Hi everyone! We currently have two cats and a dog. We recently had a fourth dog, but unfortunately had to return him to the rescue (he was very fearful and bit three people in our home).
For a little info on our current pets... Zoey (dog) is ~5 years old. We adopted her last summer. She's grown an amazing amount in that time, but still has some issues (mostly on walks wanting to attack bikes and such). Ollie (cat) is a very easy cat. He likes to be around people, gets curious about zoey and sniffs her, has no issues around her but can get scared of unknown (be it new people or animals). He runs and hides. Last but not least is Nala, she was the first that I got around 5-6 years ago. She is the queen of the house. It took the longest with her, but she no longer hates Zoey. She does get very afraid around other dogs and is the one likely to attack (she hisses first, will not use her claws next, and then last resorts to claws).
Our house is two stories. On the second floor is a guest room that has a "cat gate" so that it's their safe room. They get fed in there, have a cat tree, and one of the kitty litter boxes. We also have a gate we can use on the stairs (currently not needed with Zoey) and either prevent the cats from getting downstairs or leave a gap that just prevents the dogs from going upstairs but cats can roam.
We've found a new dog that we are adopting. While I have read a lot about introducing a new dog, it's often phrased as just bringing in a new dog to a one dog or cat household. We obviously have more going on. We did have him come spend the day at our house last week, with our dog training coming by to help us judge if he was a good fit. He's two and very trainable. So while the cats mostly hid, we did have him view them from outside the gate some and was easily reoriented with treats.
What advice would you have for bringing a new dog into this household? Even if I've read it before, I want to make sure we give this the best chance possible of being a good transition - especially for our cats since a bad idtroduction to the home coule ruin their comfort levels forever.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/bvm1hy/adding_a_fourth_pet_intro_advice/
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