Introducing a dog into a home with cats

[Lovethesea]

Right. I've two rescue cats living here and a 6 month old lurcher puppy coming Saturday. She is in foster with cats and scared of them, but they are dog savvy and stand their ground. Pretty sure one of mine will leg it and the other might go on a looooong hunting trip.

My current thoughts are to have the cats in the house and close the Catflap. To keep them in for two or three days with a stairgate giving them dog free upstairs and litter trays and food and water upstairs so they don't have to come down.

Then what? Dog on lead I can do, but how long can I sit in the lounge like that? How can I get the cats to have a look and treat the puppy for ignoring them?

Later on I can open the Catflap again and have the dog in the lounge and dining room while the cats have upstairs and hallway access to the kitchen and their flap.

Experiences welcome!

When I did it I had mixed responses from my cats, one sulked for a few days then became boss cat, the other just played with him and the 3rd moved out for a few weeks but slowly and surely she became more confident and is now happy to be in the same room as him (also a lurcher). Things I did to help the cats was to keep the kitchen "dog free" for a few days so they could still go about like normal. Lots of tasty treats for cats and only letting them outside before meals so I knew they wouldn't be out long. We were using a crate for our pup so I would put him in there for a bit with a kong while the cats explored but only for a short while. I didn't use a lead with him. A stair gate helped between the kitchen and hall too. if he got too boisterous the cats are pretty good at telling him off and now, a year on they are all good friends there was a time I thought cat3 may never get used to him but with time she adjusted to the newbie in the house good luck!

Also clicker training may help each time puppy looks away from the cats you can click and treat him for it

Right, I've ordered a dog gate with a cat flap in it. I want the cats to feel secure upstairs. Huntercat could leap a normal or tall gate with no difficulty but Feistycat is wee and might struggle with the jump. And if the gate is too low the dog will just hop over it!

Now I just need to figure out how to fix it to the stairs without relying on the weak bannisters or making the cat flap part inaccessible.....