Introducing Small Dog to Two Cats

April 7, 2017 11:40 AM

I've read a lot of the dog/cat introduction threads, and there's a ton of good advice. A lot of the advice seems to be written with the idea that the dog will be larger in mind. Folks with tiny dogs: does this play out in the same way?

Hey AskMe!

My gentleman friend and I want to introduce my dog to his cats this weekend. The specifics:

Dog - 7 year old rescued mini-poodle mix I've had for 6 years. 12 pounds. Very excitable when she first meets folks, but mellows out quickly. Has not shown aggression to cats she's met in the past (and when we see strays she really keeps her distance), but we're still going to keep her leashed and things when she first meets them and keep her barricaded if we go out. She can be really protective about her food and toys, though.

Cats - 2-year-old brothers. They are VERY skittish and nervous in general - startled by loud noises and kind of slow to warm up to new people. We will be meeting them on their home turf. They are about the same size as my dog.

We're definitely not expecting everyone to be besties from the start, and we'll be taking precautions. But I guess I'm mostly just wondering if the dynamic of a dog meeting two cats that are the same size at it plays out differently. Thanks, AskMe!

posted by superlibby to Pets & Animals (8 answers total)

Well, I just spent a month taking care of a 7lb dog (chihuahua) while also having three 12-lb cats in the house. After a few days of investigative growling and sniffing, they all claimed their own territories in the common living space and never really bothered each other. Some tips:

- Start out by keeping either the dog or the cats in a carrier when you first meet. If you are meeting in the cats' home then the dog goes in the carrier, vice versa if meeting in the dog's home. Put them together in a room and let them sniff each other through the carrier.

- If that goes well, let them loose in the house ONLY UNDER SUPERVISION. It's helpful if the cats have somewhere to go where the dog can't get, such as on a cat tree or a room that is blocked by a baby gate in the doorway (you can get a cheap one).

- Highly recommend you make it so your litter boxes aren't accessible to the dog. Dogs love to snack on kitty "almond roca" (GROSSSSSS). We dealt with this by putting up the baby gate in the doorway of the room with the litter boxes.

- Also recommend feeding them separately, like in different rooms with doors closed, so there isn't any food stealing.

tldr: my cats handled living with a tiny yappy anxious chihuahua and didn't manage to murder him even though he was smaller. Anything is possible!
posted by joan_holloway at 12:16 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Oh, because I forgot the most important rule: some photos of the friends. Also, introductions will be taking place a week from today, so not this weekend.
posted by superlibby at 12:26 PM on April 7, 2017 [4 favorites]

I did this with a 6 lb dog and a 17 lb cat, and I'd recommend introducing in a way that prevents any possibility of physical contact... I did it with one of those freestanding fencing things but stretched out to divide a room in half, and made sure the cat could get out of the room if he wanted to. One of us stayed with the cat, and one with the dog, and we fed them like that, getting the bowls closer and closer to one another, but still on opposite sides of the fence. This was over the course of many days. It worked really well, to the point that the cat never got aggressive with the dog and the dog ended up dominating the relationship... they would even groom one another.
posted by Huck500 at 12:26 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

So our dog is taller than the cats, due to his long legs, but he's only a 15 lb mutt. Our Chloe is a 19 lb behemoth who did not take kindly to the interloper when he joined the household. She swiped at him once when he first arrived and it has taken him YEARS to get over it. YEARS. He was terrified of her for the longest time, gave her a wide berth when they were in the same room together, wouldn't even jump up on the couch if she was looking at him from the other end. But just the other day, they were both snuggled up together on his big pillow/bed.

So, just an anecdote that even if they don't get along at first, all is not lost.

Do the introductions slowly, let the cats investigate on their own. Try not to make a big deal out of it. Just go about your business, with the dog staying with you at all times, and let them figure out how they want to proceed. It'll take AGES. Make sure they always have an avenue of escape, and don't try to pet them when they're sniffing the dog. It'll scare them.

Good luck!
posted by cooker girl at 1:17 PM on April 7, 2017

Best answer: I don't think the initial introduction is all that different: smells first before any physical encounter, then adjacent rooms, etc.

Long term I think the main difference from advice about larger dogs is that it's far more difficult to construct a barrier permeable to cats that the dog can't get through. Usually the wisdom is to make sure the cats have a place to go the dog cannot reach, and it's imperative that the cat box and feeding area remain free of dogginess. In the other direction, the cats usually don't even care about dog food, and are not all that into sleeping in doggy smells,

But when your dog is the same size as a cat, you have to use climbing challenges to keep the dog out of cat areas, you can't just have a lidded cat box and hope the dog does;t go looking for buried treasure. I had a trunk-style catbox holder with the opening facing the wall, so cats could climb up and over the trunk to get in and out, but my non-jumpable pomeranian would not be able to follow.

My favorite moment with cat sized dogs is if they are comfortable enough to wrestle. The dog is trying to play-bite the cat's neck in order to score points, the cat is trying for the hug with front legs, kick with back lags maneuver. Neither one has any idea WTF the other is trying to do and it's hilarious. Like one person playing football and the other basketball, all on a tennis court.
posted by buildmyworld at 1:23 PM on April 7, 2017 [5 favorites]

When introducing a friend's dog to my cats, it made a world of difference if the dog was tired out from a long walk or something first. The excitability seems to put cats on edge like whoa.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:15 AM on April 8, 2017

Another good tip is to swap the cat's bedding into your house (sofa or wherever the dog likes to nap) for a few days beforehand, so the smell becomes familiar to the dog, and ideally associated with calm times.
posted by tardigrade at 11:02 AM on April 9, 2017

Response by poster: Update: Did introductions this weekend! All the friends did great - they're not going to be besties, but everyone gave each other a pretty wide berth. Dog was REALLY into learning more about cats at first, but eventually left them alone. No bites/scratches/super-traumatized pets. I'd call it a success for a first time out. Dog's mind was blown by how high the cats can jump. Cats mostly seemed to be thinking, "What's with the weird and ugly cat?"
posted by superlibby at 1:26 PM on April 17, 2017