[Closed] Introducing a puppy into a cat house

I wouldn’t worry. We have done this many times. The cats will soon show the dog who is boss. One bit of advice would be to get a stair gate that will limit the dogs access to parts of the house, so the Cats can feel a bit safer initially.

I was thinking a stair gate to keep the dog in the kitchen initially, then some low level OSB to stop it getting up the stairs and also into the bike room where the litter tray is with tasty treats inside...!

Where do you feed your cats?

If anyone in the house has “special “ shoes then they’d better hide ‘em.

Puppies love shoes.

Where do you feed your cats?

In the noisy end with the teeth. They don’t like it so much if you try to cram the food in the other end.

😂😂

I'd say a lot depends on the type of dog and the cats you already have..

We introduced a yorkie/shitzu Cross to a 3 cat house.

There was an initial period where the cats were like WTF.

But it soon settled, the dogs assumed 2nd to the chief cat in the hierarchy. Although cat 2 doesn't care anyway and cat 3 enjoys tormenting the dog as much as the dog enjoys tormenting cat 3.

Ad long as you inteverneif if nessesary you'll find an equilibrium.

Lol at perchy panther!

Another pro tip.. Consider getting a baby gate or something, so the cats can get away from the dog if nessesary.

Should be the same as introducing new kittens. Our 10 year old cat wasn't impressed when we introduced a new cat - that said he was quite boisterous and wanted to play (unfortunately he got run over when he was one). That lead onto us getting a rescue, that got on with the older grumpy tortie (i.e. he left her alone) then a few months later two new pedigree kittens (ragdolls like the one that got run over). Because there are 3 young 'uns', they all charge about, and leave the older cat alone. It's worked well, as the grumpy tortie is quite 'chilled' around them.

Your cats will tell the dog who is boss - certainly best introducing a puppy.

We had no problem with our BT with the two cats wallop.

She's never been allowed upstairs, so this was and has always been the cats' "safe haven" to get a bit of peace and quiet when she was a puppy and just wanting to play with anything that moved. One of them was quite welcoming, the other hissed a few times and IIRC, the puppy got the odd swipe, which is fine and put manners on her around them.

They all get on fine now and since we've softened and allow the dog onto the sofa on a fleece, the three of them will quite happily cuddle up together. This bit took quite a while, and one of them has always been more accepting than the other but they've learned that she's a free heat source. 🙂

It takes time and a bit of patience, but I think you'll be fine - this process is much easier with a puppy. You might need to set up a covered litter tray upstairs for a bit and feed the moggies up there too. And also, make sure to keep on top of all of their flea treatments.

they’ve learned that she’s a free heat source.

Awwww!

Thanks everyone - my mind is much more at ease now. Now all I have to do is find one!

We have ferrets, we introduced our two staffs as pups. Ferrets tortured staffies and put them in their place. Ferrets chase staffies all over the house and intimidate them off their beds. Eventually Staffs and Ferrets reach accord.

Ha! That's an interesting combination.

Ming.
Love it if you sent videos of that the the normal Staffie killer dog press.

I’m crap at photo hosting but Coop, a small polecat hob used to chase Chewie (18 month old Staff) around the house before leaping on him and pinning him to his bed! Currently Mikka (the Fonz of Ferrets) will give Ahsoka his best Paddington Bear hard stare and intimidate her off her bed with a look! He’s about 1.5Kg and she’s errrr 24Kg (rambler recently commented on how well fed she was muuch to Mrs M’s chagrin😁)

Bed sharing

😂
Them ferrets must kill loads of small childs faces then blame it on the staffies.

They do scheme and plot rather well😁

We’ve recently done this, well 7 months ago.

We have 3 cats, 11, 10 and 3 year old rescue. We expected the 10 year old weird female to be the issue but she has taken to the puppy really well.

The two boys aren’t as impressed. Originally the puppy would chase them but they just run off out of his reach, we made sure they could go upstairs and he couldn’t to give them their own space.

Now he barely looks at them and they spend more time stealing his beds to sleep in.

Lolz @perchyp!
My brother and sis-in-law have five cats, a lab, a Pyreneean mountain dog, and several ferrets*. There seems to be a general accord between the factions, but the ferrets absolutely terrorise Mac the Pyreneean, they run rings around him, the cats are indifferent, unless he tries sleeping in their preferred spot.
*The number varies, according to their age; live fast, die young, etc...

We had 5 cats when we brought home a great dane/wolfhound puppy.

No problem apart from occasional chaos - the most vicious old tom took a paternal interest and they became best friends. The others either tolerated or ignored her.

But you're not expecting a tidy house are you? There will be the odd chase around the table...

Good luck to puppy I hate cats 😁

I might move the table into the middle of the room 😄

Do the job properly and get a mouse as well, or maybe a canary 🙂

The cats will soon show the dog who is boss. One bit of advice would be to get a stair gate that will limit the dogs access to parts of the house, so the Cats can feel a bit safer initially.

Exactly what I found. Our dogs are actually smaller than the cats so a low gate is all we need.

Pupdate!

So we got a puppy about 6 weeks ago and she's settling in very well. The cats aren't doing too badly with it, but when the puppy is excited she'll chase as far as she can (until she gets stopped by either a baby gate or a cat hiss).

We do some reinforcement training by rewarding her when she is in the same room as them and stays calm, but the opportunity for this doesn't present itself that often.

Is she likely to naturally grow out of it or do we need to ramp up the training for this?

Is it just general puppy excitement or do we risk her taking it into adulthood if we don't nip it in the bud?

Feel free to tell me I'm overthinking it - I'm cool with that if that's the case!

I don't know about any of your questions but WHERE ARE THE PHOTOS OF THE PUPPY?

So we got a puppy about 6 weeks ago

You have posted on a thread saying you got a puppy but you haven't posted pictures. Do you not know the rules about puppy threads? Go away and have a word with yourself.

Reinforcement training is all well and good but there is also nothing wrong with giving them a good telling off as well. How does the dog know it is naughty to chase cats unless if it has been told so at the time when it chases?
Reinforcement training is great but don't be shy of being firm as well. I had to do some pretty robust training for my spaniel to work safely around livestock. She is now bombproof (and annually tested) around sheep and getting a bit of a shouting didn't do her any harm

Agree with franksinatra.

My brother has 2 cats and introduced a dog.. what they didn't realise was that the dog wouldn't grow as big as the cats! So any chasing ends in a sharp slap round the nose. From a cat. I don't think these cats have learned reinforcement training. 🙂

Skips into thread expecting puppy photos, is disappointed.

Still disappointed a lack of photos despite a public telling off to the OP. I think life bans for photo free puppy threads is perfectly reasonable and proportionate.

We have had a three year old working cocker since he was a puppy with cats who are 6 and 7. They were mildly put out initially but soon learned to ignore the dog. He did (and occasionally still does) chase them, but he usually gets a good hissing at or even a swipe which stops him in his tracks. Mostly they ignore each other and rub along ok, together with our flock of free ranging chickens. The pecking order (literally) is chooks at the top, then cats (scared of the chooks) then the dog.

Cat/dog relationship

Cat gets to poach dogs food, but not the other way round.

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A colleague of mine once introduced a wolfhound puppy to cats.

It ate the cats.

😳

I’m just out but will post photos in a bit! Just to warn you - we didn’t get a cocker spaniel (I don’t want any of you to be disappointed...).

There is no such thing as a disappointing puppy (unless of course if it is a pug)

Not a pug, but almost as bad...

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My Cat has failed to achieve boss status over the dog. Her violence lacks commitment. Instead we have an uneasy stand off with occasional bursts of conflict.

I quite enjoy watching the dog turn the cat out of the dog bed by literally tipping her out.

Puppy will grow out of it. My lab used to love playing with the cat even if she got a claw in the face but now the cat is boss and lab is averse to any type of pain. It's funny as sometimes the cat tries to get her to play like she used to but she just goes and hides.
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two cats, two dogs here. Cats came first and the dogs aren't allowed upstairs. Even a paw on the bottom step is a major telling off hence the cats sit on the step or chill out upstairs and venture downstairs when they like it. They all get on.

Tormentor A and tormentor B.

Where's the photos?.....

They are there! Can you not see them? 🤔

Oops, Sorry.  My phone wasn't loading the images

My sister had a cat - when she moved in with her boyfriend (now husband) he had a dog. They now have two dogs and the same cat, it just tolerated everything very well. That said, the dogs are very well trained so everyone in the house just gets along. The dogs are great - older springer spaniel acts as "mentor" to the younger (more mental) one, the cat rules the house.

Occasionally they'll all be on the sofa together, sometimes they'll all ignore each other but basically there's zero conflict. The younger springer did get her nose clawed a few times when she was a puppy, she very quickly learnt correct manners around the cat.

It's really sweet seeing the three of them curled up together though.

Thanks for all your experiences. Sounds like I need to drop the barriers more often and just let ‘em get on with it.

As long as the cats have a safe space they can escape to, it should be fine, it's when they get backed into a corner there's potential troubles, so a strategical baby gate and places they can jump up will help.

Yeah as long as the cats have somewhere to go to get away from the likely rowdy/playful puppy then you should be fine. Important to make sure the cats understand the puppy isn't a place to sharpen their claws and that the puppy understands the cats aren't chew toys but good luck with that.