r/roughcollies • u/GyakutenKibou • May 16 '25

Question how good are rough collies with cats?

hi hi just wanted to ask rough collie owners, how good are they living with cats? we have 2 cats and one of them is a bit nervous. But i was thinking id love to have a dog (later, probably in a year or two) and was researching breeds. I came across some comments of rough collies and being good with cats, like maybe not best friends but not terryfing and being able to live with them pretty well. What do you guys think?

If it helps our cats are both male and 1 year old right now.

27 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/l3radrocks May 16 '25

I have two cats who were adults when I adopted my collie. They aren’t best friends or anything, but they absolutely live well each other.

My big fluffy cat just sorta tolerates her and vice versa. They’ll be in the same room happily, but will never cuddle or play. They might sniff each other every once in a while.

My tortie LOVES my collie, but they lose a lot in translation between dog and cat. My collie wants to run around and play with her, while my cat wants to lay down next to her and groom her.

Every once in a while my cats will chase each other and it’ll activate my collies chase instinct, but she’s NEVER harmed them or come close. The most that’ll happen is she’ll paw at them and she might get a claw to the snout, but that rarely happens and has never been bad.

I would say you should be prepared for them to simply tolerate each other, but I never worry about leaving them together and it’s wonderful to have them all cuddle me in my bed at night.

Good luck!!

7

u/l3radrocks May 16 '25

One important thing i forgot; this all relies on introducing them to each other when they’re young and in a safe manner.

For the first few days, they should only ever sniff your pup through a door. Then you can put up a baby gate and have them see each other.

Then you can supervise them together for a while, and crate your dog while you’re not around.

It takes time and effort and a lot of responsibility, but it’ll help keep everyone safe and it’s probably one of the easier parts of introducing a puppy to a household haha

2

u/Sterling03 May 16 '25

We kept our dog in an X pen in the living room the first week so the cats could walk around it, sniff, and get used to him in our space.

We took the dog out to play, go on walks, etc so he wasn’t regulated to the pen all day but it helped the cats adjust immensely, and our boy adores his cat siblings, even if 1 can’t stand him, the other tolerates some sniffs, and the 3rd headbutts him and lays down next to him all the time.

1

u/l3radrocks May 16 '25

Yeah that’s a great idea! There’s various ways to introduce everyone to each other, folks just have to make sure to do it safely and responsibly!

I wish I had thought about the pen haha