Hello! I got an emotional support puppy in April, and shortly after a new roommate moved in with an emotional support kitten. My puppy is a little chihuahua, almost four months old now. The kitten is three (?) months old but almost twice his size. We've introduced them to each other and after a few tries they began to warm up to the idea of being roommates. Now they're close friends; the kitten will cry at my door in the morning to play with my puppy. They romp around together, and for a while the play was going well with no signs of aggression.
The first red flag was when the kitten started exhibiting some mild toy aggression. He selected one mouse toy that we would growl at anyone if they tried to take it or got close to him while he had it. That protective behavior extended to a second toy. Then, this morning, he stole my puppy's bone. This was a normal occurrence, so I didn't think much of it until he began growling and swiping at my dog when he tried to continue the "play." So I took the bone from him and gave it back to my dog. When the kitten tried to steal it a second time, my dog was the one who got aggressive, and I had to seperate them and revoke the bone entirely.
The kitten will also growl around food, whether it's his or my dog's (I don't allow him to eat my dog's food and will put it up on the shelf when my dog is finished, but sometimes I forget and the kitten gets to it). My puppy has started to show signs of aggression around his food as well.
Their play has ALSO started to get rougher. The kitten used to scratch my puppy's tummy a bit, but he's now equipped with claw caps. Still, I noticed two fang marks on my dog's neck. And my dog doesn't seem to understand which cat sounds mean the kitten is being hurt; he's started to bite and pull on his ears, causing the poor guy to cry out. When my puppy bites me and I "yelp," he always immediately stops, but for some reason he doesn't stop when the kitten cries until either I intervene or the kitten gets away from him.
Obviously, resource guarding is a red flag. I grew up with dogs, so I have experience with handling and training a puppy, but I know next to nothing about cats (and, unfortunately, neither does my roommate). Any tips or information to help me manage this situation and keep both animals happy and safe would be greatly appreciated!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/bt2wgy/advice_for_housing_a_puppy_and_a_kitten_together/
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