Introducing Dogs into a cat house Vs. Cats into a dog house

Hi everyone

I was just after a bit of advice/ any experience any of guys might have had with introducing dogs into a cat house or cats into a dog house.

Having neither a dog or cat of my own yet, i would one day like to have both cats and dogs (though not for a while yet!) and just wondered if anyone had any advice as to which would be best the way to do it.

Is it easier to introduce kittens into a dog house, or pups into a cat house?

Well I introduced a pup into my house where we have 1 cat & it took the cat about 2 weeks to be comfortable around the pup. It has worked well & the cat is clearly the dominent boss - which looks quite funny as the pup has now grown much bigger than the cat, but they get on fine - not sure how it works the other way round.

I had cats first, so both dogs were introduced to them as pups, We did have an older dog we took on and she hated the cats, to the point we had to re-home her.

I think if they are introduced at a young age you should be fine, we had a kitten when we got Diesel and they are the best of friends now, when Amy arrived she just accepted the cats were part of the family, took the cats a little longer but they all get on great now.

I have 5 cats and 2 dogs

Well I've done it both ways. I introduced Reah (adult then) into a cat's rule household, funny how quckly she realised they do rule too. Cats keeping up out of the way until they themselves decided to deal the cards, and got down to check her out, most dogs get confused when they see that the cats don't run.

But then I've introduced Kittens into the house after the dogs, and a spitty kitten who even all puffed out is only a few inches high.....(that looks really funny), can soon become bessie mates with dogs that tower over them.

Recently we had Elaineb here with Poppy, they were worried about Poppy's reaction as she isn;t used to cats, but before long the cats soon walked up to her nad sat doen next to her...........poor Poppy was very confused, but within no time she was ignoring them.

It's just a case of being vigilante until your sure they are friends.
On the odd occcassion that Cat and dog are not ''bessie'' mates, you will find that they can live together they soon get to realise that they both need to respect one another.

We've had that!

I've done that too, had kittens after the dog, Diesel knew they were babies, wanted to sniff but nothing more, kittens would react as above

They all love Diesel

I've done both too. Last time it was a puppy to two dog proof cats. None of my cats have ever run from dogs that they know & whilst my Queen is the aloof one, her brother actively encourages the dogs to play.

As long as the cat has somewhere safe that the dog(s)cannot get to they will learn to tolerate each other at worst.

Thanks for all the advice, seems that it can be done successfully both ways!

Ideally, *eventually* we would like to have 2 dogs ( a GSD and a Ute) and 2 cats.

We're only gonna start off with one pup tho, dont wanna take on too much at once!

Hi,
I have introduced adult cats kittens, puppies and young dogs. the main thing is to be calm it isnt going to happen over night. you wouldnt believe the amount of calls we get after 24/48 hrs they arent getting on. my cat uma takes about 2months to get use to anything new.

Uma (cat) was a yr old when i indroduced Suki (dog) at 8wks old. When suki was 8 months i introduced Arnold (cat) who was a 18months old. Uma was the most put out by arnold.

Vince (cat) was introduced at 8 weeks old when suki was nearly 2. and took to vince like he was her pup even to the point she produced milk. Arnold was fine uma hated him 2 and a half years on she still does lol.

The Michael (dog) 6 month old rescuse was introduced 4 months later

Each time a cage was used for 24 hrs to let them get use to smells etc. i use a gate on the stairs so the cats can get away if they wish. it also helps as dogs love litter trays. and i have bisc down all the time 4 my cats the dogs would pinch this.

Good look =)
ATD x

our persian just ignores kaiser, however kaiser just wants to play with her and will harrass her none stop all day long if we let him, zara the persian doesn't tell him off or anything she jsut grumbles and meows for us to get her. our other cat on the other hand hates him, and refuses to come in the house if he's there, but we know from doing puppy walking that it takes her about a year to feel comfertable with the dogs, and then she will atleast come in the house with them. but both our cats are rescue cats and neither had the best start so i think that could have something to do with it, wereas my friends cat's they've had since kittens are deffo boss over the dog

hee hee. we've done it both ways too. we had my old westie and introduced 3 kittens ( crazy yes!?) they hated him and spent most of the time puffed up with rigid xmas tree tails!! soon learnt to accept the dog and used to run round garden with him.

we then had our springer as a pup and again the cats hated him, but they had upper hand and were able to be up higher than him. a few hisses and spits and now they sleep together, clean each other.... really quite sad!! lol