[charliemax]

What dog breeds are the best to introduce into a house with cats?

[fixius_ae]

I have found that any dog can be socialized with a cat if its done young enough and properly. I have a pit bull, black lab, boxer, and german shepherd that all get along quite well with cats, but believe it or not the pit gets along the best with them. I have heard that golden retrievers are good with cats, but again its all in how you socialize your dog. Hope that helps

[rex123]

I agree totally with fixius_ae, any dog can get along well with a cat, if socialized with it. My husky loves my cat.

[danielnoahsmommy]

So true as far as raising them together. One lab of mine loves cats (shes very sweet english variety) my male is from hunting stock and chases and catches small animals. So breeding does play into its hunting instinct

[froggy7]

I disagree that any dog can be socialized with cats. Breeds that have been bred for chasing and killing small animals are more likely to attack cats and need to be considered carefully before bringing them into a house with one. I will point out that the breeds that have been mentioned are herders and workers, so it's not as bred into them as it is some of the other breeds. In particular, I would be careful if I were thinking about bringing home a hound or a terrier. These breeds have traditionally been used to hunt, especially to control small game (varmints) and to think independently. That's not to say that all of the breed are trouble... dogs are individuals, after all, and do not read breed standards. So you may be fine if you start with a puppy and carefully train it.

But, just as an example, I have a greyhound. I specifically looked for one that was cat-friendly. Recalling from memory... about 40% of greyhounds are considered "cat safe". They could care less about cats. Another 40% are cat-workable... you can have them around cats with a certain amount of supervision, and probably will want to muzzle the dog or separate them when you aren't around to supervise. And even then, the dog is probably not going to be safe with strange cats, although it may be fine with the family cat. And the remaining hounds are not cat safe at all, and a lot of them aren't small dog safe, and will kill any cat that they can catch.

So it's not as simple as saying "greyhounds are cat-compatible" (or that they aren't, for that matter) as a breed. An individual adult dog, you can test and check and figure out. Puppies are a different issue. A puppy might be perfectly fine with cats at 8 weeks, or 12 weeks, or even 20... but might have its hunting instincts kick in at 6 months, or a year, or 18 months. Because some of this is instinctive... greyhounds have been bred to chase small fast-moving game, and that's a hard thing to counter, the same way that some border collies will instinctively herd sheep when they see them, or huskies will pull. And a lot of it comes down to: how much time and effort are you, as an owner, willing to do if you bring in a dog that comes from a breed with this kind of instinct?