Introducing puppy to cat

[Ricecrispie9]

Our new puppy comes home Saturday, she’s a 9 week old black Labrador. We already have a 5 year old cat, he was a rescue who has lived with us for 3 years. He’s a big cat but quite shy, I don’t think he has lived with dogs before but our house is quite large so we feel we have enough space for both. We also picked the lab as a temperament better with cats.

What are the best tips for introducing them? So far we’ve got:

Scent swapping - puppy will be in the dining room and we will give her a blanket from the cats bed and then vice versa - we plan to let the puppy have the run of downstairs whilst cat is upstairs sleeping (he does this most of the day), crate her/have her in dining room when he is downstairs early evening and let her out again when he goes out in the evening.

Slow introduction - we plan to crate train so thought the first time they meet she could be in crate then the next time keep her on a lead.

Keep cats space - we don’t want to let puppy upstairs so the cat will have all 4 bedrooms as his space.

Does anyone have any other tips? I’m nervous about food - the cat usually has biscuits down all the time - presuming we’ll need to keep them high up? Also generally worried about the cat feeling put out. He’s had the run of the house for a few years so might be annoyed!

You don’t introduce them really, you leave the cat be to do what it wants and you keep the puppy on a longline or behind a stair gate or however you need to make sure it doesn’t ever chase or harass the cat.

To start with the cat will probably avoid rooms the puppy is in, and start watching it from a distance to suss it out and then you’ll have a while if the cat cautiously coming in but still needing an escape route and so on.

Some cats take longer than others, mine has always lived with dogs, is fairly used to there just being a strange dog about (we fostered for a while) and it takes her roughly 6 weeks to start behaving more normally and not freaking out because there’s a dog there... longer than that to decide it could be a friend. Some cats don’t make friends, they just tolerate them.

it’s all very cat dependant tbh.

and yes you want food and litter trays to be not reachable by the puppy.

Btw, crate training properly (as opposed to just sticking them in one without testing which people seek to think is crate training) can take months, so I wouldn’t assume it’ll be crated a lot of the time.

The number one rule is to make sure the dog is never allowed chase the cat from the off. Otherwise it's a game for life. Make sure the cat has lots of high places to escape to and freedom to access outside without the dog getting in the way.
One thing we weren't prepared for was having to make sure the cat's food was inaccessible to the dog, otherwise she'll steal it straight away.

Also our cat was cross with us for about four months after we got the dog. Although they'll never be best mates they pretty much ignore each other now and the cat has forgiven us!

We have introduced this pair in the last year. Our lab came to us at 8 weeks, we’d already had our cat for 3 years.

Look after/focus on the puppy, the cat will introduce himself (or not) as he wishes. You can’t force or rush it. Curiosity will win out for both of them in the end. Agree with PPs to never let the puppy chase the cat. The cat will use his fists to protect himself as needed to put pup in his place!

We put the cat’s food high up and feed him after we feed the dog. If we forget and end up feeding the cat when the dog is not otherwise occupied, we ask the dog to go to her bed (obv several months into training) while we feed the cat to prevent hooliganism.

(My photo is obv outing to anyone I know. Hiya if you know me!)

If cat is used to going outside make sure that it has a puppy free route to the garden.
My cat was an established resident when puppy arrived and very quickly taught the puppy the pecking order! A quick swipe across puppy’s nose is not forgotten.
Don’t ever let puppy chase cats, or any other animals. My dog trainer got me telling puppy ‘no cats!’ every time we saw any animal or bird etc. Puppy, who is now 9, still knows that he does not chase anything and he and cat co-existed happily until cat died some years ago - I have a wonderful photograph on my wall of the two of them curled up together!

@marmaladegranny thats so sweet!

We’re now at the point that the cat is harassing the dog tbh 😂 he’s not thrilled she’s started bed sharing

Don’t let the training come from the cat. It won’t in most cases and leads to stressed cats and injured puppies. Separate until pup calms down. That will be months. Our cat is very dog savvy but pup wants to play. So they are separate unless we’re training.

Our house is open plan so we have a room divider cutting off a section of the living room to allow cat safe passage to his flap. Pup only goes upstairs at night to sleep crated with us. Cat has free reign in the day (this was the case before pup). He’s not a lap cat so his life hasn’t really changed.

Crate training takes months so you may need other methods to keep all happy and safe.

Baby gate. Dcat needs an escape route!

We're in the middle of it with our 5 month old rescue pup who we've had for a few weeks. He had spent time around cats prior to coming to us. Resident cat is 9 and pretty cross about big changes at first but does come round. When we had our youngest who's now 4 she did spend most of her time outside for a good month, and she's currently doing the same unless we carry her upstairs which I do try to do because that's her usual space to relax by day. When they are together at the same time she is out of reach of the puppy - we are now feeding her on a spare section of worktop at the back of our kitchen rather than on the floor. The puppy will jump up to investigate and she has been hissing and occasionally lashing out at him but this is settling. He very much wants to play but we wouldn't allow this. Normally if the cat is around he's in another room, behind a stair gate or on lead. It's going ok, I'm not holding out hope that they'll be besties, but for the most part our cat is following her normal routines which I'm really pleased about. I think it's just a case of letting it take as long as it takes and always ensuring the dog isn't allowed to chase the cat.

Give your cat an escape route from the puppy. Stair gate up to stop the puppy following him upstairs. Puppy on trailing short lead then you can grab hold if she starts to chase. Teach ‘leave it’ using treats. We put our cats biscuits on a high windowsill to stop the dog eating them. Our cat & dog are fine together now. The cat is definitely the boss!

Your car will need a safe space, we have an internal cat flap for this reason.

We had two cats when we brought our beagle home. We now have three (cats that is, not beagles ).

I know it's an unpopular view on here but we just let them get on with it. We didn't make the cats a big deal - they were just part of the household and he had to treat them nicely.

The first day we brought him home, they all sat on his bed with him 🤷🏻‍♀️ it's really never been an issue. None of the cats had previously lived with dogs either.

We do have a baby-gate so the cats can eat in peace (or he will steal their food) but otherwise they co-exist quite happily. They share water bowls and beds and will all happily come and sleep on the bed or sofa together in the evenings.

Here are a couple of photos!

I'm currently sitting on the sofa with one cat (age 13) curled up next to me on one side and lab (age 2) on the other side. If I get up they'll happy stay next to each other almost touching. The other cat (age 12) is more wary but will sleep on our bed with the dog.

This blue cross video has some excellent advice

When we got our dog, my number one focus was making sure she was calm around the cats and did not chase them. Every time she saw the cats she ran to me and did a sit and got a treat. It was the first thing I taught and probably my most successful, most bomb proof training. We put up a stair gate and added another catflap so the cats didn't have to cross paths if they didn't want to.

We went very very slowly with everything and it was all on the cats terms. They were quite stressed initially. One stopped purring for a while and the other got some urinary infections. They are absolutely fine now. I got some plug ins from amazon which the vet recommended and which possibly helped.

DH and the DC were all at me to force introductions between the dog and cats but I am glad I didn't as the animals are all pretty chilled with each other now. The cutest thing is when they all go out and search for kibble in the grass together. Or when the cats settle on the step and watch the dog haring up and down the garden after her ball with their heads flicking left and right as she passes.

So don't rush it, separate spaces, lots of training.

Yep, don't allow chasing...treats (something high value and tasty) for the puppy when he is just looking and not chasing (he can be on a lead for example) and lots of praise also. Maybe a plug in feliway diffuser for the cat to keep them calm. Go very slowly. And yes you'll need food to be up high...dog will scoff the lot otherwise