# Introducing Puppy to Resident Cat



## Airedale Mom (Apr 1, 2010)

I will be bringing home a new 8wk old puppy and I need some pointers on how to get things off to good start with my cat. The cat is an inside cat, has not been declawed and is 9yrs old. I've had her since she was a young kitten. I would describe her personality as reserved. She's very affectionate with me and my husband, but generally will hide when we have visitors. She is also the first cat I've ever owned, so I am not a cat expert. I have had dogs in the past and have basic training knowledge. Puppy will be crate trained and I am home all day to supervise. I don't care if they never become great buddies. I just need them to accept and tolerate each other. I know this will be a somewhat stressful for her and I want to make the transition as easy as possible. She does have a safe space to retreat to. Any pointers?


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## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

Clip her claws and keep them that way.

She will likely end up swatting the puppy (even when you are supervising) and this will help him learn to leave her alone..but it is very important that she do little or no damage, eyes can be scratched badly by cat claws. Do not allow the puppy to harass the cat..but you know that already..lol.

As long as she has a place to go to and a high place to escape to she should be fine. Keep in mind though, that if she is a sensitive cat she may "disappear" somewhere in the house for a little while and that it is important if she has a hiding place that her litter box be easily accessible. My old cat, Vandal (RIP buddy) got pretty stressed when my roomie brought a dog home even though V was dog friendly (the dog was a bit nuts)..he hid in my bedroom for a month so I put the litter and food up there for him and he slowly started to appear in the rest of the house when he had determined it was safe.

As for the puppy, my dog learned very quickly to avoid the my younger cat, Tagger, and even now that they are friends she still won't get up on the bed if he's there first etc...

You may want to move the cat food UP onto something and make sure puppy cannot get into the litter box too...cat poo is HIGHLY gastronomic, dogs LOVE it.

Just to add, I have a client with an Airedale and he does just fine with his cat, but they were raised together. She trained the dog boundaries so that the cat has one room the dog is not allowed in. Remember that airedales ARE terriers so prey drive can be high, so working early on "leave it" and recall will go a long way to him leaving the cat alone. Reward him handsomely any time he turns AWAY from the cat and do not allow ANY chasing...


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## DJEtzel (Dec 28, 2009)

What I did for this with my GSD pup, was I kept him leashed in the house at all times. There are 4 cats living in his house, so it was an all day thing training this, but whenever he saw a cat and started to run after it, etc, I'd tug on the leash so that he couldn't and say "OFF" then pull him to me or call him over and treat and make him sit. A few dozen repitions and now he RARELY chases cats. Usually he just runs around by them and scares them, but he can lie down with them and nap just fine too.


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## Airedale Mom (Apr 1, 2010)

Cracker and DJ:

Thanks for all the great suggestions! I will be clipping her nails. This will be interesting as I have never clipped them. Her litter box is in my sewing room. I'll move her food and water in there as well. Since that room is used only by me, I could put up a baby gate there. Kitty can go over or under at will whenever she feels comfortable. I am also going to institute a zero tolerance policy for chasing right from the beginning. Your experiences make me feel better that eventually they will get along.


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## DJEtzel (Dec 28, 2009)

Sounds like a great setup. 

Yep; even though Frag is going through his butthead adolescence stage, he's bonding a lot better with the cats and will happily lay with two of them, the other he doesn't really like because she's fiesty, and sometimes they choose not to lie near him because of past experiences, but it has been documented.


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## EarthMonkey (Nov 14, 2009)

I brought home a 9 week old puppy. We have a 8 year old cat. He also is very reserved. We put up baby gates. We did not clip the cats nails. It took a month or so for the cat to get near enough the puppy for there to be much worry about the dog's safety. We still have the upstairs gated so only the cat will go up there. The puppy is now 7 months old. At first the puppy was trying to be friendly and the cat was hiding. Then the puppy started barking at the cat so we worked on teaching the puppy that he needed to leave the cat alone. Eventually the cat started getting in the area of the puppy and started standing up to the puppy. The puppy has gotten scratched occasionally (our cat is not a cat that is inclined to scratch). The puppy can be rather foolish about going back and trying play bows on the cat. We think he thinks Horton our cat has just a really weird way of playing. He now knows to back off when our cat gets to the high pitched growl. Our 11lb cat has chased off our 40 lb dog repeatedly. The puppy also keeps back from the cat all the time now and runs away when the cat gets really mad at him. The puppy has also gotten a lot better at ignoring the cat. We are hoping the cat will get better at ignoring the dog. I figure it can't hurt to have our dog learn it is wise to be wary of cats.


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## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

The first and foremost thing is to never ever ever allow the dog to turn interacting iwth the cat into a game of Chase. If this means a leash, use a leash. DJEtzal did it right from the start and that is how I do this with a puppy. 

All other suggestions are good as well (puppy proof escape areas etc.).


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## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

The reason I recommend clipping the cat's nails is that if he scratches the dog/puppy and gets it in the EYE it can cause permanent traumatic damage. No messing around with eyes, guys. Even clipped there is still contact made, just less damage incurred. Until you've seen a pup with a TEAR in it's eyeball.....


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