Barking at the cat

hi all,
we have two cats - one of them is older and wiser and simply swiped our puppy on his nose a couple of times and ignores him. As a result, although he has a respectful interested in her, he generally leaves her alone.
The other one simply hisses at him and avoids him but hasn't swiped him yet and runs away.
He's chosen the second cat to try and convince to play - he gets down in the front-paws-down-bum-in-the-air position and barks at her excitedly. She just hisses, which occasionally halts him for a second or two but that's about it.
She's finally (after a month) got to the stage where she will sit in the room he is in, and rush by him to get to her food, but she's still deeply annoyed at us that he's here!
So, the question:
How do I stop him from barking at her?
I tend to sout 'No, Loki' but I guess I probably shouln't do that - my trainer today said about them barking at people passing that if you shout they think you're just joining in. Should I just get his attention away with a toy or something?
Eventually I'd like for him to just ignore the cats.
Thanks for any help!

I have now introduced two puppies to my cats. My older cat (Murphy) is 11 years old and my younger cat (Abbie) is 2 years old. My first puppy (Tia) didn't bark at them, but did try and play with them. Abbie stood up to her - swiping at her and hissing, but Murphy just ran away.

We encouraged Tia to give them space, using sit and stay with her early on when the cats were going in and out. Tia soon learned to respect them.

Then we got our second puppy who barked at the cats, but in a playful manner, which sounds like your puppy. This confused the cats and at first they were running away! I intervened as soon as she went near them, asking her to move away. I did use a verbal 'ahah' with her when I couldn't physically get to her. She still gets excited when the cats are around, but she is much better and no longer barks at them.

The cats are definitely in charge and they are all getting along much better now!

Your puppy is still quite young, its important that you teach the word no or 'ahah' Shouting at your dog may encourage them to do it again, plus this is a form of punishment that does not have a long lasting effect.

To introduce them properly use your lead. That way you can control your do to a degree, and be able to manage the situation rather than risk an accident. Separating them will only increase the dogs interest level, and can damage the bond between you and your dog. I tried separating Tia from the cats at one stage and she just got more excited.

Teaching a sound sit stay with the use of positive reinforcement with some really tasty tibits will help. Then introducing the cat into the room and training at the same time.

Dogs and cats need to have their own area to chill out. Cats should have a safe place to get too, out of the puppies reach.

Hope this helps.

If you can, it would be far better to get your puppy's attentionbefore it sees or reacts to your cats. If you wait until the barking/chasing has started, then it's much more difficult to stop & the damage has already been done, as far as the cats are concerned.

Unfortunately canine & feline body language is very different, so a play-bow from a dog will not be seen as an invitation to play by a cat! Similarly a wagging tail on a dog is very different from the angry swishing tail of a cat! But they do learn from each other ~ it just takes time.

In order for the cats to start to feel more confident around the puppy, it is important that you keep your puppy as calm & quiet as possible when the cats are around. And make sure that the cats have safe places to escape to if they want to avoid the puppy.

Once the cats don't feel that they need to run past the puppy, but can walk calmly past, then the puppy won't be as keen to chase or bark.

I think, as your puppy grows up & calms down a bit, that you've got every chance of a harmonious household with the dog & cats living peacefully together.

Thanks folks.
The cats have all of upstairs to go to - Loki is only allowed up there occasionally and when caperoned.
The worried cat is currently sitting on the back of a chair gaing disdainfully down upon the puppy as he sits squeaking is toy madly! Today she actually came into the kitchen and waited for her dinner while he was there - a break through (thinking on it, I think I still havent fed her - oops) and he sat very patiently about 2 feet away and only woofed occasionally!
I'll try and distract him before he starts asking to play.
Thanks for the replies!