Lurker needing some advice

[libbygrl109]

Hi. I normally post on H&F, but have been lurking lately because we are in the process of finding a dog to adopt. We lost our dog almost 6 years ago, and it's taken me this long to feel ready to adopt another. We have a cat, who peacefully co-existed with our dog while they were together, but I'm not sure how he will be with a new dog. He has had us all to himself for this long, and has quite the personality. When other dogs have been to our house, he's pretty much steered clear of them. How can I acclimate our cat and new dog? I've read some things online, but was hoping for personal experiences.

[purrbox]

We had our cat for 3 years before we got our dog. Our cat had never had much interaction with dogs before so we were pretty nervous about getting the dog, but everything worked out great.

I think a lot of it depends on the energy of the dog. Some dogs are super rambunctious and always on the move, so that could be stressful for the cat at first. Also, some dog breeds are more prone to chasing smaller animals. For instance, I've heard greyhounds can get a little carried away in chasing cats (this might not be true... I have zero experience with greyhounds and I'm sure this doesn't apply to all dogs in the breed).

As far as advice on acclimating the cat and dog, I don't really have any advice other than to make sure there are places for the cat to hide that the dog can't get to and don't leave them unattended together until a while after the dog has settled into his new home (took me a couple months before I felt comfortable with this).

Good luck!

[libbygrl109]

May 6, 2014 12:52:25 GMT -5 purrbox said:

We had our cat for 3 years before we got our dog. Our cat had never had much interaction with dogs before so we were pretty nervous about getting the dog, but everything worked out great.

I think a lot of it depends on the energy of the dog. Some dogs are super rambunctious and always on the move, so that could be stressful for the cat at first. Also, some dog breeds are more prone to chasing smaller animals. For instance, I've heard greyhounds can get a little carried away in chasing cats (this might not be true... I have zero experience with greyhounds and I'm sure this doesn't apply to all dogs in the breed).

As far as advice on acclimating the cat and dog, I don't really have any advice other than to make sure there are places for the cat to hide that the dog can't get to and don't leave them unattended together until a while after the dog has settled into his new home (took me a couple months before I felt comfortable with this).

Good luck!

Thanks! We plan to be hypervigilant with them when we are home. I'm just worried about when we're not. My guess is that my cat will hang out in his usual spot on DS's or our bed during the day, and the basement is his "turf", so I expect to find him there. I worry that when he gets up to go to the litter box or eat, that the dog will bark at him. We have 2 doors to our bathroom, so I may leave them both open during the day so he has an escape route to the basement if he wants it. The dog, a dachshund-poodle mix, will be crated when we're not home until we feel everything is OK to let him be free. He's got energy, but has been exposed to cats and we're told he gets along well with them.

My hope is that DH will be home much of the time now that his school year at work is almost over, there will be a lot of supervision for the two of them. And I'll be done with my work school year in June, so I hope to have everything be much calmer before we go back to work full time in September.