Just brought in a new puppy to your family? curious whether your puppy and cat can get along? Well, they can! Heres how to have a stressfree seamless transition to introducing a puppy to your cat!
Whats Experience Does Your Cat Have?
When introducing a puppy to your cat it’s first important to fully understand what past experiences your cat has had with either a puppy or dog.
think about when guest come over
Does your cat go greet the guest or does your cat hide or hiss at your guest?
Knowing how your cat behaves around guests will help you understand how to properly introduce your puppy to your cat.
It’s important that you make the introduction process very slow and positive for your cat swell as your new puppy!
Puppies And Cats
Puppies are usually curious and playful towards anything new because they have no prior negative experience, it’s important that we continue to provide your new puppy with positive experiences when introducing a puppy to your cat!
Remember that puppies are always learning and it’s our job to continue to mold our puppy’s experiences making everything positive.
Introducing A Puppy To Your Cat
Now that we have a bit of background information to understand how your cat may feel about a puppy and how puppies have no previous experiences let jump into how to introduce a puppy to your cat.
When Introducing A Puppy To Your Cat Guidelines To Follow:
-Have your puppy on a leash
having your puppy on a leash will first give you control over your puppy in the instance that you need to create more space between your puppy and your cat
-Have treats for both your cat and puppy
Remember you want the introduction to be a positive experience for both your puppy and your cat.
The best way to ensure your puppy and cat start creating a positive association with each other is by rewarding both your cat and dog near each other.
-Don’t let your puppy chase the cat
Puppies are little predators at a young age with puppies you want to manage what your puppy puts his time and energy into because the more your puppy practices a behavior the more it will become a habit!
Chasing is also a biologically addictive behavior for your puppy whether or not or puppy caches what he’s chasing.
So stop and prevent your puppy from chasing your cat by using the leash and some treats to redirect your puppy from chasing your cats
-Limit and monitor direct interaction
Since puppies are so young and are still are understanding what is good, bad and scary you want to limit and monitor the amount of direct interaction your puppy has with your cat.
Early on if your puppy has a negative experience with your cat (ex; cat scratches the puppy) your puppy may start viewing all cats as negative! To learn more about puppy socialization click here
-Feed at the same time
Feeding your puppy and kitten at the same time around each other will only solidify both your puppy and cat viewing each other as positive.
Set Your Puppy And Cat Up For Success
-Give your cat escape route
No matter how good your puppy and cat get along its always best to provide your cat with an elevated escape route your puppy can get into.
Luckily cats are great climbers giving your cat another world to explore higher up!
-Reward your puppy for paying attention to you
Puppies’ attention span is very short so anything that catches your puppy’s eyes like your cat will likely draw his attention away.
To combat this be sure to have treats on you and reward your puppy whenever your pup gives you his attention, this does two things, first, it teaches your puppy to focus on you and second it starts to teach your puppy to ignore the cat while building a positive association at the same time!
Conclusion
Cats and dogs can get along if properly introduced! Following these steps and guidelines will ensure that you have a smooth transition introducing a puppy to your cat! Remember cats and dogs are different animals and it’s our job to bridge the gap between these two different animals to create harmony with a puppy and a cat!
To awaken your dog’s true potential contact us here or Give us a call!
Receive your free dog training consultation and set your pup up for success!
