Starting Off on the Right Paw!
If problems don’t immediately arise when you first bring a new pet home, it’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of security. But rather than waiting to see if things will go south, set your pets up for success from the beginning! In my very first Dog and Cat Chat, I helped Yvonne design a couple of setups to start integrating her new foster cat with the household’s resident dog.
If you want to listen to the episode, press play below.
Introducing the cast of characters
Sunny is Yvonne’s extremely friendly and enthusiastic 4 - 5 year old bull terrier mix. He has been the only pet in the house since he was adopted.
Enter Lizzy! The extremely sweet and agreeable 2 year old cat is currently a foster but Yvonne is certain she’ll become a full-fledged member of the family. It was love at first sight!
Should I foster? Introducing a cat into a household with an established dog.
When first considering bringing home a new animal, think a lot about how they will fit in with the current humans and pets in the home. In Yvonne’s case, with Sunny well-established in the household, she was naturally concerned about whether adding a cat into the mix was a good idea.
Our kids are four and six. So, in thinking about whether or not realistically we could adopt one of the cats who came to us, you know, there's just sort of thinking about personalities generally, like, do you hit it off? But also is the cat very, very skittish or highly anxious? Will being in a house with small children be an unhappy life for the cats? Will being in a house with a dog who was really friendly, but very enthusiastic, be an unhappy life for a cat?
Yvonne decided to start with fostering cats but when Lizzy came along they knew immediately she was the cat for them.
The current state of affairs: separate floors.
Yvonne and I talked a week after Lizzy came to live with them.Lizzy has the run of the third floor while Sunny is down on the first floor with access to the garden. Other than closed doors, the only barrier between them is a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor - it has been there since long before Lizzy came, to prevent Sunny from coming upstairs to the kids’ area unsupervised.
It’s a pretty ideal setup, where everyone has their own zones. Meetings between the two can happen while supervised and carefully orchestrated - which is great!
I really wanted to know her coexistence goals, where she saw them spending the majority of their time and what level of supervision she eventually would like to reach. It’s important to have that in mind before we start expanding territory and planning out those interactions.
I think the third floor would probably be kept [as her] home base, but ideally I would love for Lizzy to have the freedom to roam wherever she so chooses.
Meeting individual enrichment needs before bringing two animals together
There’s usually some prep work to do before starting to do setups with your pets. For Sunny and Lizzy, I really wanted Yvonne to focus on meeting their individual enrichment needs. Sunny spends a good amount of time snoozing and watching the world from his window seat. But Sunny is also an energetic, excitable pup - who sometimes runs at life a bit like a bull in a china shop - and Lizzy is a small cat.
When we’re bringing two animals together, I suggest making sure that their exercise and enrichment needs are met as much as possible individually. That way, when any behaviors come out once they’re brought together, they have a more appropriate outlet outside of their interactions.
Initial setups: ideas for starting out
Providing Sunny a way to regulate his energy is a good starting point. Since Sunny's a chase-y and jumpy kind of dog, we want to give him chase-y and jumpy opportunities within play so he’s less likely to do that when Lizzy’s around. A toy like a flirt pole is an excellent way to get those zoomies out before he’s spending any time with the much smaller Lizzy.
For Lizzy, who doesn’t seem all that interested in any of her toys at the moment, I suggested practicing having her move around the space. Brand new additions to the household come with a lot of unknowns. You’re not going to see their full behavior repertoire just yet. Using feeding stations to get her to go from one room to another and moving up and down on things will build her confidence and give Yvonne a chance to learn what her behavior is like.
Progressive steps: How can we start interactions?
My first suggestion for Yvonne involved adding a little bit of additional space management. With only one barrier - the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs - keeping Sunny and Lizzy apart, if Lizzy escapes the third floor, there’s not a lot keeping the animals from an uncontrolled, accidental interaction. With the addition of another gate at the top of the stairs, there’s another barrier preventing Lizzy from going further downstairs.
Sunny is a space-reducing animal and at this stage, it looks like Lizzy is a space seeking animal. With these types of interactive tendencies, I suggested a few variations on setup #1 - the cat is stationary (but elevated) and the dog is engaging in controlled movement around the space:
Feeding Lizzy at the top of the stairs behind the gate and Sunny hanging out downstairs somewhere not too close but where he can see her. This will give them a chance to get used to seeing each other but not really be in each other’s orbit.
Give Lizzy an elevated place in the same room for her to be present but feel safe while Sunny has food stations he can move between in the room.
Managing your expectations
In addition to giving you a plan to follow with your pets, my job as a coach is to be there emotionally for you as well. I always advise to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Just like I told Yvonne:
She is currently a foster, which gives you a little bit more wiggle room. Because wonderful cat that we know Lizzy is, if Sunny shows us - after we work a lot on this and make sure that we're giving them the best start that we possibly can - that he just can't handle it, then we'll have a plan for that.
If you’re thinking about adding a new animal to your family and want some ideas on how to start those first interactions and setups, you can be awesome like Yvonne and do one of these Dog and Cat Chats! Head over to praiseworthypets.com/chat to sign up!