Hounds and cats

FaithHopeLove30

Does anyone post here anymore, or did everyone go over to GBCN? I have a question. We have cats, they've "ruled the roost" for the past 8 years. We did have a retriever during that time, but she for the most part ignored the cats and was totally fine with them. We're in the process of adopting a hound mix (around 6 months old) who I just fell in love with immediately. The foster mom says she's working on her with her cat, and I'm 110% willing to work with the cats and the dog, but I just don't want to set myself up for failure. So 2 questions.

1. Has anyone here ever successfully mixed indoor cats and a hound mix?

2. Any tips? 

TIA

GrayGhost13

Sadly, most everyone is gone, but a few of us oldies drop in time to time.

In my experience, prey drive seems to vary as much among individuals as it does among breeds, so I wouldn't rule this dog out due to breed, but I would ask a lot of questions of the foster mom.

How does the dog behave around the cat? Does it seem like the dog just wants to sniff and see the cat or does it seem more like instinctual hunter-prey behavior? If the dog's just overly excited or overly playful, you can do controlled meet and greets with the cats and generously reward appropriate interactions or end the session if the dog interacts inappropriately or the cat gets too stressed. We had good luck doing this with both our dogs. On the other hand, there are some dogs that truly can't live with cats, but I think the foster mom would have a good sense of whether this is the case if she has a cat in her house.

You might also ask and see if the rescue does trial adoptions.

GL!

FaithHopeLove30

Thanks! I guess I'm going to have to break-down and get an account over there one of these days. . .

I asked the foster mom and she said that she has a cat and she definitely seems more "interested and playful" than aggressive and that she's teaching her when the cat has had enough. I hoping that at 6 months old, we've caught her young enough to be able to teach her proper manners around the kitties.

aggiebug

at 6 months I think you will be able to train them to live together.  I adopted my very driven hound mix when he was 4 and he learned to behave with kitties.  

 

Do your cats have claws? are they willing to stand up for themselves? If the cats are not as willing to run he is less likely to find the desire to chase.

ifeelgoodifeelgreatifeelwonderful

Growing up we had a hound mix and then brought home a cat. The dog was a little older then and could care less about chasing the cat around so they got along fine. I had a cat for 3 years when I brought home a pit bull mix. I adopted my dog so we tested her out in the cat room of the shelter and she was interested in cats, but not aggressive towards them. The best thing to do is to set aside an area where the cats can be away from the dog. I have a baby gate blocking off an extra bedroom that the cat can get through but the dog can't. Let the dog and cats meet each other on their own and don't force it. It's been a year and a half and my cat still gets chased, pinned down, and licked by the dog more than she would like, but at least she has her room to escape to when she doesn't want to be bothered. It's a slow process, just recently they have both started to sleep in my bed so it takes time, just be patient.

kellbell1919

My hounds are awesome with my cats, and one of my cats is  dog aggressive.  I personally cat tested both of them at the shelter to make sure they ignored cats b.c. I'm too lazy to teach leaving the cats alone.  But we've had to teach it with fosters before; we introduce with the dog on leash, a lot of times we do it with the dog crated and the cat can approach the dog at their comfort.  When the dog tries to chase you can correct or re-direct with a way more fun toy.  We also keep babygates up, so the cat can run away past the babygate and the dog can't follow.  When they get too much in our cats' business, the cats will smack them.

FaithHopeLove30

Thank you everyone! Our cats do have their claws, so that should help. She's a lab/hound mix (supposedly - it's a rescue so you never know) so maybe the lab will show its face more than the hound

Ciardasully

I hope it works out!  We have a cat now but I want to get a dog and I worry about introducing a dog to our household.  Growing up we only had dogs and not cats.

FaithHopeLove30

Well, it's going slowly. It's been almost 2 weeks and they're still separated.  I think this is going to be a long process. . .