Many dogs and cats get along very well. Dogs who are gentle and friendly and aren’t squirrel-chasing, predatory types can be great housemates with cats.
Even dogs who do chase small prey outdoors can often learn not to chase or harm cats indoors once they’ve grown accustomed to their household cats as family members.
Although you should carefully prepare and supervise your new dog, you should have little trouble integrating him into your household if he’s lived peacefully with a cat before or if your cat has lived with a dog. But keep in mind that dogs and cats, like people, need time to get to know each other. If they’ve never seen each other before, they probably won’t be instant friends.
Since cats take awhile to accept new cats, your cat might not accept a new dog as quickly as you’d like. It might take years for a trusting, mutually agreeable relationship to develop between a cat and dog who live together. The younger, more energetic and more tolerant your cat is and the smaller, calmer and more obedient your new dog is, the more likely it is that your cat will accept living with a canine companion.
Every year hundreds of dogs lose their live by drowning and usually it happens in the family pool. The most vulnerable are puppies and older dogs although many adult dogs also drown because they have not been exposed to water or precautions were not taken to properly introduce them to the water.
TIPS for SAFETY
Never assume a dog can swim or will like being in water.