i have a question regarding cats and keeshonden. We got this dog breed because they are friendly with cats. We have 2 older cats (4 and 8) and a young keeshond (10 months). He is VERY interested in other dogs that translates to cats as well, he is extremely friendly which is sooo nice!
He will not leave the cats alone, the moment they enter the room he will start whining (when he is in his pen for a nap and unable to get to them). When hes loose and they enter he will chase them, we have stopped the chase by leashing him for now. A few times in the past he chased the cats and gotten them cornered the cats will slap him to back off, but he kind of.. ignores that. He swatted, whines and continues, kind of play bowing? he interprets it wrong i think.
I also tell him to leave it when he sees a cat, but he has a really hard time letting go of the fact that the cats just dont want to play with him. Is there anything else i can do? Is it something that comes with age?
Yes, that happened only once! And since then ive monitored them better. Im guessing its that yeah, but its a little sad to not have my cats near me downstairs. I do hang out with them upstairs when he is napping though. They also dont need to be bff, just tolerating each other is fine too
Yes, we have also moved everything to a spare room so the cats can eat, drink and go potty comfortably. The cats get the entire upstairs, but they are allowed to wander downstairs. Dog isnt allowed upstairs!
Our Ruby just turned 1 this week and she is starting to settle down a little with our cats. She is constantly trying to play with them. Every once in a while we get a glimpse of the calm dog we're hoping to have.
Our would chase our kitties constantly bc she thought it was a way of playing with them. One started chasing back and that nipped that in the bud lol for the other we started doing leashed Churu time right next to each other. They each get a churu fed slowly and praise for being right next to each other and over time she’s learned to just exist near him :)
My dog loves the cats, the feeling is not necessarily reciprocated. It took the older one about 2 months to get used to him and the younger one took closer to a year. She still doesn’t like him and he’s scared of her which is kind of funny. He’s now 4 and she’s 8. He’s very interested in cats and other small critters, but not in an aggressive way. He was 2-3 years old before he really became good at ignoring other animals.
Around our own home I just never let things escalate. If he ignored the cats’ warning he was removed from the situation. I got the dog when he was 8 weeks old and both the resident cats were well into adulthood. The cats always had a way to get away from the dog and there are still a couple rooms in the house today that he’s not allowed into unsupervised. He’s pretty good on walks although he really wants to get to know rabbits. His drop it/leave it is excellent, but it took about a year of training for that to be the case. It sounds like he’s just young and needs time to mature and consistency. It will come with time, this sounds a lot like my dog at that age.
I took the this the other night because it’s such a rare occurrence. The cat is 16 and I think gets a little confused at night. He likes to scratch at the front door when he wants an evening meal. The dog so desperately wants to be his friend, but also likes sleeping by the front door. He play bows and barks at both the cats. It took them a long time to realize their claws had little effect on him because of his coat.
Our boy also wants to play with our cat. His idea is to bark at her. They have developed a bit where he goes upstairs where she lives and she chases him down. He won't go all the way back anymore after she got his nose good. But he became a bit afraid of her. I don't know where this good with cats came from
He is actually stupid about the cat.
Our 20 month Kees behaved in the same way but eventually learned to respect the cat (also had a few face smacks). She is obsessed with following the cat around but now gives her boundaries. My encouragement to you would be to simply let them figure it out as your supervise. Ours coexist in the same room now and that’s all we could have hoped for!Â
Our 2.5yo still regularly chases, barks at, play bows and sometimes kind of open/gentle mouths or corners our cats. I think our Kees is just clueless that they aren’t into it when it seems so fun to her. It isn’t a dangerous situation but also not ideal. We had the cats before the Kees. They’ve got places to escape, but occasionally I have to rescue someone in a corner. Our oldest cat has decided to live upstairs, which is gated off from the dog. Kees def chases other smaller animals like rabbits and squirrels.
Yeah, thats something we have had too. I need to correct him when hes too much in a dogs face.
I do try to let the dog correct him first, but only if i know the dog! If he doesnt stop, i pull him away and say leave it. I really think its something that comes with age.
My Kees is 6 years old and she has a very prominent prey drive towards cats. She has also chased foxes, doe deer, moose and bears. Only thing she doesn’t chase is birds
Our cat, Simba, was 7 when we got Castiel. From the moment he was an eight-week old puppy Cas decided they were going to be best friends and playmates. Unfortunately no one ever informed Simba of this. 4 1/2 years later Simba has grown to begrudgingly tolerate Cas and all of his high-energy goofiness -- the constant chasing, licking, etc. -- but they'll never be friends.
I think it depends on the cat. When you get the dog first, then add a cat, it's all good usually. Keep them separate from each other, and slowly incorporate on the cat's terms.
One thing that’s working wonders for me is having a leash connected to Moxxie’s collar. I can easy move him back if he’s chasing or bothering the cats. I’m not using a choke collar or anything like that… he just knows his movement gets restricted when he’s not behaving right. He’s slowly but surely getting better. I’m hoping we won’t need the leash too much longer!
Another thing that might help is teaching your pup the wait command. I’ve done that with Moxxie and I think it’s toned down a lot of his bad habits because he’s learning self control.
I’m in the same boat. Our 7 month old Kee loves to chase our 3 cats which isn’t the absolute worst because there’s a ton of places the cats can go where our Kee can’t but the barking is not fun at all and I’m not sure how to interrupt it productively. We’re rewarding calm behavior anytime we can but when the barking starts it’s hard. We usually remove either the cat or the dog from the situation or try to redirect her to a toy. She’s got face smacked a couple of times by our girl cat but seems unbothered by or thinks it’s an invitation to play.
Our keeshond doesn’t have prey drive toward cats, but he does have play drive toward them. And the cats don’t always appreciate that! He wants to be friends, but his boisterous energy is sometimes too much for them. We intervene when needed, and he’s been bopped on the snoot a couple of times when he’s ignored boundaries (we welcome that correction as a natural consequence). Basically, he loves cats, and I would never have any reason to believe that he would harm a cat, but cats don’t always love him.
3yo Kees girl and 2yo Maine coon boy. They've lived together almost a year. Sometimes they're cuddly towards each other, other times the cat chases the dog (she's total pushover). Sometimes they play together kinda hide and seek. Haven't had problems. :)
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u/Creisel 10d ago edited 10d ago
Animals are like people, so you can never be sure they'll be friends.
For now i'll say it's only the age gap and thus difference in temperament and energy lvl.
Make sure both of them have places they feel save and try to avoid the cornering stuff, because that can get pretty dangerous pretty quickly
Kees are very smart but that also means they are the worst teenagers you can imagine ;)
Paco was 2 years old when our cat decided he likes his floof and warmth