How should I introduce a puppy to my two cats?
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at
4:48 pm
I have two cats ones 8 and ones 5. I’m getting a new German Shepard puppy on the 22nd. I’m not really worried about the 5 year old but my 8 yr old isn’t very friendly. How should I introduce the puppy so there isn’t any conflict or jealousy?
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Filed under: Dog Supplies
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The Introduction
Beforehand, exercise your dog and feed him a nice meal; put him in a relaxed mood. Put your dog on a short leash or in his crate.
Put your cat in her carrier if she’s a scaredy-cat by nature; otherwise let her walk around. Be armed with lots of treats for good behavior.
Let dog and cat check each other out at a distance. Pet and talk to your dog soothingly. It’s not time for dog to approach cat just yet. Give your dog and cat some treats and praise as rewards.
If your dog bolts toward your cat, correct him with the leash. If he shows any signs of excessive excitability, calm him. If this doesn’t do the trick, cut the visit short and try again later.
Repeat these short visits several times a day, gradually giving your dog more leash as appropriate.
Do not move to the next phase until you have several consecutive days of incident-free visits in which both animals demonstrate to your satisfaction that they are comfortable with each other.
Proceed with Caution
Once your dog and cat consistently get along during leashed visits, you’re ready for the next step. Take your dog off the leash, and supervise the two closely. If you see problems, and they don’t abate with a few simple voice commands, back up to the previous phase for a few days. Gradually make the no-leash sessions longer. Do not leave the cat and dog alone until you’re sure they’re both fully comfortable with each other and there will be no trouble. Make sure your cat has places she can jump to for safety. Make some private space in your home for each animal. Use cat doors or baby gates if practical, as well as gentle discipline and rewards to enforce the rules. Keep kitty’s litter box and food bowl out of your dog’s reach.
Now relax and give these guys some hugs.
because german shepherd puppies are so energetic, this will be a tough one. a good method is if you have a baby gate, put it in a doorway. get a friend to hold your cats on one side while you have your german shepherd on the other. this way they cant fight. if that works out, you can have your puppy on a leash around your cats for a while so you still have control over puppy.
hope this helps!
its better to introduce them to him early, so they can get used to each other, or else you may have some major problems as he gets older.
OK – I’m back! I’m still recovering from a TROLL attack, so be gentle.
This is not the recommended practise but it has worked for us for over 30 years. Since there is going to be a ‘conflict’ between the animals sooner or later we get that settled the first day. We simply ‘introduce’ the new animal to the house by setting it in the middle of the floor and observing. 99.9% of the time there is a lot of sniffing, howling and barking.
Here is an example. I found ‘Thomas’ the cat nesting in the engine of my school bus on Monday. We brought him in the house and immediately bathed him to get the engine oils off and to check for parasites. As soon as he was dry I brought him out a deposited him in front of my cat and dog. The dog went up to him – gave him a sniff, and went about it’s business. Our female cat let out a screeching howl and batted the interloper across the floor to show dominance. That was it. ‘Thomas’ slept with the dog on Monday night and right now he is laying 2 feet from our cat grooming himself. She is watching him very intently but since yesterday morning she has basically ignored him. He has walked up to our cat a few times and they have both had a good sniff of each other. NO PROBLEM!