Hello, I'm new to this site and of course this tribe, and I'm loving it!
I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions on how to introduce and adult dog to my adult cat. My cat used to live with a dog before she came to me, but the dog has never had mush to do with cats.
I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions on how to introduce and adult dog to my adult cat. My cat used to live with a dog before she came to me, but the dog has never had mush to do with cats.
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Re: Introducing a dog to my cat
Sun, February 18, 2007 - 12:05 AMI don't, just make sure they got pleanty of space. -
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Re: Introducing a dog to my cat
Sun, February 18, 2007 - 9:46 PMHas the dog been around cats before? You need to make sure the dog won't see the cat as prey. Even if the kitty is used to being around dogs, it won't matter if the dog's first instinct is to chase. -
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Re: Introducing a dog to my cat
Sun, February 18, 2007 - 11:30 PMWe have a dog/cats blended family. Our introductions were relatively stress-free, but I hear this is not always the case. There's tons of suggestion on various websites if you Google "cat dog introductions"
Here are a couple of suggestions we used:
If possible, give the dog some exercise (a walk) before bringing him in the house. This will calm him/her
Put the cats in a safe place(locked in the bathroom), and let the dog roam the house for 30-45 minutes. Then remove dog, and let the cats out, to "meet" the dog first by smell. We also brought over the dog's blanket and set it out for the cats to investigate.
I had a porch w/ a glass door so the cats were able to see the dog before actually meeting face to face. They checked her out for a while, puffed themselves up and got used to seeing her before we introduced them.
Make sure the dog is on a leash at all times and the cats have a comfortable place to retreat to.
Don't leave them home alone unsupervised until you are absolutely sure the dog will not go after the cats. We locked the cats away for a about a week when we weren't home.
Go slowly. I hope some of this helps.
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Re: Introducing a dog to my cat
Sun, February 18, 2007 - 11:34 PMP.S. Our dog never lived w/ cats before either so we weren't sure how she would react. It's odd because she still chases cats she sees outside, but doesn't chase ours. I guess she knows who her "kitties" are and the ones outside are just "cats". Although when it's dark she will chase her kitties and then suddenly stop and say "oh you're part of my family, my bad!"
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Re: Introducing a dog to my cat
Mon, February 19, 2007 - 1:03 AMthank you for those suggestions, they sound very useful. The dog has never really been around cats, apart from once when it met one and picked it up, althought this was definatly not in aggression, just in a playing way. Because of this the dog has been mussel trained to prevent this happening again.
The cat will always be keep sepearte from the dog when we are not around, thats just how the house works.
I know this may sound like a hard task, but I'm currently studying animal behaviour so am very up for the challange.
Thanks again.
