Kitten friendly- ever?

[avataraang]

Hi all- 

Our brindle greyhound Anaya has been with us for four years and we dote on her daily. More recently, we have been interested in adding a young feline friend to our household. When we adopted Anaya we were told that she is not cat-friendly. However, we have had chickens, goats, and geese. Anaya has not tried to eat or chase any of these animals although she has had plenty of opportunity. And oftentimes, when on walk, she'll ignore a bunny but go crazy if there's a squirrel (she has been known to kill rats). So my question is, is it possible to cat-train a greyhound of this nature (and are there any programs that do this)? Is it possible that she could adopt some motherly instincts toward a young kitten? Any other advice or warnings would be greatly appreciated. 

[HeyRunDog]

I would be concerned that even if you managed to get her to ignore the kitten it would only be while you are watching her. Remember she has been trained to chase anything small and furry that runs which is why she ignored the rabbit. It wasn't moving fast enough.

[LBass]

I have cats and greys, so I understand the dilemma.  I've always used "cat friendly" as a criteria for choosing my greyhounds, then I handle introductions slowly and carefully.  My cats always have safe places they can get to that the dogs can't.

In your situation, I would consider trying to again "cat test" your hound.  Do you have friends or family with indoor cats?  Would they be willing to let you bring your muzzled hound to their homes to spend some time around their cats?  That exercise might give you an idea of whether your hound could live with cats safely.  I would make sure that your hound is exposed to cat/s running and playing, jumping, being held, being petted--doing all the things that your pet cat would do.  IMO, what you want to look for is a dog that is not staring, alert, fixated on the cats.  A dog that is not chasing.  I think a bit of sniffing is generally ok but you want your hound to easily allow you to distract, call off attention to the cat. If you've got a cooperative cat situation, maybe expose your hound to the cat/s more than once.  When exposing your hound to the cat/s make sure to leash and muzzle--you don't want any injured kitties in this experiment.  Good luck.

I will also say that I have returned one hound to the adoption group within the first week of having her.  She had tested as cat safe but in my home she was not.  I think the adoption group introduced her to a confident cat in an office area and that interaction was fine.  When she got into a home with a confident cat that ran, jumped, yelled, sniffed her, etc. she was interested in chase/kill/eat.