Can Cats & Dogs Be Friends? Proven Ways to Foster Harmony

Can cats and dogs become friends? Of course they can. Yes, even though cats and dogs are natural born predators, they can learn to be friends. In fact, Ozzie, my Abyssinian hissed up a storm when I first brought Yogi, my Cairn Terrier home as a puppy. Ozzie was still a kitten but older than Yogi. My cat’s DNA told him that Yogi was bad news. After a few sessions of hissing and a cat punch here and there, he calmed down and looked at Yogi with mild contempt. And it wasn’t long though before the two became quite good friends. I can honestly say, my cat loved my dog. They would play and sleep together all the time. Naturally, Yogi grew up to be a bit larger than Ozzie, so he became Ozzie’s protector. Ozzie hated car rides. Whenever forced to go on one, Ozzie would snuggle under Yogi.  So, yes, cats and dogs can become good friends. A lot of times it has more to do with how and when they are introduced.

Table of Contents

How to make your cat and dog be friends

Okay, this is so important. Having had several cats and dogs throughout my life, I know that if you want to get your cat and dog to become friends, you must pay attention to the following factors.

1. Ages of cats and dogs
2. Breeds of cats and dogs
3. Temperament of cats and dogs
4. Conditions of introduction
5. Relationship to pet owners

All of these are important but get this. . . it can all go to hell in a moment’s notice or go quite smoothly despite the worst conditions. It all depends or mostly depends on the cat, quite frankly. But there are other factors.

Age of cats and dogs

It’s generally understood that cats are loners and dogs are pack animals. By the way, in the wild cats are constantly in competition with each other over territory and prey. Now, I know what you are saying. ” But this is not the wild, this is my house. So, why does my cat hate the dog?” The only way to answer this is by saying, “you can take the cat completely out of the wild, but you can’t take the wild completely out of the cat.” It is ingrained in it DNA to mistrust all other animals which invade its territory, especially one which does not follow the rules of feline communication. (See more on that subject here.) It’s a survival technique which has been around for thousand and thousands of years. However, there may be an answer to fixing this problem.

The younger a kitten is, the better. Cats aren’t good at accepting change and before a cat learns to mistrust all, introducing it to the family dog when it is just a kitten is the only way to make sure all goes well. The older a cat gets, the less accepting it is of being introduced to a new cat or dog. However, that is not the only concern one need have. There are many other issues which must be pondered before bringing the two pets together.

Dog-friendly cats

Believe it or not, there are cats who are dog friendly. Well, for the most part. But that is not always the case. Here is a list.

1. Abyssinian
2. American shorthair
3. Birman, Bombay
4. British Shorthair
5. Japanese Bobtail
6. Maine Coon
7. Norwegian Forrest
8. Ragdoll
9. Siberian
10. Tonkinese
11. Turkish Van
12. Turkish Angora

Many of these cats, have been reported to have better relationships with the family dogs then other breeds of cats. However, that doesn’t mean that all cats in the list get along with dogs or that cats from other breeds will not. There are too many factors that must be considered before making that determination.

Cat-friendly dogs

Just like cats, the younger dogs are, the easier it is for them to make new relations with other cats and dogs. Dogs are much easier to work with, simply because they’re group animals. And if course, there are cat friendly dogs too. Here is a list of dogs who get along well with cats.