I have 2 cats who I adore, they were my little girls and have been spoilt rotton!

Enter Bailey, my 14 week old Dalmatian lol! I had thought very carefully before adding Bailey to our animal familiy and I was expecting abit of grumpy ness from the cats before everything wouls settle down. I'm hoping they will end up getting on well, but at the moment it's a bit difficult! The cats just stay out the way, they come through when Bailey is sleeping and peer at her in her basket! They seem to be accepting her but of course everytime Bailey see's the cats she wants to chase them - and the cats run - which make it such an amazingly fun game! I feel bad for my cats as they have had their home taken over, I would love for them all to get on ok.

Has anyone got any tips on how to introduce pups to cats? Some say I should shut them in a room together, but I don't like the idea of that, it will stress out the cats as they get chased round and round the room. Or end in Bailey getting an eye taken out.
The cats will hiss at her and have swiped for her too but not with claws out. It doesn't scare Bailey at all, she just gets more hyper.

Thanks
Rhiannan

We took on a rescue cat in February.....we have dogs too,  there are baby gates between our kitchen/hall and dining room/living room, the cat does come down and take a look but hasn't bothered to enter the kitchen when the dogs are in there, to be honest they just ignore each other, which suits us all.

Definitely don't shut them in together -you could end up with a puppy with a punctured eye. As mentioned you do need baby gates so the cats can go where they want but the pup can't. Also if you have other areas where the cats can jump up out of reach it will help. You do rather need to stop the pup from chasing them or it will go on -i.e. you need to let the pup know that chasing is not acceptable.

I have a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs so currently the cats sleep up stairs all day and then sneak by in the evening when Bailey is calm and normally asleep.

I guess I just feel bad as they used to be with me all the time and cuddle up on the sofa with me on an evening and now it is Bailey who does that instead.

If Bailey see's either of them outside or in the house she chases them. Any ideas on how to stop her doing that? I have held her collar and slowly approached the cat and stroked the cat. Tried to get Bailey calm by having her sit or giving her a treat but she is just fixated.

A sharp noise or other deterent when she starts to chase them would be my prefered choice - out in public she could cause a road accident if she were to chase a cat.

I had the same situation when I got my first 2 dogs. 

To be honest the pups took a full 6 months to realise that there were a couple of cats in the house as they caused such a rumpus on a daily basis that the cats stayed out of their way and just watched from the sidelines.  Once they did realise then they did want to chase. 

However from day 1 my pups were not allowed in the kitchen (where the cats ate) or the bedrooms (where the cats slept) so the cats always had a safe haven or two. That was when we lived in a bungalow, now we are in a 2 storey house so the dogs are just not allowed upstairs. 

I am never going to have a family of animals that love each other and sleep together but they do sometimes sniff noses and mix briefly when supervised.  It's up to the cats if they want to mix but it's easy for me to separate them as my cats both became house cats once past the age of 10 and they just like to sleep upstairs most of the time.