I know this is a long post so Tl;Dr: my dog is seemingly aggressive towards cats. She has been in the same room as my fiances cat multiple times, and theyve even been on our bed together for an unkown amount of time while we've slept. It's hard for me to look past her aggressive behavior though and commit to trying to introduce them. What should I do?
I have a dog named Zoey and my fiance has a cat named Nina. I adopted Zoey when she was 2 or e years old from my local shelter. They told me she had most likely been abused and was definitely not socialized in any way. I went ahead and adopted her anyway as I felt a very strong connection with her. She's a wonderful companion that my fiance and I love immensely. She's gotten over her fear of people and gets along very well with my moms 2 dogs, but her fear(?), instinct, jealousy, idk what it could be towards cats has never gone away.
Our pets are separated 24/7. Nina gets the bedroom and bathroom and Zoey gets the living room and kitchen. Nina is a pretty solitary cat so she enjoys having the bed and high spaces all to herself. At night Zoey sleeps with us in the bed and Nina is in the bathroom with her bed, litter box, etc.
Lately my fiance has been leaving doors open, which is incredibly nerve wracking because I have intense fear of my dog killing her cat. Every time they have been in the same room together I have been caught off guard by the restraint(?) that Zoey shows. Idk if she's used to Ninas smell or what but Nina has openly walked around the living room (even right in front of Zoey!) and nothing has happened. The most recent time Zoey was sitting on the couch and Nina walked right in front of her and Zoey just looked at her as I scrambled to catch her.
There was a morning a few months ago where I woke up to find Nina asleep on one side of the bed and Zoey on the other side just staring at me. I have no idea how long they were out there together.
Over this past month I've been trying to see if they can be in the same room together. I'll walk around the living room holding Nina or sit on the couch petting her and Zoey doesn't seem to mind that much. But last weekend I told my fiance to go out on the couch and pet Nina and Zoey acted in a way that reminded me of when I first got her. I sat in between Zoey and the two of them and Zoey kept pushing into me, eyes wide refusing to look away from Nina. If I tried to get her to look somewhere else she would resist me and just kept pushing and staring.
I can't tell if this is jealousy, fear, desire to protect, aggression, or something else. If Zoey does not want to be around Nina I have no desire to force her but since they have been in the same room before I've been wanting to see what happens. After last weekend though I am really hesitant to try again. A few years ago my mom insisted on Zoey meeting her cat Hobbes. My mom sat on the stairs holding Hobbes in her arms. She acted the same exact way as she did last weekend and when she got close enough (at my moms insistence) she tried to bite him!
I am so afraid of something happening to Nina that I don't want to try again. Shes gotten into 2 fights with one of my moms dogs and it was a real challenge to break them up (neither of then got hurt). Im so worried that if she attacks Nina I wont be able to stop her before serious damage is done...
Should I keep trying or just leave it alone? Would our vet maybe be able to help us introduce them?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/c8bato/introducing_a_cat_and_dog_please_help_us/
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