What a brilliant picture I laughed so much!! Thanks for sharing

Oh. My. doG.

Pagira is adorable! (Great name, btw.)

Wishing you all - canine, felines, and humans - every happiness together.


(You are now required to post regular photo updates on Pagira's progress. )

Ditto Meloncollie's post.


It's a bear with a tail and floppy ears!

Had to dig out this thread, as we have to introduce our two cats to our two puppies who are arriving in 2 weeks.

I have had cats and dogs before and all the introductions were quite painless - however, our current cats are very shy with strangers and would simply run outside if they saw the dogs and refuse to be introduced. Besides, the puppies will be 4 months old when they arrive and they were already 10 kilos at 12 weeks, so not really something tiny and fluffy any more.

So any tips what to do here for the very first time we bring the pups home? Sure we can just close the doors, but I'm afraid that the cats might panic when they cannot get out of the room. Same if we put them in the carrier boxes - or as they like to sleep in their boxes, maybe they would feel safe there? Or any other tips?

My vote is on the cat

I wouldnt shut them in their boxes because they may feel trapped. But you also dont want them to run away because they will never get introduced. What about if you put them in a room together and get something high so that the cats can climb on but the dogs wont. So the cats will feel safe but still able to see the puppies.

Do you have any way to separate the puppies from the cats where they can see each other but can't physically reach each other? For example, do you have some room you could put the dogs in with sliding glass doors or lots of windows or something? Because after the cats realize the dogs are not going anywhere, their naturally curious nature will bring them out to see what is going on. Keeping them separated (with short introductions) for at least a week is recommended, and then slowly introduce them to a common space. And I might try one dog at a time. In other words, start by bringing one dog into the cats' space for a few minutes and then the other one. And do this as long as it takes for the cats to not completely freak out. Conscious disregard (meaning they don't run away) is usually a good sign for cats. And it is best to let the "fights" play out as long as the cat is being the aggressor. The cats have to establish that this is their space and the puppies have to learn their place.

Good luck; it is going to be tough with two at the same time!

Thanks for the suggestions, we have some cat trees and counters where the cats can observe from. Guess we will have to close the doors of the room, even if it panics cats a bit, because otherwise they will just run out. The dogs are luckily also familiar with cats already so they are not too likely to bark or chase them around.

And yes, will be interesting with the two (four) of them.

This works really well, I noticed when we introduced Pagira to our 2 male cats

The Cats need to feel safe and take their time to investigate and realise your puppies/dogs are here to stay. Just do not make the mistake to take your cats directly to your puppies so that they can sniff eachother. My 4 year old daughter did this with one of our cats who got really annoyed and scared sh*tless. He hisses just when he looks at her.It took Tiger way longer to accept Pagira was here to stay than it took Sammy the other cat that took his time to deal with the situation. As for our neufi Pagira she just was curious about them and wanted to play(still does)

The tip that JLF gave you also works wonders, so they can see eachother and both be safe.

I can also advice you that you reserve a room in your place that your dog does not enter where your cats have just for them to sleep or play. We noticed we needed to do this for our cats to relax in our house. Pagira knows that the living room door stays open, so she can look in, but she is not aloud in. With time when I see the cats are fine with her and she with them, then I might change this..not sure yet

Wish you all the best!!!

What I forgot to add, I noticed that Pagira does not chase the cats in the house when one of them decides to leave the living room safe area, but she runs after them when they are by chance in the yard together. I feel that the cats do this on purpose..funny though!

Hope the next picture I post in the future will be them cuddling together

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I'm not too worried about puppies chasing the cats - they are currently living with one and even though they sometimes attempt to play with him, they usually leave him alone when he is not interested. And as there are two of them, they simply chase each other.

But I will take some pics of the introduction to post.

That would be great

Thats not a dog! Thats a bear!

*SQUISH*

So a little report if anybody is interested - didn't manage to take photos, as cats weren't at home when the puppies arrived. First days were quite painful, cats refused to come in and were meowin loudly in the hedge. Finally they got quite hungry so we managed to catch them and bring them inside - of course we didn't try to force them to get close to puppies, but just the sight of them was sufficient and I will probably have permanent scars on my hands, they were very frightened. We had to do this catching and bringin in part several times before they figured out that they only have to turn one corner to be safe (cat door is in the basement and we have a baby gate in place so dogs will not go upstairs).

They were very curious though, observing the dogs from outside through the french windows.

Luckily, as the puppies already lived with cats, the dogs have been behaving perfectly, which made the introduction definitely easier - no barking or chasing the cats, mostly ignoring or simply observing.

It took exactly one week, but this Saturday both cats were casually strolling around in the living room, about a meter from the dogs. They still sleep upstairs, but it is looking good, a few more weeks and they will probably move downstairs again for their naps.

And here is the result:

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This reminds me of a clip i saw a long time ago

This is how you properly introduce the new puppy ...



... and a very appropriate reaction from the resident feline.

well, it took a few months but I can say that our zoo is quite at ease with each other now

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That's so lovely and funny. Exactly the same way our dog rests her head on her carry-around slipper. I think it means, "This belongs to me."

My parents had a couple of cats and introduced a German shepard puppy. What they did was lock all three into a very small bathroom. Given that they all had to share the space and trapped situation they bonded very quickly. The cats also did not claw up the little German Shepard, which meant he did not return the favor by eating the two cats two years later when he was fully grown.