Introducing house cats to bird dogs..... Anyone tried it?

[Brownarola]

I have to agree with what everyone is posting. They should eventually get along. We havea couple English Setters and a black lab.  For the past 13 years we have had cats and dogs.  When we got two mousers in 2002, the dogs were curious at first but when they became accustomed to them, the cats were nothing to them and they left them along. They did not chase them and the cats actually started curling up with our setters. However if another cat came into the yard all bets were off.  The invading cat was chased by our cats or the dogs.

We are now down to 1 mouser but we still have a lab and two setters. What is funny is the pecking order. ALL the dogs give way to the cat when she walks by and they also are cautious when she decides to rub on them to mark them with her scent. One of our setters became her favorite guy and they snuggle up together and he licks her head. But I would caution you when you first introduce the dogs to the cats. There will be some getting use to issues but once everyone becomes accustomed to each other, things should go rather smoothly.

[andersonjk4]

Thanks for all of the info and advice.  My dogs love to chase cats.  That is their favorite thing to do when we go out to my sisters place who has barn cats.  They have never gotten aggressive with the cats just love to chase them.  I think we are going to start by bringing over blankets and towels that the cat has slept on and has the cat scent all over it and lay it on my dog's beds to get them used to the cats scent.  I think eventually they will all get along I just hope it doesn't take too long, or we have any cat shaking incidents.