Introducing kitten to Germans Shepherds question. - Page 1

Well we adopted an 7 week old kitten. She is a really sweet cat. We have two German Shepherds, that we have raised since they were babies at about 8 weeks old. Baily is 5 years old and Tagan is about 2 1/2. They are both really good dogs. We have never owned a cat before and the dogs really haven't had an oppurtunity to be aquainted with any cats. There has been an occasion or two when we were in the front yard and a ferral cat would walk by and the dogs would perk up like they wanted to chase it and I corrected them and then they went on with their normal business and left the cat alone. I have interduced the kitten and the dogs to each other numerous times over the last week. The cat stays in the kennel while the dogs are in the house and I've also introduced them outside in the backyard while the dogs were in their kennel. At first there was some general curiosity, but no excitement, no barking, whining, or fixating. Just sniffing and that was about it. The cat hissed a couple of times and the dogs didn't react to it. Now the dogs don't show any interest at all, not even curiosity. It's almost if the cat isn't even here. So far everything is good, but I know we need to move on to the next step.

I'm trying to think of the best, safest, and most positive way to introduce the dogs to the cat outside of the protection of the kennel. I wonder if they would react the same way? If any of you with expeirence in this matter have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Thank you
Jamie

For me its usually been the other way around with a puppy coming into the house and getting taught his/her place by the resident feline, then any kittens who came into the mix had an already 'cat broke' dog to work with.

So much can happen so fast and when you're talking the size difference between a GSD and a 7 week old kitten, all it takes is a second and you have tragedy.  The dog might not even MEAN to do damage, they just might not understand how delicate their new family member can be.

One situation I can caution you STRONGLY against, is any introduction or interaction that is both dogs and the kitten at the same time.   The dogs can turn on that 'pack mentality' instinct like a switch and even if one or both has to date ignored the kitten, they end up goading each other on and then its 2 vs 1 and the kitten is going to loose.   

The biggest problem with kittens vs an older, dog savvy cat is kittens will run, dart, hiss, all those fun things a rabbit does and it makes them seem more prey than an older cat who stands their ground.

My introduction method when I recently had kittens to my two GSDs was to set up the kittens in one room of the house that was there safe den.  Then everybody sniffed through the door.  Gradually there was closely supervised 'visitation' from our older bitch with the kittens having places where they could quickly escape if they felt stressed.  Now my bitch took to them like a small litter of puppies and she mothered them and still mothers them but she was raised with cats from from 12 weeks of age forward.

My male who is younger and did not see a cat until he was 5 months old, sees them as self propelled chew toys.  He whines and has keen attention on them and if they run he chases.  If they hold their ground and ignore him, he'll sniff em and ignore them.  Still, I NEVER leave him unsupervised even for a second with the cats and what is WORSE, if he and the bitch are out together and a kitten catches his attention, it will bring the bitch into the mix and then, as I said up thread, they go 'pack mentality' and try to corner the cats.

I guess what I am trying to say is you might never be able to completely cat proof your two older GSDs.  They do have prey drive, kittens in particular move and act like prey and all it takes is one quick bite and its tragedy.   I would do closer introductions one on one, be ready to intervene if necessary, hope and work for the best but be prepared that everybody needs their own 'time out' spots.  Patience, patience, patience and never take anything for granted.

make sure cat has escape route....cat house, low clearing couch, keep dog on a leash...establish cat as authority figure, it's YOU, than CAT, than DOG...

I did by having dog bowls with food offered to cat first, and making dogs sit while cat (who are always curious) sniffs their food, licks whats in there, blah blah, dogs are released to eat only after the cat is done investigating....hence the picking order....

outside my dogs will behave well unless cats stir things up, like when cat gets all frisky and decide to run up to the dog, smack it and than run up the tree....dogs will react to it and will try to chase it, u will have to stop it...it will happen i promise you that...my dogs been around our cat for 6 years and once in a while cat gets all worked up, riles up all 3 dogs and than take off across the yard, and than wonders why are they chasing me...dogs are just reacting to the energy...so dogs will have to be corrected...

but so far sounds like you are on a right track....

also...just a recommendation, kittens have a short period of time when they are fearless, so take it to your advantage, take them for car rides, give them bath (I washed mine every Sunday for 3 months, cat now loves water and we can do a bath as ofter as needed w/o shredding shower curtains and us) anything u can think of do it and do it now...after that anything new will be a challenge....

Keep the kitten/cat as an indoor pet.
The dog's are less likely to view it as a prey object if it lives in the house 100% of the time.
Outside it is just another animal romping around tempting the dogs.
This isn't 100% foolproof, but, the odds are in your favor by a bunch if the cat is an indoor pet.

I would be very careful. I have 2 GSDs that live with 2 cats and have lived together for over 3 years and if given the chance my female would eliminate them if I wasnt present. My male can tolorate them but if you get the two of the dogs together than they feel its prey. Take caution, it only takes a minute and one of them can snap a neck like that.

It sounds to me like your dogs will probably do pretty well with the kitten.  If your dogs know the down/stay command very well then probably the best thing is to introduce each one to the kitten individually in one room.  Take one dog, have it do a down stay in a room, let the kitten loose in the room, let the kitten do whatever the heck it wants too, maintain direct supervision, make sure the dog stays in a down position until the kitten feels more comfortable and you know that the dog is being gentle.  Don't correct or force the kitten in any way, even if it smacks the dog.  alternate the dogs in the room with the kitten the first day.  If everything is going well, then try both dogs in the room with the kitten, both dogs should again stay in a down position.  This will help acclimate the kitten and dogs until they are more familiar with each other.  Since the dogs were not raised with cats I would not let them be with the kitten unsupervised at any time until the kitten is 6 months old. 

Sadly I currently don't own a cat, so my two youngest dogs (both mini-doxies) have never seen a cat.  I'm taking a kitty hiatus until I get a bigger place and I can afford to buy a good russian blue.  My last cat was a russian blue and she was the very best cat I have ever owned (and I've had a lot of cats during my life)
In my life I've owned 3 GSDs who I obtained when they were 1 yr or older, none of them were introduced to cats before I got them.  Each of those dogs were properly instructed in how to treat a cat nicely by my own cats who were very good teachers.  I've never, ever owned a dog who did not learn to respect cats very quickly. 
My current oldest GSD was raised with kittens, and kittens are his absolute favorite thing in the whole world.  He desires to be the mother of all kittens.  In the past I had a couple litters of siamese/balinese kittens, my old boy was their devout protector and nanny.  He shared all the mother duties with their real mom (except for nursing) and he would not allow any of my other cats or dogs around the kittens when they were very young, not even the kittens' own father. 

Here is a pic of my old boy when he was younger and one of my past cats (normally my cats were not allowed outdoors, I snapped this pic when my kitty decided to hang out with her best dog friend in his dog house)

Thank you all for your advice. I haven't braved up and tried anything yet. I figured for right now we have a pretty good set up and there is no rush. I'm going to give them another week or so. I'm not so worried about my female. She loves babies of all kinds, rabbits, farrets, puppies, or what ever. She would probably try to protect the kitten more than anything. I'm mostly worried about my male. When he is around puppies, you can see in his eyes he doesn't like it. He just tolerates them and tries to keep his distance as much as possible. We used to have a problem with him fixiating on small barking fluffy dogs during training, but haven't had much trouble with him fixating lately. He is still training, but is doing very well. He is absolutly perfect at the down stay and knows that I'm the pack leader. He just has a look about him that is very mysterious and you never quite know what he is thinking. I had a little trouble when he turned 10 months old. He is a lot more dominant than my other dog or any other dog I have ever had. He could of have turned out to be an out of control dog, but I seeked help from professional trainers just in time, plus I became a Ceasar fan and most of his training is actually raising and letting him know that what I say is what goes and there is no other way. Once he understood that, he became a lot more submissive and the older he gets the better he gets.

The Leave it command is crucial here. An e-collar is great with dogs that really see the kitten as prey but that doesn't sound like yours. Totally agree that indoor only would help as well. Just got a rescue husky who moved in with our 4 cats (1 is a 14 week old kitten and fearless as he's had a foster GSD of mine to rub all over). He goes into avoidance with one cat who is just mean and will smack him when he's sleeping. Really wants to play/chase our oldest cat who is the most dog savvy (no idea why) and ignores our medium sized oriental. With the kitten I've only just started letting him near it and yesterday he was avoiding/leaving it just fine and suddenly went for a snap at it. Correction and crate (which he hates). Probably will start using an e-collar on him when the cats are out. I never leave them unsupervised except when he sleeps in the bedroom with us with the oldest cat and we are asleep but the cat has the bed and he has the dog bed. It can really happen in a split second so I always introduce slowly (we've had the husky 3 weeks and just yesterday did contact introduction). Sounds like you are doing everything right.

Edited to add: I also use the command Mine when I am holding a new to a dog cat or kitten repeatedly. I also use this with toys as all the toys belong to me. They get the connection quickly. If they can leave MY toys alone they can leave MY cat/parrot/food alone too.