My Dog Is Afraid Of The New Kitten

[FaBEAR]

Hi all, hope this is the right plac to ask this!
I have two older moggies and a hyper 3 year old papillon dog. The two moggies dislike the dog but put up with him. He only gives chase when they run. And he won't hurt them.

So we got a new kitten (Tiger) and he is 100% NOT afraid of the dog. He tries to play with the dog (Torque). But unfortunately my dog is afraid of Tiger it seems, he tends to bark at things that he doesn't understand and he keeps running away from the kitten but also gets in the kittens face and barks. His barks are really high pitched so it's really annoying.

Does anyone know if this will pass? I'd love to see them playing together someday! We've been introducing slowly - a few hours a day or so... but Torque gets so wired when we bring the kitten in. Has anyone else had this problem before?

Here's a pic of Tiger in the dog bed :-) no barking while I took the photo!

 

[Pucks104]

I expect that time will see Torque and the kitten find a way to get along. They may even be buddies. Key I think is for humans to remain really calm and to reward ANY positive calm interaction between the two with calm praise and small tiny treats. Reward Torque anytime he is quiet around the kitten with calm praise. Often our anxious energy can feed anxious reactions in our pets, i.e. barking. Deep breaths and as hard as it is COMPLETELY ignore the barking! High pitched barking is excruciating BUT when humans “bark” (yell) it’s like they are joining in do there must be something to bark about. Keep interactions short if either the kitten or Torque behave aggressively but I expect Torque is just unsure about this interloper and once he figures out the kitten is staying and is part of the “family” he will come to accept his presence. Will they be friends? Can’t force that but time will tell.