Just wondering how many of you had cats before getting a dog, and how long the "fitting in process" was?

Ive got 4 cats, adorable little beasts. 3 moggies and 1 siamese (all rescue) the siamese ADORES dogs..... to the point where its quite pathetic :D, a dog down the road comes out for a walk and Jerry is GONE..... straight over to him where they pounce and chase and generally have a ball.... its only a puppy though, and i think they both long for a playmate :)

My main worry is one of my other cats is a little skittish..... when i had my ds she refused to come near me for about 6 months... and she detests both the kids, to the point where we barely see her when they are up....., that said she also hates the 2 cats we got after her :rolleyes:, in fact she hates her sister too and has been with her, her whole life lol.  The other 3 have adapted fantastic and spend lots of time with us and the kids, but Yang had a very bad experience when she was a kitten (was abandoned on a train railway at 12 weeks old) and i think its really effected her trust instincts :( event though her sister Ying is absolutley fine, and probably the most loving of the bunch :)

Any tips for keeping the household (with the exceptions of Jerry who will be thrilled to have a puppy to play with :D) ticking over and adjusted in the first few weeks..... i know the rules for having 2 dogs (feed the older one first etc) would that apply with cats?

Unfortunately it is always much easier to have the dog first, and some cats that were first will never really like the dog, but will usually learn to tolerate it after some weeks. The most important thing is to have lots of escape routes for the cats, such as baby gates they can squeeze through the bars of or jump over, things to jump up onto etc. And all litter trays safely out of the reach of the dog. You won't ever get a dog to leave cat food alone so the cat food also needs to be kept where the dog has no access.

I have 35 cats and 12 dogs so they're all pretty used to each others species. :D

i had an old cat when i got my 7 week gsd and from the first day he wanted to chase the cat and she didnt want to be in the same room as him, they led seperate lives for 2 years, although i forced them to be in the same room  if i could with dog on a lead, but he just wanted to get to her all the time and would bark and be fixated with chase desire.
eventually the cat got very old and ended up living on a shelf in the end room and the dog would go in and sleep on the floor and lick her a lot. i dont think he ever meant her any harm as he had plenty of opportunities to kill her, but it was really a drag and i cant  see myself getting another cat while i have him!
hopefully i was unlucky or i handled it wrong and you will have more sucess!

When I got my poodle the cats were quite young(about 3). They were very apprehensive at first but have adapted by now(18months later). I found keeping the dog on a lead around the cats, and feeding the cats after he'd sniffed them helped them learn to accept him. If he ever gets to chase them I always make sure to stroke and feed them, after removing the dog to somewhere else, but I found the more confident cat is definitely happier with him. Of course every cat is different.

We have two cats who both came first. Our dogs are quite good with them, but sometimes they do get a little enthusiastic and the cats have to politely tell them off :-) The cats don't really venture into our back garden as our Malamute will chase them if they do. Generally though I would say we do have harmony with the cats and dogs in our house :-)

We introduced two 18 week old kittens a few months ago and we had a few spats but after a few weeks they all settled down and are all now best of buddies :D We let them really to get on with it and only occasionally had to step in :)

I have sold quite a few pups to homes with cats and they have been great.  I think the breed may make a difference regarding chasing.  The trick is to restrain the pup from chasing and having easy escape routes for the cats when pup gets too much.

I had a cat first when I got Copper, who believes all cats should be lunch :rolleyes:  However, I got him to understand that this cat was different and he didn't go for it - it took about 3 months.  They ended up becoming quite good pals (unbelieveably!).  Sadly when new neighbours moved in their cat bullied Harley and Copper (it was huge) and Harley moved to a house round the corner   I wouldn't attempt to have another cat now, it just wouldn't work out.

CG

I have always had cats and dogs together since I can remember, there has never been any trouble but is always a pecking order.
At the moment I have three large dogs and 3 cats, 2 moggys and a very very naughty siamese.

My eldest cat who is 18 wont tolerate my young boy and puts him in his place if he has too, my boy now knows to leave him alone, the two elder ones are gentle with all the cats except the siamese who they see as one of them, he obviously thinks he's a dog as gets down and rolls with them etc..even lets my clumsly 8mth boy put his paws all over him and be rough, seems to enjoy it.

Thinkk all species will get on eventually just takes time and understanding on all parts

I already had a dog when I got my kitten, for the 1st week or so I had kitty in the kitchen in a large crate which had her bed, food, water and litter tray, also stairgate across doorway and only had her out under supervision. Then we had the stairgate at the top of the stairs so kitty could go up but not the dog, but they actually got used to each other very quickly and although never best friends, lived together happily.

Just got a kitten no problems what so ever with my labs,my youung lab thinks kit is a pup he gets a full wash every morning ears,and bottom poor kit was wet through this am,however think it would be much more difficult introducing a older cat to a dog.

Sheila.

My cat is now 11 so was 6 when the pup arrived. He spat a few times and kept his distance. We made sure that the cat's routine didn't alter at all and he was still allowed access to the whole of the house while the puppy was restricted initially.
It was funny, the cat ignored the pup completely until it was asleep, then he would creep up and have a sniff all around !.
They are now incredibly close and every morning are cuddled up somewhere together - our bed, spare beds or basket. They even play together and chase around the garden !.
I think it's just important to allow the first one, whether cat or dog, to keep it's routine. It's also best to let introductions happen on their terms. No point forcing them to be together - shoving a puppy under a cats nose is asking for trouble. Obviously, make sure you are in the room with them when the first few meetings happen, but let them get on with it within reason and they'll quickly sort out what's what !.

Val

>Just got a kitten no problems what so ever with my labs,my youung lab thinks kit is a pup he gets a full wash every morning ears,and bottom poor kit was wet through this am,however think it would be much more difficult introducing a older cat to a dog.

I've never had a problem introducing cats to dogs, it is easier if the cat/dog already in resident is dog/cat friendly & far easier to introduce a young kitten/puppy to an older dog/cat. I even had a kitten reared by one of my bitches that thought he was a dog & his behaviour was very dog like, he never hunted & used to chase other cats & never ever ran from any dog, The only thing he did like a cat was he fought  like a cat using his teeth & his claws, he would often hitch a lift indoors round the neck of one of my passing dogs

Quite agree with letting things happennatural in a supervised situation.

LOL my current kittens scared the life out of my biggest dog, Rjj, he's never seen a cat before & when they hissed at him he ran & hid. They now play especially Reg the tom(well he was a tom until he had the snip)whose favourite game is grab the dog's tail !

it will be interesting to see how this works out at our house.  Oban has been here for two weeks tomorrow and so far has had a nose to nose with two of the cats.  One put him in his place and the other ran off, but after a good sniff.  The cat who thought Jet, previous Lab, belonged to her is the most put out and won't come near him.  Probably my hope that he will be like Jet and never eat the cat food, even when it is down on the floor and easily accessible, and not drool over the litter box, is in vain.  But he'd better darn well not chase them.  Right now he seems too much in awe of them to chase them.   I am putting the cats throught the ordeal of claw clipping just to be sure there are not injuries.  They don't usually get their claws clipped, being inside/outside cats, but I want them short for now.

I am sure it will work out well in the end, most cats either love dogs or keep out of their way and just tolerate them but you do find they are the heads of the house!

I've never had a problem introducing my cats to the dogs, one dog is 4 the other 14m, the kitten is 6m, we kept them separate for 4 weeks and gave the kitten the run of the house so he got use to the surrondings then we let them see the kitten while we held him and then we let the dogs in for 10 mins to see the kitten for a week, and every week after a bit longer, until they were use to each other.