I really want a short haired med-large not narrowed down the specific bread as pf yet

I have two toddlers so child friendly and cat friendly

Is ther any breeds I should stay away from

And what's the best way to introduce the cat to the dog?

Isn't advice is gonna be greatly appreciated

Hi we have a 5 year old choc lab..hes great with everyone and anyone.

Is fine with the cats one in particular loves him they share a bed and wash eachother.

so im sure a lab would be a safe bet.

Hi we have a 5 year old choc lab..hes great with everyone and anyone.

Is fine with the cats one in particular loves him they share a bed and wash eachother.

so im sure a lab would be a safe bet.

The dog I have now was 2 when we got her and had lived in kennels 23 hours of the day, for those 2 years. The breeder told me she had never even seen a cat so we took a risk - but she was fine with the cat. To the point they're now two old ladies who spend all day together, curled up asleep!

We did a slow introduction and had a baby gate up so the cat could always make a run for it, if scared. Not that she ever was as wwe already had another dog.

He was a different story. He came home as an 8 week old pup. At that point, the cat was bigger and outranked him. One of the first things she did was thwack him right in the eye with her claws out when he tried to eat from her bowl. After that he had a lifelong, ehalthy respect of the cat. He grew into 50lb of solid staffie muscle. The cat stayed tiny. But he always saw her as his mum, kind of thing and just adored her. He also picked up a few of her habits - like lying along the back of the sofa... Not so cute when he fell on us! If she entered the room, he'd make a beeline for her and she for him - she'd weave in and out of his legs, and rub her head on him. When he died, she was distraught.

We recently fostered a dog for a while but it didn;t work out as it had a massive prey drive - and my cat was prey. She is elderly now, and it wasn't fair on her, so the otherwise lovely doggy had to move on to a cat free foster. So be warned - you can fall in love with a dog that isn;t cat friendly and it can just not work out. She was only a couple of years old, and the rescue told us she was cat proof. Turned out they had vaguely thought as there was a cat around the kennels and she was bound to have seen it - must be OK with cats. I since discovered other rescues are much more rigorous about truly checking a dog is OK with cats. So don;t let it put you off rescue but double check the rescue isn;t so desperate to rehome the dog, they're fudging the truth - as happened to us.

So in my experience it's perfectly possible unless the dog already has a high prey drive. I think in some ways a cat proofed rescue dog - that could be demonstrated to you was cat-proof - would be ideal. But puppy also works. And as I say my current dog had not even seen a cat in her entire life and is a breed that is notoriously cat-hating - but worships the cat and always did.

Older dog = check it's cat-proof.

Puppy - you can bring it up with the cat so no problem.

We have a bichon and he adores the cat. In fact they're curled up in bed together.

I have very recently done just this! I have a five year old ginger tomcat and a five month old puppy..............

Shes a chocolate lab, would totally agree that its a fantastic breed, so lovable and sociable and friendly.

The cat is fine with her after three or four days settling in period!

To introduce them to each other, well we just kept an eye on them and basically left them to it...............the puppy (she was only 12 weeks at the time) bounced over to the cat and tried to lick him.................he swiped her sharply on the nose and she wasnt long getting the message not to mess with him too much...............after about two days she just wags at him now, and they share a chair at times.......

edited:- we also have a baby gate on the bottom of the stairs so that the cat always has somewhere peaceful to go, as the puppy is still at the boisterous stage........

On top of the advice others have given, one of the most important things is to make sure that your cat has a place to hide / a quiet area away from the dog, should it all become too much. There's been a few occassions where cats have found themselves another home because they didn't have a quiet space away from a hyper puppy.

And when you first bring your puppy / dog home, keep the puppy in its travel cage or on a lead when you first introduce it to the cat

Our cat, Charlie, was a year old when got our pup Floyd (JR Westie cross) and that was 18 months ago.
All we did was watch them very closely on their first encounters, our fears were for the puppy as he was much smaller than the cat, within the first 3 days they were play fighting, within the first 2 weeks they were sharing a bed and often curl up side by side on the couch.
18 months later they are good friends, although the cat sometimes gets annoyed with Floyd because he is now twice the size of the cat and can get a bit too boisterous when they play.
(see photos in the mad cats thread)

As long as both knOw you are the boss they will be fine After some initial discord, naturally.