Introducing 11 Month Old to Cats

[catress]

Hi there I am going to pick up our new girl on Saturday :D she is an 11 month old bitch, and where we are staying untill we buy our house (in about 2 months) they have 2 cats, they dont mind us getting a dog as they want to get one too but not right away, one of the cats is blind and slightly retarded so he wont mind, but the other is an absolute whimp, our new girl has never seen a cat before in her life... she has been well socalised as has been showen by the breeder. i would love some advice and tips on making the introduction as painless as possible for the cats we are staying with.

Thanks

[Rott-Wiley]

In the beginning I would suggest you keep her on lead while she is inside the house with the cats. Once you get a feel for how she will behave you can progress from there.

We adopted a 3 year old rescue once and it took us a little over 3 months of on lead training to break her of trying to chase and or what ever it was she wanted to do with them. After that time she didn't pay any attention to them. Plus she became house broken in the process. Good luck with your new girl.

[Carina43]

It's do-able!
Dutch probably would have killed our cat when we brought him home, and Daphne was just obnoxious about chasing Krazy at first. We dealt with it like Rott-Wiley said; leashed the dogs when the cat was around and corrected for lunging. Don't try to force the cats & dog together, and don't carry the cat or lift it over the dog's head - this seems to make the dogs much worse! I don't know why, maybe my dogs are just retarded. :)

Make sure the cats have safe dog-free zones...eventually the dog will lose interest once she gets over the novelty. That's been my experience, anyhow.

It helps if the cats are dog-savvy, too. That probably helped in our case; Krazy doesn't tend to freak or run at the sight of a dog, he's just properly cautious about strange ones.

[catress]

what would be the correct way to correct her?

[Carina43]

Originally posted by catress
what would be the correct way to correct her?

Fast jerk on the leash..."NO, BAD WICKED AWFUL DOG, SHAME ON YOU!" Then redirect her to something...make her sit/down/stay whatever. Praise lavishly for ignoring the cats.

[SABELLESMOM]

Fast jerk on the leash..."NO, BAD WICKED AWEFUL DOG, SHAME ON YOU!" Then redirect

Love your way with words, Carina! :p Enjoy your new bitch, Catress!! Does she have a name? Have confidence, I've known more Rotties who seem to take quite naturally to cats, then those who didn't.

[catress]

Her name is Indy she is just lovely, we went to meet her on Saturday and she was just funny, this will be our second rottie, we lost my partners dog earlier this year from cancer, and i am looking forward to having my feet steped on, getting that look from her where it makes you get up to see what she has been up to in the other room and walking her on the beach and just having company again..thanks all for your posts and ill let you know how we get on with her..

Catress

[Carina43]

Post a photo when you get her! :) How exciting, a new dog...hope it goes fine with your cats.

[mynamesmegan]

hello everyone
when my owner brough home a kitten
all i wanted to do was lick it!!!
but the kitty was really mean and tried
to scratch me.....
i soon learned to stay away from that
little thing..
there is another cat in my house but
he only has 3 legs.......but he can still
run faster than me so i cant catch him
but we got friendly and he lets me lick him
sometimes.......i am hoping that the kitty
will do the same soon
megan