Please help - stuck with puppy and cats 😢

[Benji13]

We are really struggling to integrate our 6 month old rescue pup with our 2 much loved resident cats.

Help and advice desperately needed!
We lost our beautiful old boy in January who was so calm and our 2 cats loved him. In October we took on a 4.5 month old rescue pup - she’s a crossbreed medium sized.

The cats hate her! She’s bubbly and wants to play but also has begun to bark at them. They have effectively moved upstairs and just won’t come down. I think I’ve exacerbated the situation by moving their food and litter trays upstairs. We now feel completely stuck. They basically don’t see each other and this isn’t sustainable nor the way I want to live. I don’t need them to be bosom buddies but I need us to all be able to coexist. I’m really worried it won’t work out and pup will need to be rehomed.

Help please! Was I naive thinking it would be ok??

What happens if they're in the same room together? Does the puppy chase them?

I think the pup just needs to grow up a little bit before she is allowed near the cats. She will naturally be over playful and see them as toys.
I think some really good training sessions and lots of long walks should instill better behaviour later on and mixing with a gate in the middle so they can get used to each other but she can't get at the cats.
Maybe some feeding or treats both sides of the gate.

You need a dog trainer. Could you speak to the rescue you got her from?

She wants to but will focus on you if you have treats if not she wants to chase/ sniff/ say hello I’m not sure which. Her tail wags but she’s very focused

The rescue haven’t been much help tbh with this.

We are working with a trainer who advises little and often intro sessions but the cats absolutely hate it! They don’t want to be in a room with her at all.

I’m tempted to just move the food back downstairs and they won’t have a choice but to come down ( pups not allowed upstairs) but am worried that’s unfair.

Yes you were incredibly naive thinking it would just be ok. The rescue were completely irresponsible to allow this too though. Your poor cats must be very stressed. I’d rehome the puppy whilst he’s still young.

You need to work really hard on instilling a solid "calm" command. Also see if you have a friend with a cat who likes to stare down dogs. Puppy needs to learn that seeing cats means instant calm mode - stop and drop. Once the cats trust puppy will leave them be they may slowly unclench and puppy can be slowly built up.

Lots of young puppies will want to chase and play with cats. Do you know what breed mix she is, as some have a higher prey drive than others?

We got a puppy when our cats were 2 and 3. He was never allowed around them unless he was on his lead so he never got to chase them. We then rewarded him for looking at us/ignoring them when they moved. I now happily leave them together when I go out - if he does bother him, a swift smack on the nose from a cat soon stops him in his tracks!

Ha, you're brave, Icedcoffee. I rashly mentioned on here once that my very old cat smacked the nosy puppy round the ear and never had any trouble with it from then on.

I was eaten alive for rashly exposing both puppy and cat to a risk of serious injury. To be fair, they had a point. Still worked better than all my careful introductions-with-treats had.

@KittiesInsane

Ha, you're brave, Icedcoffee. I rashly mentioned on here once that my very old cat smacked the nosy puppy round the ear and never had any trouble with it from then on.

I was eaten alive for rashly exposing both puppy and cat to a risk of serious injury. To be fair, they had a point. Still worked better than all my careful introductions-with-treats had.

Oh, I've been flamed for my approach before too

I was also flamed on the Litter Tray once for saying that I never did slow introductions with our three cats - we just let them get on with it lol. Regardless of what MN say, we've ever had an issue with any of them fighting or getting in any trouble :)

Ours all sleep together, share water bowls etc. with no issues whatsoever. The cats can even walk past the dog while he's eating a bone and he doesn't bat an eyelid.

I do think all our slowly slowly stuff can actually cause more issues long-term.

We have 4 ddogs and a dcat +a dkitten. Ddogs had the run of the place with safe high spots for the dcats-and 1 room with a closed door for overnight(dd's room). .. ... Took dkitten a year to brave the ddogs!! Dcat was around prior to ddogs and batted them into touch from the off!! They learnt quickly!!
Lots of sharing these days. And dcat accepts a wash all be it reluctantly!!!

We have a 1 yo cat and a 13 week old puppy. The cat essentially has the run of the house including the living room and the dog stays in the (v large!) kitchen, for now. Cat gets to sleep on whoever’s bed he fancies. Food bowl is on the breakfast bar rather than the floor so the dog can’t pester him.

We have tried giving the dog treats when the cat is there so that he doesn’t chase it away, weirdly though I think the cat wants him to chase him - he deliberately provokes him and runs off! I am not too worried about it tbh. I think in the long run they will learn to coexist.

Mine have always reached an understanding, but it's taken 6-12 months to do so.

The understanding is that the cat is in charge.

Until they work that out, your cats need plenty of safe spaces where they can retreat to where the puppy can't bother them. It's all about management so that the cats can come to terms with the intruder in their own time.

Your poor cats. You’ve brought a dog into their environment, reducing their space and now you want to force them to spend time with the dog. It’s really unfair on them.

Fix the dog, not the cats

weirdly though I think the cat wants him to chase him - he deliberately provokes him and runs off

One of our cats does that to the dog - pokes its ears, walks under its chin, prods it when it's asleep, and then flirts away going 'ooh, ooh, the bad dog looked at me funny, miss!'

Sometimes she gets chased up a tree for it, and serve her right.

Letting a cat and dog sort it out themselves is very dependent on the dog and IME far too many people think that dogs will back off if faced by a cat that stands it’s ground and is prepared to have a swipe at a dog . Some dogs , ours included , do not back down and unfortunately in that situation the cat will always come off worst . Unless you want to rehome the dog @Benji13 I think it’s a case of carrying on with what you are doing ie letting the cats live upstairs and that includes putting their food upstairs and seeing if things settle down eventually . If you force them to interact there is a good chance that your cats will choose to move out rather than share space with the dog .

there is a HUGE difference between a dog who want to play/chase and a dog who wants to eat/kill a cat.

I've had dogs and cats together for over 30yrs, made lots of introductions of new pups and rescue dogs. Two rescues had to go back because it was very clear (despite what we had been told) that they would kill a cat if they caught it. Others needed time. My more recent rescue dog was 6 months old and a chaser, unfortunately my feisty cat (who was a brilliant dog trainer) had died and I was left with the wimp who ran. It took about a year until we could have evenings in the living room with cat on my lap and dog asleep next to me, but we got there.

She still thinks if she meets the cat in the garden it's fair game to chase her.

Feisty cat had trained the previous rescue by chasing him around the garden when he chased Wimpy cat. It was a joy to watch.

You will get there but it will take time - moving the cats things upstairs was totally the right thing to do - they have safe space and can venture down when it suits them. Teaching the dog to be calm will be hard work , but worth it. Forget about integrating them for the moment, just keep the cats safe and work on training the dog.

I've recently seen a photo on FB of a friend's Golden Ret and her cat, on the same sofa - I remember her anguished posts about how on earth could she teach the dog not to chase the cat. It's taken about 8 months for her.

We have the same problem. Cats now pretty much live upstairs.

If in the same room the puppy will try to chase and bark, cats will hiss and he keeps his distance. (Well about a metre).

I asked the vet about it and she said, if we're confident that the dog won't harm the cats, there's something to be said for letting them sort it out between them.

Our puppy is 8 months and I feel like it's getting a little better. We do lots of distracting with treats while cat is in the room but he's torn!

The cat has just spent 10 minutes in the living room without the dog noticing!

In reality... there's probably no exact right answer! It's a case of going with your gut and figuring out what works.

Our dog was 8 months old when we adopted him. Cats have been with us forever. Neither had lived with the other species before.

We went real slow. Lots of boundaries (house line on dog at all times, x-pens used as room dividers, dog in pen overnight). Loads of training (especially on "stay" and "look at me"). Then a few months in, we let them just be more integrated.

It's now been 10 months and they coexist pretty well. Not perfect, but the cats are happy as long as doggo doesn't pester them. They have no problem sleeping in the same room. Dog wants to be friends with male cat and will offer him toys. Male cat just ignores him :D Female cat has swiped dog a few times, so he's nervous of her, haha.

We've always let the cats have more options than the dog. They can go anywhere they like. Doggo is the one who is restricted.
Kitchen is gated off (cat food + litter there).
Bedroom gated off (cats have the option to retreat).

Another thing we still do is put doggo in his pen to sleep for a few hours in the evening before bed. This gives the cats some dog-free cuddle time in the lounge, which they love. Could you do something like this?

If it was me, I'd find a way to let the cats rule the entire house again. I'd probably move their things downstairs, out of the dog's reach. Restrict your dog using gates, a house line that you hold or tether to something solid, an x-pen, etc. Teach a really solid "stay" and "look at me" before you remove those restrictions. Keep things positive, upbeat and light.

I'd think in my head: cats are the royals, dog is the peasant ;)

'cats are the royals, dog is the peasant'

My cat would so agree with you there.

I think give it time, the dog will calm down, but you need to reinforce that in lots of areas of life, calming, going to bed training, place training.

We kept puppy and residents cat pretty much apart for quite a few months, or rather the cat kept himself apart, we made sure he alaways go had a safe space….a big cat tree in his case. And could get out of cat flap.

We fed the cat up on a counter.

We never let the dog chase the cat, so often the dog would be on a long lead, or have treats to distract. And if the cat got too annoyed he’d bop the dog on the nose. Still does sometimes.

They aren’t friends but the co exist now with no need for special measures.

Basically give it time.

But I would start feeding cats downstairs again and make sure they have a safe space.

I wouldn't worry about the cats being upstairs for now. If they feel safer up there, then that's the best place for them right now. When we brought our very bouncy lab/ golden retriever puppy home my number one focus was to train her to leave the cats alone. As soon as she spotted them, I got her to sit and treated her and kept treating her so she learned to watch them but not approach or bother them. She has never chased them and knows they are not up for a game with her. She is absolutely in love with both our cats and very respectful of them but they are very disdainful of her. Our dog is 10 months now and the cats still favour upstairs (out of bounds for doggo) but they sometimes choose to be in the same room. More and more frequently the older cat and dog will lie on the sofa together close but not quite touching. The dog watches the cat out of the corner of her eye and will copy whatever position she choses to lie in which is very sweet.