GSD and Cats - advice please

[LOVEGSD]

I agree with the others, there's no reason why a GSD can't live with a cat and crates are a great thing to introduce your puppy to.
x

Hi and a big thank you to everyone who replied. I am ever so grateful. It's certainly helped me decide. I will be visiting some breeders over the next 2/3 weeks so watch this space for news of a new addition plus photos! (Hopefully anyway).

Thanks again everyone and for your warm welcome! xxx

[wildmoor]

if its a pup you are bringing in I cant see a problem, its when you bring an adult GSD in that hasnt grown up with cats and has a high prey drive

although even if a GSD is brought up with cats it doesnt mean it will be okay with strange cats, my worst cat killer lived with 2 cats, it was just none resident ones he wasnt okay with

[Shrap]

Please please please run the breeders by someone on here first! There are SO many bad breeders out there, even the ones that love their dogs aren't doing it right.

Anyway, to your question!
I have a 6.5 month old GSD puppy, and 3 already resident cats.
At first Dino just wanted to play chase, none of the cats were happy! They've never lived with dogs before lol! One of them I was especially worried about, my 5 year old rescue boy who was SO timid, he wouldn't come near anyone when we first got him. He still doesn't like the dog, and will swipe if he comes near, but he's happy to sit in the hall with the dog wandering around and won't run off anymore. Indy is also happy to walk past him/under his legs but if the dog sniffs him too much he will swipe.
Pablo and Dino have a fantastic relationship. They cuddle up together and wash each other. Pablo even rolled on his back under Dino's face and started playing with his whiskers lol!

Dogs can live with cats fine, just when you bring pup home keep him on a house line so you can stop him from chasing. Do some clicker training and work on impulse control from day 1! Reward him for leaving the cat alone, but make sure you do let them interact calmly. You want them to know how it is acceptable to interact.

Dino still sleeps in his crate at night, although any day now I will decide to leave it unlocked - just need to tidy up my room first haha! I have been leaving him unattended for a while though. Seems like forever The little puppy stage goes so quickly!

If you do get a crate then get the 48" one and get a divider to make it smaller while pup is young. You can use the crate to help toilet train, as a dog's natural instinct is to not soil its bedding area. If it has just enough room to stand up, lie down, and turn around then it will help immensly. Any time you can't watch pup, put him in the crate, and it will keep accidents to a minimum.
I honestly don't know what I would have done without our crate, and Dino still loves his and goes in it of his own accord for a rest

[J&J]

I had a resident cat well two at the time, sadly one now passed away.. Poor souls had Jones come to live with us, got used to him then we added Ellie..

We've did controlled greetings, with both Jones and Ellie on lead, ensured that the cats had plenty of escape routes.. And monitored very closely to prevent chasing etc..

It's funny watching them starting to get used to each other as dog and cat language is completely different.. And the expression on the cats face when Jones tried sniffing their bums for the first time was priceless

Tilly our remaining cat, has always been a scrapper you can bet your bottom dollar that let her out, and give it 5-10 minutes you'll hear a cat scarp And boy does she use the dogs to her advantage she intices other cats to fight and chase... And as soon as Ellie and Jones hear her mewoing they are off dashing into the garden to protect her... Some of our neighbours cats don't have nine lifes left anymore

Many years ago, when I was still living at home my brother got his first dog Macky a GSD and we had a family cat called Suzki who would torment or take on any dog in the neighbourhood

And not only did she resent the arrival of Macky into her abode, she would attack him so much that we had to give them separate living quaters.. Macky had the back of the house, kitchen, dinning room and back garden, Suzki had the rest of our 4 bedroom house...

But any chance she had she would go for him, She had trumatised him so much as a pup that Macky was scared of all cats, and totally terrified of Suzki, and if Suzki was sat in the kitchen you had no chance of getting Macky down from the top of the garden anywhere near the house..

And if the back door was shut and Macky was shivering at the top of the garden, you knew that Suzki was kipping in Macky's kennel..

[Sheila in SA]

I have had both cats and dogs all my life always in multiples of both species. they always got on well until my latest dog Darick arrived. He is a very High Drive Sport dog and even though I went through all the correct procedures I would never leave him alone with any of my cats. They now live in the bedroom (they have access to the garden down a cat ladder) They choose to stay up there and they are all now teenagers, youngest being almost 13. Darick is allowed into the bedroom under my supervision and the cats will hiss & spit at him, Zoe (the youngest) will actually run out from under the chair and challenge him. However, because I am there he resists temptation. At night all the dogs sleep in our bedroom - along with the cats, who sleep on the bed with us, but Darick still sleeps in a crate (he is a medium sized GSD and the crate is for a Great Dane) he's happy to go in there until morning and everyone gets a good night's sleep.

[zetstaff]

All my SBTs have lived with cats as have all our GSDs, a puppy will be fine, I'd be more wary of an adult like Pam

My dogs would kill anyone else's cat, but they've always been fine with ours

We never separated them, never had any problems

When you introduce pup to cat, don't stop cat from asserting it's status, one belt from our cats is all it's taken + my dogs have never bothered them again

[Cmseasman1]

We have 3 cats, and when we got Jess at 8 weeks, they were horrified, and to be honest will not come in the room if she is there. She is crate trained for the safety of her and our house lol. She spends the night in there and a few hours in the morning for work. I am hopeful the cats will eventually come round to Jess, nothing we can do now, they will have to live with it we dont let her chase them but she has a good go at it.

[RainbowLass]

When i first got Rogue home, my cats didn't speak to me for 2 WEEKS!!

still, we weren't so careful on the introductions.... they sorta dropped in un announced when i opened the window, took one look at Rogue and vanished out of it again!

They get on well now though, and i'm pretty sure that in some circumstances Rogue thinks she IS a cat... she rubs herself up against my legs when i get home from Uni its sooooo funny!!!
(Not when i'm wearing black trousers though!)

[Diesel]

I have cats and I have a 4 month old GSD