How Do You Properly Introduce a Cat and Dog?

Rob was one of the pack and now he is gone. Even when the lowest of the wolf pack dies in the wild the others take notice. So of course River is sad, one of his pack has disappeared. All he sees is "my pack". When my husband deploys my big girl (shepherd) mopes for a couple weeks or so.

Does Nolan have his claws? If so I'd be more worried about Rver. Cats are usually faster than dogs and can jump higher.

We make our dogs lie down and watch the cats drink from the water bowl, we also feed them in the dogs' bowls at first. In our house cats are Alphas over dogs and our dogs know it. But I have two shepherds and one was a stray.

We have one room with a kitty door, so the cats can escape to their litter boxes and food without dogs, and so my dogs stay out of the litter.

Nolan's been in the house a couple days, let him have is freedom. Baby gates work. IN one house we gated off the stairs and kept cat things upstairs.

Watch them for a while, but they will grow to be friends.

Our stray shepherd and our stray kitty are best friends. Kitty will allow the dog to put her whole mouth over his head. The other two cats beat her nose so she doesn't bother with them.

aw, poor river. but he has all his girls and his special boy!
we tend not to make a big deal about the introduction. our old dog did (to my horror) go for a kitten on the introduction, but we stopped it in time and they ended up best friends. our current aging dog thinks he's a cat so it's not a big issue. we have a guest cat living here right now, and they haven't paid any attention to each other from day one.
if river isn't trying to eat nolan, i'd just let them acclimate at their own pace. your only real role is to prevent injury, and it doesn't sound as if this is going to be a problem.
we have the opposite problem now. ivy cat is hopelessly, longingly in love with tramp dog, and he is so not interested. the only cat he actually seems to like (as opposed to ignore utterly) is the one who randomly hooks or chomps him from time to time.
so glad you've got a kitty!
:) khairete
S.

Don't stress too much about it...... allow Nolan his escape..... when you do introduce them, be sure there is a high place Nolan can go to, or a room, to escape River... they will find their relationship.

We have a dog and 6 cats in the house.... most of the time, the cats tend to run from the dog.... (he still likes to chase them a bit.. nothing much, just a bit of fun). It is so cute when I see Belle, (one of the bottom-ranked kitties) grooming Bubba (the dog) .... Belle is like 8 lbs, and Bubba is about 60 lbs! When he gets feeling neglected or ignored, he goes and puts his head down near Belle, and she starts grooming his face..... so cute!

I have no idea, but Im looking forward to pictures of them all curled up together. :)

well, when I first got a cat - my dog did NOT like cats! lol - i kept the cat in a seperate room for a few days and they smelled at each other under the door. eventually i let the cat out - and they were always supervised. if i left, i put the cat up. after a few weeks the cat would lay on the couch while the dog was on the floor (baby steps!) lol ... and after a few months they were completely fine together. sounds like you don't need to go through all that since your dog loves cats. i'd say just let them hang out and make sure you supervise them.

I always went with oh look, another pet, deal with it.

We only had one problem when we found out Stinky just likes dogs, not other cats.

I'd say just let them interact while you quietly supervise. Cats are pretty easy to read usually. If Nolan's hair starts to stand up, if he arches his back, show his teeth or hisses I'd get River out of the way lol But he'll probably get those signs himself and book it!!

I'd do it away from both of their eating areas, make it neutral. And maybe not have everyone around at the time. You don't want "competitive" feelings for the dog or cat for their people.

They should be fine! Sorry to hear about your hubs. I've been out of the loop for awhile on here. Hope things work out for you :)