Here's some background:
Currently, my husband and I have one 4-year-old cat named Nala and no other pets. We have been wanting to get a dog for over 5 years and had waited until we were renting a house and had more room for a dog to run around. We have started the process of looking for a dog at some of our local rescues. One of the main things we are looking for is a dog that has already demonstrated good behavior around cats. Nala can be a little skittish and apprehensive to new things (people, places, objects out of place, etc). We have some concerns about how she will act around a newly adopted dog.
About two months ago, I had major surgery and my Mom stayed with us and brought her dog with her. The initial meeting did not go well between the dog and our cat. The dog was used to being around cats, however, those cats were okay with playing chase back and forth. He was never violent and thought the chasing and lunging towards the cat a game. Nala being skittish is not okay with being chased around and spent most of the month that my Mom and her dog were there hissing at the dog. I personally think that most of the hissing was her defense mechanisms kicking in because of his lunging and chasing scared her. We eventually kept them separated from each other to make the situation less stressful on our cat. They were both able to sleep in the same room at the end of my Mom's stay but our cat never was 100% comfortable walking around the dog.
Do you think this past experience with a dog may have ruined our chances of having a better outcome with a new do or do you think our cat will always hate dogs? We have done research and realize now that we should have kept my Mom's dog and our cat separated at first and let them get more used to each other. We also plan to section off the house at first to allow our new dog and our cat separate safe zones from each other. We just want to make sure we are being fair to our cat and that we don't get ourselves into a situation that either our cat or new dog is unhappy. Any insight on what you have done to help introduce resident cats to new dogs would be greatly appreciated.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/btwbnm/resident_cat_meeting_new_dog/
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