Can Dogs and Cats Be Friends?

Do you think dogs and cats can really be friends?

I think that some dogs and cats can be great friends. I think there are some dogs that hate cats and I would never trust them around a cat in a million years. Then there are other dogs that really love cats. It just depends.

Here is a sweet video of very close relationship between a dog and cat.

My dog and cats have been together for seven years and it is still a chase game whenever possible.

Best Friends

Animal antics are delightful to watch, and the more human the behavior, the funnier and more endearing an audience is likely find it. But there is something particularly heart-warming about the tale of Surya and Rosco. A dog without a pack meets a young, playful orangutan. Without a moment’s hesitation they are rolling around together, wrestling and playing. Surya even provides food from her own rations!

“A good pack leader is going to make sure that his pack survives,” said Cesar Millan. “He needs the pack; he can’t make it by himself. It’s no surprise that an orangutan, or a cat, or a dog, or any animal in this situation would share food with a follower.”

Though the dog was encouraged to leave and return to its home, he continued to come back day after day. The ape and dog had become a pack of two; inseparable. What fraternal instinct brought the two together? What can we learn from their friendship? The social habits of animals can serve as a window into our own behavior and the behavior of our canine companions.

“You can see that no matter what the orangutan is doing, the dog is in a submissive state,” said Millan of the video. “He touches him, kisses him, and no matter what he does, the dog remains submissive. That is trust at its best. That tells you that you don’t need to know dog training to establish a relationship with a dog. The fundamentals of life are universal; it’s about trust, respect, and loyalty. And it happens right away for animals. It can take a long time for humans, because we intellectualize it. A human, before he gets a dog, has already read four or five books on dog training, so when he finally has the dog, he is confused about which method to practice! The orangutan is a beautiful example of how instincts work differently.”

Watch the video

What has the bond between Surya and Rosco taught you?

Do Dogs Really Fall in Love?

True Love, Yes or No?

"We don't know," says Dr. Bonnie Beaver, a professor in the department of small animal medicine and surgery in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University. "I cannot prove it isn't so, but I cannot prove that it is. We cannot evaluate animal emotions."

"You have to call it a bonding thing," says Dr. Patricia O'Handley, a veterinarian with the small animal clinic at Michigan State University. Pets introduced to other pets at critical stages of socialization will form a bond with the other animal: dogs with dogs, cats with cats or dogs with cats. Dogs, who are social animals by nature, bond more easily than cats because of their predisposition to live in packs. "It's companionship, or dependency, rather than an emotional attraction that lies at the root of these pairings," says Dr. O'Handley.

Not so fast, Dr. O'Handley. "I'm tempted to say (pets) can fall in love," says Dr. Nicholas Dodman, director of the animal behavior clinic at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine and a PetPlace.com consulting vet. "Close relationships between dogs and dogs or dogs and cats are possible, but films like Lady and the Tramp and Air Bud are contrivances of the media."

Friendship Is the Key

The "love" Dodman sees between pets is less the hearts-and-flowers stuff of Valentine's Day than the other stages of love that humans also experience: a mother's love for her offspring or the love of a friend, for instance. "The Greeks, I believe, had seven different words for love - the love for your children, love for your parents, love for a partner, and so on - while we are saddled with just the one word - love - to describe all of these relationships," says Dr. Dodman, who suspects the Greeks would have had a word for the love relationships between pets.

"Romantic love is a stretch of the imagination for dogs and cats, but can they be friends with each other? Yes," says Dodman. "It's well known that dogs grieve when separated from a preferred companion, experiencing sleep disturbances, loss of appetite and general despondency," adds Dodman, who writes about unusually needy animals in the book The Dog Who Loved Too Much (Bantam).

Cats and Dogs Are Promiscuous

Unlike some species that mate for life, cats and dogs breed promiscuously.

As for puppy love, the infatuation experienced by giddy boys and girls in middle school, who wants to put their pooch through that? It's tough enough watching your kids get dumped. Imagine the heartbreak. What then? Probably a letter saying, "Dear Rover, it's over."