Cat trees for an 18-pound dog?

[J-rap]

My dd and I share a dog -- he's mostly hers but I take care of him a lot due to her work schedule.  He's a smallish dog -- 18 pounds but I think full-grown now (11 months old).  He's an amazing climber/hopper.  He loves to climb/hop as high as possible and look out the window.  He'd climb the highest furniture and balance himself on the uppermost edge if he could, but he's learning that he's not supposed to.  He can get up on things that I thought only a cat could jump up to!   For example, he can jump from the floor to the bathroom counter with a single hop from a resting position.

I'm considering getting him a cat tree so that he has his high perch.  Would those hold a dog?  Do you have a style in particular you'd recommend?

[Guest]

4 hours ago, J-rap said:

My dd and I share a dog -- he's mostly hers but I take care of him a lot due to her work schedule.  He's a smallish dog -- 18 pounds but I think full-grown now (11 months old).  He's an amazing climber/hopper.  He loves to climb/hop as high as possible and look out the window.  He'd climb the highest furniture and balance himself on the uppermost edge if he could, but he's learning that he's not supposed to.  He can get up on things that I thought only a cat could jump up to!   For example, he can jump from the floor to the bathroom counter with a single hop from a resting position.

I'm considering getting him a cat tree so that he has his high perch.  Would those hold a dog?  Do you have a style in particular you'd recommend?

We have two cats who are each over 10 lbs currently on the SAME shelf of ours, so I'm thinking it would be fine for an 18 lb dog. I would suggest buying somewhere that has assembled version so you can check for stability. Some are more stable than others. I think ours came from Petco.

[J-rap]

20 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

We have two cats who are each over 10 lbs currently on the SAME shelf of ours, so I'm thinking it would be fine for an 18 lb dog. I would suggest buying somewhere that has assembled version so you can check for stability. Some are more stable than others. I think ours came from Petco.

Yeah, that's a good idea.  Stability would be important!

[Pawz4me]

I think you should be able to find something that would work. Many large (not necessarily overweight) cats like Maine Coons and Ragdolls weigh in the 15-20 pound range, and I'm sure they use cat trees. You'd want something with a wide base to increase stability, I think. My concern would be how "hard" does he land? Often even big cats are able to land rather lightly. Back when we had a cat who was in the 16ish pound range I kept the cat tree in a corner, close to the walls. So if he rocked it the walls were there for support. We happened to have a window right there the cats could look out, so it worked well.

[J-rap]

3 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I think you should be able to find something that would work. Many large (not necessarily overweight) cats like Maine Coons and Ragdolls weigh in the 15-20 pound range, and I'm sure they use cat trees. You'd want something with a wide base to increase stability, I think. My concern would be how "hard" does he land? Often even big cats are able to land rather lightly. Back when we had a cat who was in the 16ish pound range I kept the cat tree in a corner, close to the walls. So if he rocked it the walls were there for support. We happened to have a window right there the cats could look out, so it worked well.

I can see that a large base would be important, and maybe surrounded by a wall/furniture for extra stability.  I'd guess he lands harder than a cat...

[Selkie]

You could anchor it to the floor or wall so it can’t tip over.

[KidsHappen]

We owned three cats that weighed in at about 17-18 pounds and I could have four cats on our condo at a time. It had a very wide sturdy base and then fairly large sturdy shelves. It had four shelves so each cat could have it's own shelf but frequently there would be two on the top shelf. This was a very large condo and it cost about $300 twenty years ago but I am sure you can find something that would work now that is a little smaller and cheaper.