People with cats and dogs......

[lenak]

Come talk to me about introducing them.

In July we got a rescue dog (approx 2 years old, lab cross)and we had already got a cat. He seemed to get on OK with the cat at first but then completely out of the blue attacked her one day.

The cat stayed away from him and we were going to try and re-introduce them properly after we got back off holiday in September. Unfortunately, the night before we went away, the cat died .

The dog is quite good, but could benefit from some obedience training which I intend to organise soon. He also has an issue with other dogs - it seems to be fear rather than aggression and isn't with all dogs.

Assuming we can sort this behaviour out, we would like to get another cat next spring - probably a kitten.

The dog sleeps in the kitchen at night and ideally a cat would too as the cat flap is in the back door.

Does anyone have any hints and tips on getting a cat when you already have a dog and introducing them etc.

A big dog cage (how big depends on space you have available and whether it could be used by your dog in the future for journeys) is useful for getting them used to each other in the beginning. This is also the only way I would leave a kitten with a Lab cross who has attacked a cat before. I wouldn't put the dog in there though, I would put the kitten in there with its litter tray and food. Plenty of room in there for a little kitten to feel safe and secure. The dog can get familiar with the kitten without the kitten being at risk.

Past that though I really couldn't say how to progress. It depends on how your dog reacts to the kitten. You might find that they can't be integrated or you may find they have no issues at all, who can say.

I briefly took my cat to live with my parent's two dogs. One (a 20 year old Jack Russell) accepted her till she hissed so he growled at her and they developed an understanding - the floor was his, anything above the floor was hers. The other dog (a 10 year old Greyhound) however had recently decided to chase a cat and as a reward for this act of bravery had been blessed with a rather painful scratch across the nose from the cat she was chasing. She had then learnt that upsetting cats was a bad idea and took one look at my little girl who was moving in with her and went and hid in her basket. Had we been moving in 3 weeks earlier though I would have been worried for my cats safety even though as a full grown cat she is more assertive, stronger and able to defend herself than a little kitten.

We have a 6 yr old lab cross collie with fear agression to other dogs who came from a rescue. Since getting him we have got 2 cats, we sort of left them to it and obviously supervised the contact but let them have a good sniff of each other etc. The cats almost tripled in size and did a bit of hissing but then seemed to calm down and they are now the best of friends! You can never predict how they are going to react and its a bit of a worry that the dog has previously attacked your cat so be careful but fingers crossed they will be fine.

no exp of this and tbh i wouldn't do it.