A survey held in America showed that around 17 percent of the USA population has both a dog and a cat as their pets. In many cases people report having no problems with the cats and dogs friendship, but, as a rule, professionals say that you should consider yourself to be very lucky!
As experts say, how will two pet live together during their life depends of their childhood behavior, it means that if they fight when they are puppies and kittens then it is very likely that the following 15-20 years will be pretty hard for you. In fact, a lot of cats and dogs can get along pretty good, but there are such species that just hate each other. This fact depends on their socialization, temperament, levels of confidence, past experiences, age and much more.
Socialization Period
There is a reason why your pets are constantly fighting like “cats and dogs”. On the very basic level, both cats and dogs have pretty strong prey drives and are extremely territorial. But according to the sizes of these pets, cats tend to be much smaller than dogs so if the former are found chasing down, the latter have the great potential to make serious harm, or even kill it. In order to male them be friends you should socialize your pets. The best time to do so is the period between three and 12 weeks of age for dogs.
For cats this period lasts from second and seventh week of age. With no doubt, pets that have gained such a valuable exposure to any other species will usually feel no trouble in adjusting to a new cat or dog in the house later on.
If Your Cat and Dog Are Feuding
In an utopian perfect world, your cat and dog would get along just perfect. But what if the reality is different? First of all you can try to introduce your pets to each other with a very safe setting While each of the animals stays calm, you can reward it with some treat and positive attention.
If you try to repeat this frequently, then you will be able to gradually decrease the physical distance between your pets and increase the time they can spend in each other’s company. Your goal is to make them co-exist.
Usually if a dog is raised having a cat around all the time, it can lose the interest in the cats entirely. To avoid such situation experts say that you should not limit your dog’s interactions but perform them only under control.
If your cats and dogs show some signs of aggression toward each other all the time, you will have to separate them for some period before you try everything again. Do not forget that sometimes cats and dogs simply cannot be friend, so respect this possibility. But do not lose your heart, a relationship between the right cat and the right dog can be just amazing, and if not you can always try to do so!
