How long did it take your pup to get used to cats?
(I’ll preface this by saying I know it depends on breed, prey drive, the cat, etc. I’m just interested in generalities)
I have a 15 week old Bernese Mountain Dog, and a grumpy 13 year old cat. When I got my pup, I had 2 cats, but one unfortunately died a month ago of very sudden kidney failure. Doubly unfortunate, she was the cat who was great with the puppy. She was teaching him boundaries and was hanging out in the room with him and he was getting used to it. But now it’s just him and Mrs. Grump, and she can’t stand him. Of course he thinks she is just a really fun squeaky toy and it’s all a game.
The cat has lots of cordoned off space (2 floors), and I’m doing lots of behavioural work and positive reinforcement with the pup. I’m just wondering if I’m looking at months or years of this kind of interaction where he doesn’t read her moods.
Posted Jun 7, 2019, 11:35 PM UTC
My pup will be 6 months on the 15th and yesterday I found her and my cat snuggled up together in her bed. There they were with their paws around each other, the cat attempting to groom her, while she pawed at his face. Finally the cat(Figaro- Figgy) decided he didn't need to groom her and instead both fell asleep.
It was just about the cutest damn thing. However, the 8yo dog was a bit jealous. Figgy is his besty and he's quite protective of the pup so he ended up putting his head on top of the both of them. 😂 That turned into "let's play!" and the dogs tag teamed the cat.
It really depends on the cat and dog but generally speaking, in my experience, the cats warm up to the pups when they are older. When this pup was very young they wanted nothing to do with her. As she has gotten older they don't mind her near as much.
Another story for you... We had a dog who was the abondoned kitten daddy. In our area there are tons of abondoned kittens every year. (Spay/neuter your cats people!!!) This dog would stand over the infant baby kittens protecting them while they crawled over his paws. When I would go to get one of the kittens to bottle feed them he would follow us making sure the kitten I had was fine while trying to still manage the other ones. Back and forth he would go from checking on me and infant kitten to standing over the other infant kittens. It was so funny and sweet. From the moment we brought those infant kittens in the house was if he said, "MINE!". Never before or since saw a dog adopt kittens the way he did. He was a good boy! 💖🐾💖
Oh god kitten daddy 😭😭😭 that’s too precious!