Introducing kittens to DDog...

[despondentatwork]

Interested to hear your stories...any tips?

Depends how small (and also the temperament of the dog)...with a tiny kitten I would definitely use a crate for initial introductions (for the kitten) so they can meet without risk.

For older kittens, I do the same as I do with rescues. Give cat its own space where dog isn't allowed and introduce gradually. Dont take your eyes off them in case you need to step in.

Thx Tara. They've been watching each other through a window. Then I brought the dog into the room the kittens' crate is for a sniff. She ate the second bowl of food I'd left out, didn't bother with them at all; maybe that will make them appealing!

Cats protection do a YouTube video on how to do it and signs to look out for in the dog.

Poor dog having two kittens to live with now. There goes the neighbourhood.

We're always the other way around...two established cats, sometimes puppies sometimes teen or adult dogs

All interactions are ruled by the cats, the dog has to sit, and wait, gets a reward for ignoring or looking away...wave a tasty high value treat, and really watch their eyes/ears, only rewarding any non cat focus.

Current dog has a highish prey drive (GSD) and one of the cats likes to scamper by him, she knows it gets him into trouble but he is getting better and is pretty respectful on the whole, scampering notwithstanding.

Same teeny cat (3kg, if that) has also given GSD (40kg) a large dose of what for as he came hurtling into the kitchen with her in hot pursuit brandishing her claws and very cross face.

Wonder what he’d done?.

You haven't said your dogs breed, but dogs which will happily ignore a static kitten will chase a running one as their prey drive kicks in so make sure kittens have places to escape up in every room (cat tree/furniture).

Unless they're timid, most kittens will defend themselves and the dog will learn the new pecking order pretty quickly (cats then humans then dogs )