Josie meeting her Pussycats, LOL

[WVU Jenn]

So i have a question.....We are picking up Josie the puppy December 13th, and we have 2 cats, Church and Taylor, who are both about a year and a half old.....taylor is a sweetie, church is mor aloof......any advice on introductions etc? My mother's teacup poodle visits our cats every now and then, and they are "tolerant" of her at best, but before i could ever see their full reaction my mother scoops her up for fear she will get hurt....

 

[LILYLARUE]

I'd just let them be. The pup will figure out his boundries with the cats in no time. You may find a cat being the alpha too. Cats have the ability to escape a dogs tracking if need be. They will be pretty safe.

What is best is not to seperate them, especially the pup. He needs to tolerate if not get along with them and not have boundry protection issues.

Good luck and sit back and watch the fun! I'm sure it will be a laugh a minute!

 

[AbbeyRoad]

Mine have their claws and I'm not sure if yours do or not, but when we brought Abbey home for the first day or two I would watch them to make sure that she didn't get a smack that she didn't deserve before she got comfortable, but I didn't keep them separated (Abbey is crated so if we weren't there they had their own space). Once she got comfortable I pretty much just let them do their thing. She got a couple swats to the nose, but she deserved it and learned. Now if mine swine at her she moves out of the way and they don't use their claws any more it is more of a threat.

Every once in a while if she is really picking on them I'll make her stop or vice versa if they were to be picking on her I'd make them stop (doesn't really happen though), but other than that they live perfectly. I walk around the house with them all following me in tow, the sleep by each other and everything. I think it helps when you get the dog as a puppy too, when we brought Abbey home she was smaller than the cats so it was easy for them to show them who is boss early on. I've never lived in a house where the cats weren't higher in the hierarchy than the dog/s!

 

[WVU Jenn]

Yes both of our cats have claws, so I was wondering if that would be an issue, I also have noticed that when they do swat like you have mentioned, they usually dont use claws, its mainly a warning....she will be crate trained so she will have a place to be away from them when need be and such.....I hope they all do get along great and play and sleep together, that will be too cute...and I am sure that Church will continue to be the leader of the pack at our house....he takes his role very seriously!