Cats and dogs....

Boomtastic

Hi there,

We have two cats that have been in the family for years. One can be scared of his own shadow, the other is quite outgoing.

We are looking a getting a puppy or couple of puppies from a rescue home. That way the cats can hopefully get the message across that they are not to be messed with. Something they may have problems with if we get an older dog.

Several questions:

1) How old is too old to be taught to leave the cats alone?
2) Are there any breeds that are good with cats? (is that a stupid question?)
3) Any tips to help the cats take to their new half-siblings!

Alun

Interesting, we're in the same position, even the characters of the two cats is the same! I'll be interested in the answers.

The Sweeper

Boomtastic, call around the shelters and ask them for some advice.

Your cats will be very upset at the introduction of new animals, whether or not those animals are aggressive to cats. It will take weeks, and possibly months with the timid one, to acclimatise them to the newcomers.

If you adopt an older dog, the shelter should be able to tell you whether or not that dog is cat-tolerant. You want a cat-tolerant older dog from the outset, not some animal that used to be encouraged to chase cats out of the garden and now has to be trained out of it. It's not fair on your cats to bring a potentially cat-aggressive dog into your house, not even for a minute.

The best way to introduce a new animal is to make a big fuss of your existing animals and essentially ignore the newcomer for the first while - that shows the newcomer where they sit in the pack rankings. It also reassures your existing pets and allows them the confidence to sort out how they feel about the newcomers. You should always supervise initial contact until it becomes very obvious that unsupervised contact will result in, at worst, them pointedly ignoring each other, and at best, interacting happily.

I'm unsure, however, how that will work with inter-species introductions. (Works for cats with cats, works for dogs with dogs.)

Puppies would be a good introduction because they can be trained by you from the get go, however they will quickly become boisterous young dogs. It all depends on whether you can balance the task of training and attending to your pups against giving extra attention to your timid cat and ignoring the pups at appropriate times.

Here's a scenario. You bring a pup into the room with your existing cats. You set him on the floor and allow them to watch him. Eventually they will approach and take a sniff (the range this happens at depends on the cat). They will then hiss and possibly arch their backs and inflate their fur. Pup will get a surprise. At this point, it is vital that you DON'T react by giving out to the cat and picking the pup up for a cuddle. You need to stroke the cat and reassure them. If they aren't settling, remove the pup from the room and come straight back to the cats and reassure them.

That scenario doesn't quite sit with how you're supposed to interact with a new puppy - unless you can steal sneaky quiet time in a room with no cats to interact with your puppy, reassure them etc? (Or puppies?) Dogs are more pack animals than cats, so it's not necessarily detrimental for the pup to get smacked up by kitty and then not cuddled by you - it's a bit of a mean lesson, but it'll remind them that they're below kitty in the pecking order.

It'll be a balancing act though. The happiness of your animals together very much depends on you though - if you nail the initial few weeks, you'll have a happy household. If you don't, you won't, it's that simple.

Boomtastic

Thanks v. much Jack. Sounds like you know what you're talking about.

Do you want a coke with that?

sorella

We brought one, then two, dogs, into a cat-household.

We do keep them apart; dogs have access to the main room and cats to the bedroom. Each is not allowed in the others' area.

One of the cats will have nothing to do with the dogs; she vanishes... we live where the cats can come and go as they need to.

The other cat has the dogs sussed. He knows the smaller one and they get on fine. They will play together outside.

But the collie is a different matter. One glimpse of "cat" and she streaks like lightning. However Cat knows what he is about; waits until collie gets near then hops the fence or races up a tree. It is quite calculated and so funny to watch.

Cats, as long as they can escape, will and do look after themselves. They do need the route though; we have had cats take the face off a dog if cornered.

The smaller dog would be fine alone with the cats; but not the collie.

You know your critters best always. Slowly always.

sunshinegirl

I have a cat who is six and brought a pup into the household.The cat wasnt impressed at first but is showing authority,hissing at dog etc if it goes too close.
The cat has shown who is boss,it has taken 2 months or so but the cat isnt afraid too much to walk by the dog.I found it helpful for the cat to have somewhere high up to go and feel safe.Plenty of cat time away from dog is needed too.

Skadi

you just have to be patient and realise that sometimes things will go smoothly and other times it will take time.

My cat is used to dogs as we already had one, so it didn't take too long to get him used to our puppy, or my parents-in-law dog. After a few weeks he was happy to play with the puppy (a large malamute) and quite comfortable racing around the garden with her and playing hide and seek. On occasions i have also found them sleeping together. And even though the puppy is big now (9 months old) the cat has no qualms about stealing food from the puppy's bowl.

others friends who have introduced their cats to a new dog have had no trouble. It's just a matter of letting them get comfortable together on their own rather than pushing them together.

Also remember that the cats are used to your attention, so they may pretend they don't like the new dog. We were convinced our cat didn't like the parents-in-law dog as the cat would never stay around the house when we were minding the dog. One day we looked out into the garden and saw the two them laying happily together in the garden.

Irish-Lass

I had 2 of my cats for 3 1/2 years and another one for 2 1/2 years and we got a puppy. We had one cat who was the biggest scared cat going - afraid of the door bell, tin foil everything.

But have to say we have one of our dogs 4 years the other one 3 years and the last one a year in March - it took awhile for the cats to get totally comfortable with the dogs but once it is done slowly and that you don't lock them in a room together but always allow the cat to get out there should be no problem.

Just a word about puppies they have no fear and normally try to wrestle the cats or jump on them make sure the cats can get high enough up so that they can avoid that situation.

We have 3 dogs and 5 indoor cats and have to say they all get on great now - just takes time and patients - best of luck