets and tries to run over to them. I'm pretty sure she HATES cats. I couldn't live with myself if I did buy a cat and my dog hurt it, accidentally or otherwise. I'm just wondering if there is any way you can train a labrador to tolerate cats, even at 5 years old, or have I left it too late?

 

[Inga]

So, you don't have a cat yet. GOOD

Lots of labs will chase and bark at things outside but might be just fine living with a cat inside. My lab has a super high prey drive and I really have to watch him outside, but he lives with 4 cats and all is peaceful.

If you have a friend with a cat, ask if you can take your dog there for a cat test. You can google cat tests and read up on it more, but basically you want to see what the first reaction of the dog will be to the cat.

Keep your dog on the leash. Try to get the cat onto a high place, like a counter top and give the kitty a route to safety if she needs to escape.

If your dog tries to chase the cat, or barks/growls at the cat, you might want to try to socialize your dog to cats if at all possible... (I know this is extremely hard to do.)

If he goes up to check her out but is not pushy you'll probably be fine getting a cat.

Good luck

 

[catgirl1114]

I personally wouldn't chance getting a cat in your position,i think that if you could keep them apart it might work,but would you want that? You would need to be very very careful,perhaps you could have cats when your dog's gone to canine heaven?

 

[ladystang]

sure
just introduce slowly and the dog can usually tell the difference between stray and what belongs

 

[Bflatblues]

Note: I am not an animal expert but have certainly always had either a cat or do or both in my house.

First thing I'd suggest to you is this ... figure out if there would be any harmless way to keep your animals separate if the need arises. If this is in no way possible (forinstance, if you live in a one room suite, have no doors, etc), you may wish to rethink adding another pet.

I would suggest that you NOT get a new kitten... older animals can actually be stressed by the over-activity of a brand new "baby" in the house... particularly if you won't be there 24 and 7. So an older cat would be best (not "old" but older).

Same goes in reverse... if your existing animal is only 5 years old and still pretty hyper... you might not wish to bring an older cat into the house for the same reason... the active dog could really stress out the more mellow cat.

Sometimes animals will surprise the heck out of us... just when we think one animal might pounce the other... the opposite happens, or nothing at all happens! I'd like to think of them as people... it takes all types and sometimes, even if we want to, we just can't seem to get along with every person we meet.

Wishing you the best!