# Mature Cats with new Puppy



## LoJack

Just looking for any tips from anyone who already had cats when they got their puppies. 

We have two 1 and a 1/2 year old large male cats, and just got an 8 week old GSD.

The puppy is curious ... but the cats are being incredibly aggressive.  I forgot to mention ... they aren't de-clawed. The pup has been batted rather aggressively a few times.

I don't want there to be too much hostility, because the cats will have the size advantage for a very short while, and I don't want the dog to become fearful and aggressive with the cats as she gets older.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

--Tyler


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## RazinKain

Sounds like the cats are just laying down the 'house rules' to the newcomer. I bet it won't take long for your little land shark to get the message and fully respect the cat's personal space.


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## adamdude04

Don't force this. Allow the cat to have an escape route at all times. Let them do their thing on their own. 

I have two cats. Ones almost 3 the other almost 2. One female, one male. Didn't take long before they were nice. 

My cats have their claws as well.. Now Arlo is 10 months and they get their claws stuck in his eye lids, cheek, ect whenever he invades on their nap time. But he likes em an they like him!


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## Metalsmith

I agree. The best thing we did for mature kitty/puppy relations was to have pet/baby gates in two different parts of the house. 

One blocked the back door that had outdoor access for the cat and the basment, the other blocked a room that was specifically for the cat. This room had the cat's food and water, and litter box. This was really important to help the cat feel like his most important resources were PROTECTED and ALWAYS available to him.

The gates had smaller, cat sized portals in them. Like this:







Extra-Wide Metal Walk Through Pet Gate - Sale - Dog - PetSmart

You can also jerry rig a regular baby gate to have a cat sized portal. We did this with one of the gates we use.

Gates and escape routes do so much to lessen tensions!

Good luck!


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## LaRen616

I had 2 cats when I brought my GSD puppy home. They were 2 years old and 1 year old.

My cats were furious. Cats do not like change and it really depends on the personality of the cat if they will ever like the dog or not.

I have 3 cats now. In my case one of my cats absolutely hates my GSD and will lash out at him and the other cat tolerates him. My kitten loves my GSD, they are best friends, but she was raised with him, so she sometimes thinks she is a dog.


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## bianca

I have two 14 year old cats and they (only recently) tolerate Molly...for brief periods! I have a baby gate so that way they do have some space (half the house) to call their own. I can trust them all to be in the same room if I go into another area but only for short times, just not worth the risk to upset the grumpy old kittys


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## kiya

This is the easy time! I have 2 cats, one is 18 years old. He has been thru 5 dogs. He sets the rules with new pups right off the bat and earns thier respect quickly. He is very tolerant of head chewing unless he's not in the mood. My other cat is 11 and skitish, she is not tolerant of head chewing. She runs and pup chases, thats my big problem. I have a 0 tolerance for chasing the cat, fortunately the "leave it" command has begun to be effective. It's when the pups get older more serious issues can arise. Right now its more curiosity and since they are all young they should play somewhat nicely. They will probably help teach your pup good bite inhabition.


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## LoJack

Thanks guys ... at least I know its normal now lol


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## WarrantsWifey

We have a six year old female and a 4 month old female cat. They take their own time warming up but its nice to have an escape route as suggested. Our dogs aren't allowed upstairs, but our cats are. So if our cats are having any issues, they have the stairs and up to go to. There was plenty of swatting going on when Killian came home. Oh man, but he learned to slow down his approach. Now, he can walk up to them, sniff them, they growl, and he walks off. The "newness" has worn off, but he still likes to chase. Little monster. LOL!


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## Kay

We had our 2 cats when we got Sasha(they were about 2 yrs old). Sasha is 10 mths now...and she learned very quickly not to bother the cats. GSDs are not stupid; she caught on quickly that those claws hurt!

She did harass the fat, gentle cat a bit when she was younger, but he started to bite and she learned her boundaries there.

The "boss cat" still doesn't like her in his space, but none of the cats seek her out to fight. If she gets too close to the boss he smacks her and makes a angry meow and she just backs off. He doesn't use his claws on her, it's more of a "get away from me, I'm trying to relax peacefully here". Sasha respects him. She's gentle with the fat cat too... sometimes I catch them sleeping together. We have a kitten too (a rescue) and she's very gentle with it and the two of them play sometimes.

I used baby gates at first, and Sasha doesn't go into the basement; that's the cats space. I never really had to train the "no basement" thing, she just did it on her own. I definitely think you should get a baby gate or two and make a room (maybe the cat's favorite room) off limit to the pup for now. As somebody already said, cats don't like their environment being disrupted on them, and they probably see the pup as an intruder. In time they should at the very least learn to tolerate your pup. 

If you're worried about the pup hurting the cats, you can always make sure he/she is crated when you aren't around to supervise them.


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## Zoeys mom

Well my Zoe is stupid because she is batted and scratched daily and always comes right back for more tail wagging- she's a little dense with body language,lol My cat tolerates a few licks and then goes in for the kill,lol Zoe has only chased once she just mostly prances around like the cat is playing with her but the hisses and haunched back tell me otherwise


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## HankGSD

I am glad I found this thread because I was going to post something similar. Today, for the first time, my 4-month-old GSD, Hank, caught one of the cats and had him pinned down with his paws and had his mouth on Cocoa (not sure if Hank was licking or biting). Cocoa raised quite a vocal fuss but hadn't escalated to using his claws yet, which I think he would have done if he was actually being hurt. In any case, I was quite concerned about this and will be stepping up the "leave it" command whenever the cats are around. Prior to this incident, Hank had occasionally chased the cats if I didn't catch him in time, and if they were perched above him they would hiss at him and he would make an odd whine/bark toward them which sounded to me like he was begging for their attention. I am concerned that as he gets bigger he could actually harm the cats even though they both have claws. I had not expected to have this dilemma because I thought that if he grew up with them as a pup he would not try to attack them. Hopefully he was just playing today, but I don't know for sure.


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## Rerun

I'd recommend giving the cats an escape - either a baby gate, or an interior house door to the bedroom you have all their stuff in (litter box, etc) and install an inexpensive cat door in it. This will also keep the pup out of the litter box in the future. 

Correct the pup if he's bothering them too much and redirect him to a toy, etc. The cats will lay down the law, but don't let him get out of control with his curiosity.


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## stacey_eight

I'm going to cut and paste a response from another thread. My biggest advice is trim the cat nails and make sure they have a puppy-free zone to escape to.

Be very, very careful. We had a puppy that was a little too interested in our cats with claws. She cornered the cat in the kitchen and the cat swiped her face. It actually split her eye open so that the iris was bulging *out* of the eye. We had her to the vet in minutes, and luckily there was a Veterinary Opthamologist up in Fairfax that could fix it. Cost us around $3000. The eye recovered fine, but needless to say, we have been insane careful with Zeke. Thankfully, he has less drive than the Malinois did when it comes to the cats. The Opthamologist told me that just trimming the cat claws would have prevented the injury, as the claw wouldn't have the "hook" that cats get and would have grazed off the surface of the eye rather than tearing it open.


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## adamdude04

We have a baby gate. We removed the door into the spare bedroom and put in place a $20 baby gate. 

It's about 3' tall. Our two cats have no issues jumping the gate. Actually they'll jump the gate and hang out with the dog for awhile. I don't think a hole in the gate is nessesary. Cats can jump pretty high..


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## Tomclaw69

Metalsmith where did you get your dog?


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## Metalsmith

Hi Tomclaw69, I sent you a pm.


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