Cat protecting new kitten from dog

jade14

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My cat is 5 years old and has lived with my corgi for the past 4 years (since she was a puppy). They get along great for the most part and coexist peacefully. We got a new female 6 week old kitten 2 weeks ago. My cat loves our new kitten and cleans her and plays with her. My dog is nervous of her and mostly just ignores her. However twice in the past 2 days when my dog is around and he is with the kitten he has circled my dog with his ears back. My dog gets on edge and today they went after each other. No one got hurt but if my dog wanted to she could seriously hurt him or vise versa. I was worried about messing up the dynamic bringing in a new kitten and up until now it has gone well. I know about dog behaviour but cats I have no idea how to curb this behaviour.
My cat has always been quite bonded with my dog. We moved into a new house about 6 weeks ago and prior to that we lived with my parents. During covid my sister moved home with her dog and there was an incident where my dog and her dog got into a scuffle over a toy and my cat went after her dog to protect my dog. So I am a bit surprised by this behaviour towards our dog. Any tips on what to do? They are always with us when we are home and luckily this happened when I was 2 feet away. When we aren't home the dog is baby gated in our room and at the moment the kitten goes in a huge dog kennel. I am thinking I'll have to shut the door from now on since the cat can jump the gate.
 

The Goodbye Bird

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Six weeks is tiny, tiny, tiny. Some people say you shouldn't bring a kitten away from its mother during that time but I say it's a balancing act, since the younger a new pet is, the likelier an older pet will accept and bond with it.

Now this is just my gut talking, so listen to other replies too.

But I trust your cat. I trust a cat any day of the week. If the cat thinks the dog may just gulp that tiny, tiny kitten, I trust him implicitly. Don't have the dog and the kitten alone until the kitten is bigger - too big to be a snack for a Corgi.

I don't think the older cat will hurt the dog unless the dog goes for the kitten.
 

rubysmama

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I don't have any experience with a cat and dog household, so can't offer any advice, other than to continue what you're doing, and keep the dog separated from the cats when no humans are around to supervise. Hopefully once the kitten gets older, and bigger, your older cat won't be so protective of it.

As for his aggression towards the dog, here's a TCS article you might find helpful: Why Do Cats Attack?
 
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