Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i am about at my wits end here, and i dont really know what i can do at the moment...i have a friend with several cats, and my boyfriend and i got a puppy back in june (shes about 5 months old now) and when i first brought her over, i held the puppy in my lap and the cats came up and investigated her (theyve never seen a dog before...they all live indoors) and did that over a period of time until i let the puppy down one day and one of the cats came up and put the fear of cats into the puppy...needless to say, now lexi (the puppy) is mostly afraid of the cats (unless she gets it in her to want to play with them) and knows to keep her distance when they hiss at her, but my real problem, is that 2 of the cats are mine...they stay here because my boyfriends mom wont let us have them at her house. we are going to get our own place eventually and im planning on taking my cats with me, but as it stands now, they cant stand to be around the puppy...i have scars from them trying to either swat the puppy or while they sit on my lap and launch off my leg to get away from her...the puppy goes around minding her own business and doesnt bother the cats but yet they still cant stand her and its been 3 months. i dont know what im going to do when we get our own place...should i start over and re-introduce them? i dont want to leave them behind...i try not to encourage the bad behavior but they wont give it up...anyway sorry for the long post. any help will be appreciated. thanks

When you move you should start over. Keep the cats in one room with food/water and litter box. Then slowly reintroduce them. Put the pup in the room and let the cats out. Eventually put the pup in a crate and let the cats go up and sniff the crate. Then after a month or so let the try meeting nose to nose.
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Jaime owned by
Mya the dog
and the cats:Crash, Moxie, Gabby and sometimes Tucker

thank you for your reply. that is what i had in mind, but wasnt sure if it was do-able lol...it doesnt help that whenever bullseye (the main one of mine who gets really upset) swats or growls at the puppy, our friend pets him and tells him its ok. we try not to get him to do that since ive always heard that consoling an animal when its doing things like that just reassures them that "yes, it is ok to be mean", rather than helps him to stop. so anytime the puppy walks by, he looks at someone as if to say "this is ok right?" and proceeds to hiss and swat...or he'll look for approval after hes done it. asphalt (my other one) is insanely shy and always runs and hides from the puppy, so ive never seen any outward aggression from him...so hopefully after we move, i can fix things.

Definitely you should start over. And definitely don't encourage Bullseye by telling him that's OK. In fact you should discourage Bullseye by using a shake can (soda can with a few pennies inside) or a squirt bottle (squirt water) when he acts hostile to the puppy.
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!