Puppy meets the cats

[Furbaby Mom]

We adopted a puppy on New Year's eve. He's 11 weeks old now, and we're not making as fast as progress with the cat intro's as I was hoping. I'm not sure if my expectations are too high, or there's more I can do to work thru this. Any advice would be appreciated!

Basic problem: he's a puppy that came from a litter of 11 puppies. He sees my 14 cats, and thinks, "wow! littermates!". There is no aggression, just simply play, play, play.

No problem with the older cats - he gets too rambunctious and they swat him and he stops. They have him trained to come up and nuzzle and lick them. They are starting to cuddle together.

Younger cats still have some problems - most will simply run away when they see him - he is gated in the kitchen and they simply jump over the gates and get away. They run and trigger his chase instinct. One kitten Spanky (6 pounds) sticks around to play back with him (he really likes to play with Sam) but gets overpowerd by Sam (16 pounds). He eventually pulls free and runs off.

We are doing the following: Firm NO when he starts after the cats and redirect him to his toys. If we miss that and he lands on them, he gets separated with a firm NO and given his toys. When he simply persists, he gets a time out in his crate. We play interactive games with him on a regular basis and plenty of toys which we rotate around to keep his interest. With Spanky, we monitor their play closely and if Sam gets to rough, we gently grab his muzzle and give him a NO BITE command (that is starting to work when he nibbles on us). He is still in process of crate training, so long periods in the crate to separate them is not fully an option right now.

The younger cats never lived with dogs before and don't know the ropes, but they are not learning by watching the older cats. On the one hand, I want everyone to get along and play together if possible. On the other hand, Sam is getting big fast and he needs to learn his limits.

Any ideas that I am not trying? Or do I just need to be more patient with all this? Been a long time since last puppy!

[originalfatc]

Well, I never had much luck easing them into all getting along. The cats run or others turn and swat pup, disciplining the puppy is always almost useless because it's a game to him and his attention is on the *prey*.

In my house, the cats got used to it, they weren't afraid any more, and they did one of 2 things-Faced the puppy down, or continued running because it was just as much fun to them.

I have come to the conclusion that as long as cats have escape, they will eventually stop running unless they want to.

What has convinced me of this is when right after cat went tearing through house *terrified* I caught scardey cat coming back to tease the dog for me.

What a circus in my house!

btw, no advice for you except patience. The above happens regularly in my house, especially when there's a newcomer.

[Furbaby Mom]

LOL. Thanks Debbie! Ok, thought I was missing something here. When I had 5 dogs they never did anything like this with the cats, and the last puppy I had 14 years ago had enough doggie friends with her so she didn't need to play with cats for fun.

OK, grin and bear it or get Sam a playmate of his own species!

[Mandy]

WOW, 14 cats!!! That's a lot of kitties! I'm always jealous of people who can have that many animals. My parents are about at their limits with my two dogs and a little kitty, lol.

Well, first of all you are probably confusing the pup by letting him play with the older kitties, but not the younger ones. A dog, and especially a new puppy, wont be able to differentiate between the younger cats and the older cats so telling him 'no' isnt going to do a thing unless you tell him 'no' with ALL the cats. And I don't think you need to do that.

Puppies and cats are similar in size, and the cats are faster and more agile AND can climb, so its really unlikely that your puppy will ever hurt a cat. If the cats get scared enough or your puppy is being too rough, they can get away one way or another. All the puppy wants to do with the cats is play, so he's not going to hurt them knowlingly. The cats will realize this sooner or later and will either play with him, or let him know that they DONT want to play!

When I first got my German Shepherd puppy, my cat was just terrified of him. He would hiss and spit and arch his back anytime the puppy came near. He got used to the puppy and now they play all the time. My puppy weighs about 55 pounds now and my cat weighs 8, and my dog never plays rough enough to hurt my cat. If he gets too rough, the cat lets him know. If the animals are raised together, there wont be any problems.

Hope this helped!