Are you adding a new cat or kitten to your household–and wondering how to introduce a cat to your dog? Like introducing a new cat to resident cats, it’s a process you want to take slowly so that everyone gets off on the right paw.
Even more than introducing the new cat to other cats, though, you need to make introductions between a new cat and dogs extra carefully. While there’s certainly the risk of injury to the dogs (including the real risk of a serious eye injury), the biggest risk and worry is of a dog attacking the new cat. At all costs, you have to be sure to avoid conflict.
Here are our tips for introducing your new cat to the dogs in your home, tips that worked wonderfully in our home!
Our Personal Cat-Dog Introductions
As our regular readers know, we’re a full family — with four cats and two dogs under the same roof. Our cats Linus, Inca, and Coco were already living with us when we adopted our dogs Tiki and Irie but, after the loss of our sweet Felix last year, we once again wanted to add a new cat to our home last spring.
On Valentine’s Day a year ago, we went to our local shelter — and returned home with little Lucky, a four-month-old kitten. We’d been looking for an outgoing kitten who wouldn’t be overwhelmed with our large family and felt that we’d found one in Lucky.
But we weren’t leaving anything to chance. Our dogs weigh 60 pounds each – and, at that time, Lucky weighed five pounds. (He has since ballooned up to a whopping seven pounds.) We took the process slowly, using the tips below.
Let the Dogs Know About the Kitten
Our dogs knew that we were bringing home a new kitten as soon as we stepped out of the car. Lucky was in his carrier so we let them sniff the carrier, which us a chance to gauge the reaction of both the dogs and Lucky.
The dogs were interested but not too excited. There was no barking, no growling, no raised hackles.
Lucky was interested and curious but he didn’t hiss or growl. Rather than move toward the back of his carrier, he stepped toward the carrier door to get a closer look at the dogs. It was a good sign.
Create a Safe Room
Before we left for the shelter, we had already created a safe room for the new kitten. We have a fairly large bathroom with a low window, perfect for Lucky in his first few days.
This gave him privacy from both our dogs and our other three adult cats. It also gave us the opportunity to evaluate Lucky’s eating and litterbox habits. During this time, we also worked to introduce the new kitten to our resident cats.
Satisfying Our Dogs’ Curiosity
Irie and Tiki were interested in this new arrival; every day, Tiki’s first stop, instead of the front door for her morning potty break, was the bathroom door to sniff beneath it to check and see if her new little brother was still inside.
Every time we left the kitten safe room, we made sure we had dog treats in our pockets. The dogs had the chance to sniff our hands when we left and we immediately rewarded them with a dog treat so they would learn that the scent of the new kitten meant good things!
After a few days, to let Irie and Tiki “meet” Lucky without a face to face interaction, we moved Lucky to our bedroom and allowed Irie and Tiki access to the now-empty bathroom. They were able to sniff to their hearts’ content without a face to face interaction.
At the same time, the dogs left their scent in the bathroom, helping to acquaint Lucky to the scent of the dogs.
Making First Introductions
After several days of these fairly impersonal introductions, it was time for a more personal greeting.
Before the meetup, we walked Irie and Tiki on an extra-long hike, fed them their breakfast, and waited until the dogs were already feeling a little lazy.
We brought each dog on leash into Lucky’s bathroom, one at a time. The calmer Irie was the first to enter the bathroom while Tiki was in the yard. This made it easier to manage Irie while, at the same time, judge Lucky’s reaction. It also left plenty of room in the bathroom so that Lucky had the opportunity to jump up and out of a dog’s way, if needed.
Irie politely sniffed Lucky then proceeded to sniff around the room, the litterbox, and his water dish.
Once we saw that she was calm, we dropped the leash and allowed them to interact under supervision. Soon, we brought in Tiki while Irie headed outside.
Tiki is a more excitable dog but we’ve trained her to lie on the floor while the cats have their meals. We put Tiki into the down command and she happily let Lucky come over to sniff her paws:
Soon we brought Irie back inside:
The introductions went wonderfully. Soon Lucky was fully integrated into our households — and today he’s often found lying side by side with his canine sisters.
Additional tips to introduce a cat and a dog
Dogs and cats can–and DO–live happily together in many pet households like ours. We love watching the interaction of our pets. Here are a few extra tips:
Remove food from the safe room.
Make sure the cat’s safe room has no cat food OR droppings in the litterbox before your dog arrives for a visit.
Give your cat a place to jump.
The safe room–and your entire house–should offer raised platforms for your cat to jump out of your dog’s reach.
Consider baby gates.
Baby gates can be an excellent way to keep a larger dog out of some rooms but, through a cat-sized opening, permit access by your cat or kitten.
Check out fountains.
Your new cat and dog can share a water bowl but cats love the freshness of water fountains. (Our dogs love it, too, so we bought an extra large fountain that they all share.)
Take all the time you need to safely and carefully introduce your new cat to your dog. Hopefully, they’ll be just like ours–getting along like (loving) cats and dogs!
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