Introducing NEW CAT to the DOG

I have some big news! There is a new family member and you'll never guess who or what it is. Ta-da! The kitty cat. This here is Cass the cat. He's an awesome cat but yes he is a cat. And what also do we have in our house? Yes, the other star of YouTube. Tula the poodle. She's used to being a only dog. She hasn't had to share the space for quite a while. So in this video I'm going to show you how I'm introducing our new cat Cassian to her dog Tula. Now I think the best way it is for you to do the same thing if you have a new cat coming into your house. Tula! Hi! What do you think about the cat? Are you looking to learn more about natural pet health and wellness? You've come to the right place. Click the link to subscribe to Veterinary So how do I go about best introducing Cass here to Tula? As with us people we all have completely different personalities. You don't always get along with everybody. Likewise with our dogs and our cats. But there's a number of things or steps you can take to at least potentially make this positive. Maybe they're not going to be best buddies but maybe they can happily coexist. First big overarching principle you need to be patient and you need to be slow. This is just a gradual slow introduction. We want to make it as positive as possible for Cass the cat and for Tula the dog. Likewise with your own animals. You need to start by giving your cat access to a dog-free area, a dog-free room, a dog-free sanctuary at all times. Cass the cat he has a dog-free area just so happens to be it's my office. This is all Cass's and he's fully set up and this is what you need to have in the room. First you want to make it a secure room. In other words there happens to be a door and it's all Cass's. Tula's not getting in there. Then somewhere up high where a cat can't jump out. Someone else can't get up and in. We want to have a ceiling and that's what we have. We have a door, a ceiling, a secure space so you can feel pretty safe and secure. You want to make sure that the litter box is in the room and there you have it. Cass's litter box away from the dog. Other basic life necessities, water, food, all here in the room so you can be in here, be 100% safe and secure and not be worried about the dog. Then cat-proof the room as much as possible. Just make sure you don't have things like poisonous plants or any plants period they can access and chew. Any human meds or something your cat can get into. Even think about what you do with the cords. Make sure they're tied up. Ideally you know somewhere where your cat can't you know wrap his neck around it or anything like that. Try to think safety first. When he's in here I shut the door and especially if I'm in here with him he is like the most trusting like the happy chill cat but it's not quite the same when he's out there with the dog. So how are we going to make this positive Cass? Cass figured this out on his own. The first day I came in and I couldn't find him anywhere. Cass has set himself up underneath my little standing desk. Got this little cubby hole underneath the monitor and he's up and away. He's secure underneath something and there he is. Hi kitty cat. The next three to four days you're keeping your pets separate at first. So Cass this was his first space for the first three days. Away from the dog somewhere where he could be totally comfortable as you can see he is. Knowing like this is his 100% safe secure little spot. That alone I think has made such a big difference because this is where he feels is like okay this is where I can be. I can be the cat that I am without worrying about the dog. Hello kitty cat yes. He's very darn safe and secure and obviously he also has an awesome personality and also know I mean he's got a great sense of smell. The dog has a great sense of smell as well as with the hearing. All their senses are so much more heightened than ours. So he knows that there's a dog next door. So but they're just initially they did it that first three days just through the door. I mean they could smell in here. You don't need to do anything else. Initially you're just wanting him to be calm, secure, comfortable. When he is at that point where he's like okay now I'm a little bit more secure then you're gonna do a slow introduction. The next more gradual reintroduction to each other feeding them on opposite sides of the closed door. So what I did is I put Cass's canned food down there by the door. Cass really likes his canned food and we're slowing in a transition until it's all canned food off the dry stuff. On the other side of the door she's getting food. Cool I can smell the cat. What are they all? About six inches away from each other. That's just such a good way to get them close to each other without having any negative interaction. After three or four days your dog and your cat they're able to eat across the door from each other and things be going well. Then it's time for the introduction but you want to do that in a neutral place. Think Switzerland. We don't want to do it in this room where Cass is comfortable. We don't want to do it right there in the kitchen where Tula gets fed. We're going to do it in the neutral spot, the living room and Tula is going to be on a leash. Cass can wander out and we're just going to see what happens. They're not friends yet but they will be. Right Cass? Yeah. To start out you want to get your dog on a leash. Good girl. Collar pull leash. Look at that. All that years of vet school. What it's taught me. You're nice and secure. Okay we're getting close to the introduction. Get some treats. What you want to be able to do is reward your dog for good positive behavior especially if he or she is fairly calm when the C18 comes out. Oh good girl. These are nice high protein beef treats. They're soft and chewy. Next we're almost close to the introduction. We're going to open the door. Cass is going to come out. The poodle is going to be on a leash and we're going to reward her when she's positive and doesn't make a sudden movement. See how this goes. What you want to do is just let your cat come interact with your dog on his or her own terms. Hello kitty cat. Cass the cat. That didn't go quite so well because the poodle was too close to the door and Cass just zoomed out of there at high speed. Tula's over there now in the living room with her stuffy take two gradual reintroduction. Cass come on kitty cat. Are you going to come out? He was just really nervous. Let's see where he is. As you can see here and he is secure away from the dog. Hello kitty cat. It was really good. She stood there. She didn't bark or do anything whiny at the because of that it's like you oh yes you are a good girl. So yes it's been slow because you're just not so sure about that doggie are you kitty cat. So it's just going to take time I think between you and poodle because you're like you love having your own private space to yourself but you're eventually going to get used to that dog. For the most part she's been really good. I mean she's 13 and a half. She's a bit older but she's been pretty calm. You're interested. Do you think you should become friends with the kitty cat? But the kitty is not so sure about you yet. Yes but you've been a good girl. You are. You're just going to be patient and calm. So with Cass sometimes he's actually gone up in the morning and actually sniffed the dog because they don't have the camera when that's happened. So then how do you go from you know what you just saw now where Cass is still pretty nervous with the dog to having you know they're the best of friends. You just do those gradual reintroductions. You keep them short. You keep them positive. I've rewarded Tula. She got a treat. She's like oh good girl. She was pretty calm. With Cass likewise I mean I gave him some positive reinforcement. Hi kitty cat. Where he's getting petted and then taking back to his safe secure spot because as you can see in here I mean he hangs on top of me. His little look at his paws just hanging off my arm. It's not so crazy about the dog. So we got to keep it short, sweet, positive, reinforced like the good things and it's just going to take time. I've got to the point now where Tula is not trying to chase him at all in any way. As Cass builds trust he's slowly going to have more interactions with the dog. So if you have a dog and a cat things aren't working out with each other. I mean go through some of those simple basic steps but just start with you know the big number one. Your cat needs this safe secure space where there is no dog around. That's right. They're going to eventually get to the point where they can tolerate each other and that's kind of what I'm hoping for. Thanks so much for watching this edition of NRE Secrets of how to introduce your new cat to your dog. Click up there to subscribe. Hit the bell to sign up for notifications. Then when you click that link directly in the box below I can send you a copy of my free book.