We're in the midst of introducing our treeing walker hound to our newest feline additions, George and Addie, who are 4 months old. Max is 4 yrs old and very good with our other 2 cats, Sam and Lola. In fact, since the new babies came, the three veterans are sharing a living space 24/7 minus walks when we take Max out.
So far, it's been going okay. We're at the let everyone free stage of intros. I'm kind of torn....do I let Max nose at them? George is totally into playing with him, and not scared, so I'm not really worried about him. Max does great with cats who stand up for themselves. It's scaredy cats that he doesn't know what to do with....he'll chase if they run and is generally confused by their fear. When we brought Max home, after a separation period, he and Sam hit it off quickly because Sam is fearless and actually may think he's a dog. Lola took much longer to get used to the dog and so, since she was skittish, Max took longer to warm up to her (got it into his head that there were Lola Zones she was supposed to stay in and would chase her there....but never bites or anything. Anyway, they're cool with each other now, all 3 of them)
The real issue is Addie, because the one time Max came up close, she chose the flop over and play dead route, which caused him such confusion that he pinned her with his paw and started nosing at her, until we rescued her, which was quite quickly of course.
If left to his own devices, I think he'd probably just nose and slobber at them, especially George, who is so enthrawled with the big doggy that he flops onto his back to play and goes up on 2 legs to headbutt Max when he sees him.
So, what do you guys think? How much playing (if any) should I let George and Max do? And how do I intro Addie and teach her not to flop or run?
Oh, and to add a twist, Max has major leash issues, so this must be done off leash. He is obedient, and generally calm though occasionally stubborn off leash and can be down right defiant on leash....and it's a stresser for him to be leashed as well, so it'd be adding to the situation to put it on him. We've been working on that issue for the last 10 months since we got him, and there's progress, but it's still a day to day thing.
So far, it's been going okay. We're at the let everyone free stage of intros. I'm kind of torn....do I let Max nose at them? George is totally into playing with him, and not scared, so I'm not really worried about him. Max does great with cats who stand up for themselves. It's scaredy cats that he doesn't know what to do with....he'll chase if they run and is generally confused by their fear. When we brought Max home, after a separation period, he and Sam hit it off quickly because Sam is fearless and actually may think he's a dog. Lola took much longer to get used to the dog and so, since she was skittish, Max took longer to warm up to her (got it into his head that there were Lola Zones she was supposed to stay in and would chase her there....but never bites or anything. Anyway, they're cool with each other now, all 3 of them)
The real issue is Addie, because the one time Max came up close, she chose the flop over and play dead route, which caused him such confusion that he pinned her with his paw and started nosing at her, until we rescued her, which was quite quickly of course.
If left to his own devices, I think he'd probably just nose and slobber at them, especially George, who is so enthrawled with the big doggy that he flops onto his back to play and goes up on 2 legs to headbutt Max when he sees him.
So, what do you guys think? How much playing (if any) should I let George and Max do? And how do I intro Addie and teach her not to flop or run?
Oh, and to add a twist, Max has major leash issues, so this must be done off leash. He is obedient, and generally calm though occasionally stubborn off leash and can be down right defiant on leash....and it's a stresser for him to be leashed as well, so it'd be adding to the situation to put it on him. We've been working on that issue for the last 10 months since we got him, and there's progress, but it's still a day to day thing.
