title="post a comment on '<$BlogItemTitle$>'">post a comment Berner Dog Blog: Introducing Puppies to Cats

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Introducing Puppies to Cats

We are very excited because we are picking up our puppy from the airport tomorrow. However, in the last day or so I have been doing research on how best to introduce our puppy to our family. As exciting as it is for us to get a new puppy, the puppy is going to feel stress after leaving his litter and the home he has known up until now. Of course we want to make this as smooth as a trasition as possible. My last post was about introducing our puppy to our 14 month old, this will be about introducing our puppy to our cats.

We have two cats and I want to make sure that the puppy is introduced properly to the cats. Puppies can unintentially hurt a cat as a cat feeling that it needs to defend itself can hurt a puppy. Anyway I have found some very helpful information on the subject that I can share.

The first is from The Cat Site. It gives very clear instruction on how to Introduce dogs to cats and puppies to cats.

The other information is from Pet Focused.

Here are some Pointers for Introductions from the Pet Focused Website.

Three basic rules will ensure a good start to introducing dogs and cats to one another.
  • Be in control! If you have an aggressive dog, have a leash on hand to rein him in when his behavior indicates that he might pounce on the kitty.
  • Never leave your pets unsupervised while they're getting acquainted.
    Be prepared. Your dog may be very excited and curious about your cat, and the cat very frightened. Excited dogs can easily get out of control, and frightened cats may try to claw and bite to escape.
  • Give it a try. Don't assume that you can't adopt a new pet because you already own a dog or cat. You may miss out on a new friend and companion, and so might your pet!
Luckily, we have a large house. We already have gates up, because of our 14 month old, that give access to the family room, kitchen, and office. The cats have been eating in our pantry, but I will move their bowls up to our bathroom, and they will go on the otherside of the house and have access to the upstairs and the litter box. We plan to crate our puppy and he will sleep downstairs. Our cats can actually jump from the stairs over one of the gates to the kitchen so when they are ready to be friendly with the puppy it will be up to them.


posted by kv sheldon at 8:43 AM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home