Hi everyone

I will be getting my first whippet puppy (Cashie) in about 6 weeks (he'll be 8 weeks old) and would appreciate any advice on the best way to introduce him to my two resident cats.  One cat is about 3 and very feisty, the other is ancient, I don't know exactly how old he is but at least 14.  They are both big cats and will be considerably bigger than Cashie when he arrives!  I realise that whippets are sighthounds and are born to chase anything that moves, but I hope that early socialisation will solve the cat problem.  The younger cat will, I think, stand his ground and probably swipe Cashie on the nose a few times if he's disturbed.  The older cat is slightly more timid but tends to spend most of his time asleep under the television, and I doubt he'll even notice a puppy!

I have a large crate for Cashie for nights until he is reliably house-trained, so I wondered if it would be best to confine him to the crate and let the cats have the run of the room for the first meeting, or is there a better way to introduce them?  I am keen to train him not to chase cats as there are a lot in our neighbourhood.  If anyone has any suggestions I would be extremely grateful for advice.

Yours

Mary-Caroline

Hi, congrats on your new pup - many years of love and devotion to come! :-)

Whenever I have introduced pups to cats, I have allowed the pup to be free but been close by and watched like a hawk and tried not to interfere too much...HOWEVER...I have ensured that the pup does not approach the cat too closely and given a command word to move them away (ie "leave") and this has always been my command word for all my dogs and it means stop instantly what you're doing! :-)  My 2 staff pups learnt this from a remarkably early age.  My friends with their black lab pup use the word "stop" with the same results.

The cats will make it abundantly clear that they do not like the pup! :-)  This may go on for days or weeks, depending on your cats and just allow them an escape route at all times, generally "up" somewhere, and don't attempt to pick them up and place them near the pup, they will eventually come round.

So long as your pup learns not to approach the cats early on and is not allowed to harass or chase them, which I believe can be taught, then they will in all likely hood tolerate each other pretty well.

My 2 pups respect the cats enormously (and even grovel down to them :-)) and do so much want to be friends with them, but know not to push things too far!

Good luck with Cashie, I'm sure you'll be just fine...

I have a 15 month English Pointer.  I also have a 13 year old cat.  My cat was the only pet until the Pointer.  The first few weeks I scrambled to keep them apart to avoid accidental injury.  Slowly I allowed them to be together more and more.  Really the cat is the boss in this house.  But, I was cautious to never let the pup get the cat cornered on level ground.  In our case, the Pointer is obviously much taller than a cat.  Even today, if I think there interaction is getting a bit too intense, I just casually pick up the cat and place him on a higher level than the dog.  Things normally settle right down.

For a while, I thought this was never going to work.  But, it does with time.  We do crate our Pointer when we leave the house so I don't have worries about it when we are away.

I have a fourteen year old cat ( actually thats not ancient these days for cats), who is fit and quite bossy. I also have 2 afghans, Delilah( 2) and Zorro(6 months), so have had experience of introducing two sighthounds . The cat had already had experience of a rescue afghan who was already cat friendly, so I suppose that makes a difference.
I tend to introduce my pup to the cat with pup on a lead if i can, and allow pup to sniff, lick the cat etc( and viceversa) try and make sure the cat doesnt run, which provokes a chase response. Pretty soon after this, i allow them to just get on with it, under supervision. The cat stands her ground, and BOTH dogs know that the cat is boss, and that claws hurt! Although Zorro still gets excited when the cat is there, its because he wants her to  play. The other day I caught him offering her a toy to play tug with him, and looking most disappointed that she wasnt taking him up on it! The cat and the dogs will all lie in their beds together, and the cat washes the dogs faces.
So sighthounds and cats can live in harmony! ( but they will chase other peoples cats still!)
Cathy, Teabag, Delilah, and Zorro

Thanks to everyone for the advice.  I think the cats are going to be in charge, but I will make sure that introductions are slow and careful.

pinklilies - I was relieved to hear that your pets all get on so well.  I didn't mean to imply that all 14 year old cats are ancient, I'm glad yours is fit and healthy and I hope he stays that way for a long time.  However the average lifespan for a cat is 12 years, although one has to take into account road accidents etc.  My 14 year old looks about 100, but he is very happy as long as he has a bed and unlimited food.  As a vet nurse, I realise that this culinary approach is perhaps not the most sensible medically, but as we only acquired him at 12, and he sadly has early stage renal failure, I decided that he could have pretty much what he likes in his twilight years!

I saw a client at our surgery recently with a 23 year old cat who was extremely sprightly!  Most heartwarming.

Regards

im surprised that 14 is average for a cat.....it must be that all those  i know had good lives! most of ours died aged about 20!

My two (mother and daughter) both made 18 ...