Dogs and cats can coexist successfully when introductions are managed carefully — but chronic inter-species stress is a significant welfare problem in many households.
Multi-species household welfare depends on the design of the environment and the management of the introduction process. Cats in households where dogs chase them experience chronic stress that manifests in health problems — feline idiopathic cystitis, reduced food intake, and elimination outside the litter box. Prevention requires creating environments where cats always have escape routes and refuges inaccessible to dogs, ensuring dogs cannot practice predatory chasing, and managing introductions through scent exchange and visual separation before physical contact. Households that invest in proper introduction management achieve genuinely harmonious multi-species cohabitation; those that rely on the animals to "work it out" create chronic welfare problems.