Australian Shepherds Good With Cats? (21 Owners Asked!)

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Australian shepherds are known for being loyal, high energy doggos. But are they loyal to all members of their family, including cats?

The last thing you want to do is add another furry friend to your family just to find out they can’t stand one another. So..

Are Australian Shepherds Good With Cats:

Based on our survey of 21 australian shepherd owners who also have cats, 71% said they were good with cats, 19% said they were okay with their cat, and 10% said they were bad with cats. The younger you can introduce the two the higher likelihood they’ll get along.

In this post you’ll discover:

What real australian shepherd owners had to say about how their aussie was with cats
3 reasons australian shepherds are good with cats
3 reasons australian shepherds aren’t good with cats
4 tips to help australian shepherds be as good as possible with cats

Let’s jump right in.

Table of Contents

Real Owners Experiences Having Cats & An Australian Shepherd

One person’s experience with having an australian shepherd and a cat isn’t enough to know if aussies are good or bad with cats.

That’s why I did a personal study/survey to see what many different australian shepherd owners had to say about their pup’s behavior with cats.

I used various australian shepherd online communities like blog comments, reddit, facebook groups, etc. to find what people had to say about australian shepherds and cats.

In total, 21 aussie owners contributed to the discussion.

These were the results:

15 people said their aussie was good with cats.

4 people said their aussie was okay with cats.

2 people said their aussie wasn’t good with cats.

Here’s all the people who contributed to the survey:

Good With Cats	Good With Cats	Okay With Cats	Bad With Cats
PlantLady113	Richard	justafleshwoundx	unicornsRhardcore
lawm812	Prez-Blaize	atcar59	raven_demon00
AFlair67	BleachedSweetFlower	TimmyLife
Nero2233	AnastasiaB3avrhausen	Savings_Wind5006
SchwiftyFam	Dependent-Raspberry9
deadjessmeow	call_me_cherryy
EvolvedStandard	aee78
MamaTried-Me

A few people gave detailed answers I felt were very helpful that you can find below.

PlantLady113 – “We got my aussie when she was a bit older (7) and she gets along just fine with our cat. She seemed annoyed at the cats existence at first but was never aggressive even though the cat desperately wanted to love her. The cat would try to clean my aussies face, sleep on her, and knead her and the aussie just laid there looking annoyed. It took some time but the cat eventually taught the aussie to love her back.

As a kid, I lived on a farm with several aussies and a herd of cats. We never had any issues then either.”

Savings_Wind5006 – “I have a 2.5 yr old Aussie who is very shy and protective of my boyfriend and I so he’ll get a little nippy at our two kittens if they try to cuddle with us at the same time he is but over gradual training (about 4 months so far) he’s got so much better..”

BleachedSweetFlower – “I have an 8-month old Aussie and 3-year old cat who are good friends 🙂 they like to wrestle and chase each other.”

raven_demon00 – “My australian shepherd dislikes cats idk why.”

Dependent-Raspberry9 – “My Aussie absolutely adores my two cats. He cuddles up with them all the time, insists on sleeping with at least one of them next to him, and will try to groom them.”

My Take On The Survey:

For the most part, australian shepherds are good with cats.

Very few people mentioned anything about their australian shepherd strongly disliking cats.

The only person who did say their aussie didn’t like cats mentioned that their pup was abused and abandoned at a young age which created a strong prey drive.

But for aussies who have/had a much more pleasant upbringing, they never seemed to have a problem with cats.

Based on the responses, australian shepherds love to play and interact with cats while the cats mostly tolerate the aussie.

Some cats showed love back but many simply wanted nothing to do with the aussie.

3 Reasons Why Australian Shepherds Are Good With Cats

1) Smart

Being able to learn quickly is a valuable trait that australian shepherds have to help them be good with cats.

Intelligence also means that they’re less likely to accidentally injure a cat while playing – they know how to control their strength.

Owners also shared that their aussie is good at picking up on subtle cues from cats, like if they want to be left alone or if they want to play.

This helps make them a great breed for living harmoniously with a cat.

Australian shepherds are also known for being gentle and patient, which are two more traits that come from intelligence and come in handy when living with a cat.

2) Loyal To Family

Loyalty is another big part of why australian shepherds are good with cats.

They have a strong sense of family and will protect their home and everyone in it – including the family cat.

This loyalty also means that they’re less likely to chase after or hurt a cat out of excitement or aggression, since they see them as part of the pack.

While it may take some time for an australian shepherd to realize the cat is part of their family.

Once they do, they’ll treat them with the same loyalty as any other family member.

Some warm up super quickly while others take a little longer. It totally depends on your aussie’s individual temperament as well as your kittens.

3) Playful

Australian Shepherds are a very playful breed, and this playfulness is another reason why they’re good with cats.

While it could also been seen as terrorizing your cat, it’s much better than having a dog that’s aggressive towards your cat.

Most aussies want nothing more than to play with a kitten which means not aggressive behavior.

Some cats will want nothing to do with this play and others will be happy to chase and be chased.

3 Reasons Why Australian Shepherds Aren’t Good With Cats

1) Can Be a Little Too Rough

While australian shepherds are gentle by nature, they can sometimes be a little too rough when playing with cats.

This is especially true if your aussie is fully grown and the cat is a young kitten and much smaller than them.

It’s important to make sure that your aussie knows how to play nice with your cat, and that you supervise them when they’re together – especially at first.

If you have a kitten, it’s probably best to wait until they’re a little older and can hold their own before introducing them to an aussie.

Even then, it’s important to go slowly and let the cat set the pace.

Some cats will never want to play with an aussie, and that’s okay too.

Also, they may try to herd your cat.

Which can be annoying for the cat, and may even scare them.

2) Often a One Sided Relationship

While many australian shepherd owners shared that their pup was good with their cats, they also said it was mostly a one sided relationship.

In some families both the cat and aussie loved one another as much as the other loved them.

But in many families, their aussie absolutely loved to play and interact with their cat, but their cat wanted nothing to do with the dog.

So while your aussie may want to be best friends with your cat, your cat may just want to be left alone.

Tip #4 below helps the best with this situation.

3) Never Socialized With Cats When Young

Another big reason why australian shepherds aren’t good with cats is because they were never socialized with them when they were young.

This is especially true if your aussie was never around other animals at all while growing up.

If this is the case, then it’s going to be much harder for your aussie to learn how to be around other animals – including cats.

You can still socialize an adult aussie, but it’s going to take a lot more patience and work than if you had started when they were a puppy.

They’ll need to unlearn some bad habits and understand that cats are family.

4 Tips To Help Australian Shepherds Be Good With Cats

1) Early Socializing Is Important

If you want your aussie to be good with cats, then socializing them early on is important.

The best way to do this is to introduce them to as many different animals – including cats – as possible when they’re young.

This will help them get used to being around other animals and understand that they’re not something to be afraid of or want to scare off.

It will also make it easier for them to learn how to interact with them in a peaceful, respectful way.

The more interactions both your australian shepherd has at an early age the better they’ll understand how to behave with other animals like a cat.

2) Watch Closely In The Beginning

When you first introduce your aussie to your cat, it’s important to watch them closely.

Make sure they’re being gentle and not trying to herd, nip, put too much weight on, or scare the cat.

You may need to have several short introductions before they really get used to each other.

And even then, it’s important to supervise their interactions – especially at first.

Once you’ve seen them have several positive interactions over a few weeks you can start to trust them being together without you watching.

3) Don’t Force The Relationship

You definitely don’t want to force the relationship between your aussie and cat.

If the cat doesn’t want to interact with the dog, that’s okay.

Some cats just don’t like other animals – including dogs.

And that’s perfectly fine.

It’s important to allow your cat to set the pace of their interactions and don’t try to push them into doing anything they’re not comfortable with.

If you do, it could damage their relationship and make it harder for them to ever get along.

Respect your cat’s wishes and let them interact on their own terms.

Eventually, they may surprise you and want to play or snuggle with the dog after all.

4) Give Cat a Safe Place To Escape

If you really want to have a home with both an australian shepherd and a cat, be sure to give your kitten a safe place (or two).

This could be a high shelf they can jump up to, a room they can go into, or even just an area of the house where the dog is not allowed.

It’s important that your cat feels like they have a place to go where they can escape the dog if they want to.

If they don’t, they may resort to being nasty with your aussie because they can’t get away from them.

All in all, australian shepherds are generally good with cats.

And when you take these things into consideration, it should make sure they have the best relationship possible.

Other posts you might find interesting:

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