Introducing a small cockapoo to cats

[ThatAquaRobin]

I need some advice. I posted in the cats forum but not had any replies yet
I have three cats that rub along with each other. They are aged between 5 and 9.
All the cats are outdoor/indoor and are chipped, they use a sure flap to get in and out. I have a large garden and live in suburbs of a big city
I am divorced and live with my two teens.
Every other weekend and some weekdays my partner of 6 months stays over with me when I don't have the kids, or I go over to his place. My mum feeds my cats when I am away.
He has shared custody of a small cockapoo. She is adorable.
He has the dog in his flat when I go to him, but so far he hasn't brought the dog to mine (because of my cats)
His ex wife is threatening to get rid of the dog if he doesn't have her every weekend.
So we need to change things a little so that when he stays with me he can bring his dog over.
How to we do this with the cats? Is there a recommended way? His dog doesn't have a crate because she is generally very good natured and either sleeps on the sofa with a rug, or on the bed.
My cats stay in the kitchen diner overnight where they have access to their food and cat flap to the garden

I need to go to Specsavers OP. I misread the title as "cockatoo", and spent two thirds of your post thinking, " This is a very bad idea".... 😱.

Sorry, I've no advice on the cats.

It's difficult to introduce a dog to older cats. The best time to do so is when they are kittens. You might need a crate for introduction purposes to put dog in as the dog is invading the cats territory. Ideally you would introduce dog to cats for an hour or two at a time whilst dog in cage so cats could get used to it's smell. Maybe you could shut dog in another room where cats don't go. You need to be careful because if the dog scares the cats in their own territory they could run away.

Ideally with cats you want to leave it up to them, they need routes to escape from the dog, preferably high spaces to get to and they need to be able to get to food, litter trays and outside without having to encounter the dog if they don’t want to.

You want to make sure the dog doesn’t ever chase them or harass them and don’t force an introduction.

They’ll usually avoid it to start with, then start watching from somewhere they can’t be seen , then they might brave open floor - that’s where it’s real important to have the dog ignoring them preferably but at least under close control so the cats can control if and when they get close.

With it only being there every second weekend it could take a real long time of them basically living separately - my cat has always lived with dogs and it takes her about 6 weeks to accept that a new one is there and about 4/5 months before she actually decides she might like it (or not)

Feliway plug ins do help them be a bit less stressed about it.