New puppy with 2 cats...

I just got my new puppy today - a cross lhaso apso and bichon frisee. I have 2 cats and wondered about the best way to introduce them. My cats are very gentle but I would guess this "thing" that's come to their home is invading their space.

I'm keeping the puppy in a room to train and allow her to get used to her new home and was thinking of introducing them very slowly with a crack in the door for a couple of weeks then allowing the cats to see the pup through our french doors that separate our living room from the kitchen.

Any advice at this point would be very helpful...

pauline

Personally I would open my home to all . I doubt if anyone would injure each other at this point and your cats might actually show the pup a few manners !

How about putting up a puppy gate between the rooms so they can see and smell each other. I know our cats take awhile to get used to the new dog but they will come around in time. If the pup starts to go after the cats, just tell the pup to leave the cats alone and divert with a toy or treat. It takes time and patience but I think they will become friends in time.

I did the same thing with my Lhasa puppy when I brought her home to a house with 4 older cats.

I let her go and just allowed the cats to come out and get used to her in their own time. Cats can get away from puppies pretty easily so they weren't that threatened.

I *did* keep an eye on all of them for the first few weeks to make sure no one was injuring the other, but I let the cats correct her when she got out of line with them. They never hurt her, although they would 'bat' her once in a while; that was enough to make her yelp and back off. I wouldn't leave the house & leave her alone with them for quite a while, tho, and she wasn't allowed to run the house at night.

One of them she still plays with. She stalks him like she's the cat and corners him. He'll sit there forever, but she waits him out, not moving a muscle. The minute he moves to run past her or jump over her, she's up and chasing him, half pouncing on him as they go - it's too funny. (they're the same size) He teases her sometimes, too, by racing back & forth in front of her until he gets her going.