Quote Originally Posted by slleipnir View Post
Are Miniature Poodles good guard dogs?
As to barking and alerting your mom to strangers - miniature poodles will do the job! Ripley excels in that area!


Ripley is a miniature poodle and, before him, I had a miniature poodle named Ashley. Both live/lived with cats. They both have/had an interest in the cats but not in a bad way. Ripley will play bite at the air around Andy and Andy, in turn, will bat at him, usually from position of lying down on his back so he obviously doesn't feel threatened. The other day they had a session where Andy puffed up and hissed. Ripley sort of didn't know what to do and make a growling sound in return. Ashley was raised from a puppy around cats and Ripley was older when I got him but really there have been no problems. Bella, on the other hand, completely ignores cats. Each dog is probably different, though, even within the same breed.


I would suggest that you mom select a dog (whatever breed she decides on) who has been fostered around cats. I think that is the only way to really know for sure. At the shelter where I got Ripley there are many dogs being fostered at any given time. She could start e-mailing folks and set up a meeting that way. That is what my daughter did when she was looking for a second cat. She wound up e-mailing a woman who was fostering Guinness and very much liked what she was hearing about him even before laying eyes on him. Good luck!