Using location words: ue, mae, shita etc.

[desdinova]

Hey this is my first post here so sorry if its in the wrong place but I was hoping you could help me out.

Is my understanding correct here:
neko wa inu no mae ni imasu
meaning: the Cat is infront of the Dog
while
inu no mae ni neko ga imasu
meaning: There is a cat in front of the dog

How about saying, the cat is inbetween the dog and the umbrella (kesan), or there is a cat in between the dog and the umbrella?

[QuackingShoe]

As far as your understanding of the use of 'mae' is concerned, you're correct. (Your word order swapping doesn't do anything meaningful, and correlating 'wa' with 'the' and 'ga' with 'a' is a bit of a mistake)

Anyway, the way to describe the space between two things is __to__no aida.

[hatch_jp]

the cat is inbetween the dog and the umbrella ＝ neko wa inu to kasa no aidani imasu.

there is a cat in between the dog and the umbrella = inu to kasa no aida ni neko gaimasu.

[desdinova]

Ok cool I think I get it now, thanks for clearing that up

[japchinman12]

So here it means the exact same thing! japanese word orders often times are very flexible! this was a good example