Hello,
We hope someone can help us (we are newbies to the site so please bear with us!)

We adopted Billy, a stray springer about 6 weeks ago, he's about 5 years old. We also have in residence two burmese cats, not sure if you have ever heard of this bread but they are predminantly indoor cats, love human companionship and are a bit wacky.

Prior to adoption we had a home visit and Billy pretty much just laid in the middle of the room whilst the cats ran for cover, he seemed pretty disinterested.

Over the past six weeks we have gone from the cats hiding under the bed upstairs to them gradually coming downstairs and into the lounge which is where Billy sleeps. Billys basket is by the door to the lounge which means the cats have to walk past him to get in (we think this may have been our first big mistake). One cat moves in and out of the lounge freely and is fairly relaxed around Billy, this seems to make him relaxed.

The other cat is a bag of nerves and Billy seems to feed off this, the result is he barks and chases her. They have had a few stand offs where they just stare at each other and eventually Billy just "blows". It seems to be more frustration and over excitement that triggers him.

We did get to a stage where we were able to have all three of them sat around us and have a little feeding session with ham. At first Billy was very submissive and let the cats go first although recently he has started getting a bit more excitable, he goes to pinch the ham which means he lunges towards the cats.

We have never left him alone with cats but we are often caught unawares when a bark or a lunge occurs so we are going backwards in terms of achieving harmony between them.

We are trying to get them used to each other but the only way we can get the female cat near him is to physically carry her into the lving room, she hides under the TV stand and only comes out to try and get to the door. Even if Billy is asleep and not moving she is still nervous. The male cat is ok and moves fairly freely although.

It seems that as the cats were beginning to get more settled they started to move around the house more quickly and this seems to trigger Billys chase instinct.

He was a stray so we have no background but on walks he does go ballistic if he sees a squirrel or any form of bird so we think he may have been taught to chase, which when coupled with the natural instrint of the springer is leading to trouble in our house.

Billy is perfect in every other way and is a very good natured and placid dog. We have contacted the place we adopted him from for help as we are loathed to have to take him back as he is settled and bonding with us.

Any advice or details of others experiences in cat/springer integration would be a great help.
Thankyou!

Hi, lots of people are away this weekend, so be patient, I'm sure someone better will be around for advice later!
Charlie took a long time to get used to our cats, and we used a child gate to give the cats some secure safe places. They spent a lot of time sat on the stairs looking at him until they felt confident enough to come down. I had a few moments where I was really down, thought I'd ruined our lovely cuddly friendly cats, but they have come round. It did take time. Six months I think before I felt a noticeable improvement, but now they don't exactly cuddle together, but they will share sleeping space.
A few people have successful cat/dog households, don't give up.
Good luck

Hi there

We were really lucky with Daisy and our cat Bruno - they play together as if they're both dogs! And if Daisy gets too boisterous he just smacks her!

BUT.... it did take some time for them to settle together - I'd say three months really, and even now if Bruno goes out through the cat flap, Daisy can't contain herself and has to fly over to the cat flap after him, then race round to the patio door to see where he's gone.

We gave them zones - so Bruno had upstairs to himself, and Daisy wasn't allowed upstairs to begin with - this gave Bruno confidence, and space to learn to play with her - he'd sit on the middle landing, look through the banisters into the lounge and tease her!

I would move Billy's basket so your female doesn't have to run the gauntlet to get in and out of the room. Once this stress is taken away, then that might help her settle - she wan't feel like she has to make a run for it, so less likely to trigger the chase instinct. And I wouldn't put them in a position which encourages competition - ie the feeding them ham together. Much as Daisy and Bruno love each other - and they do - she won't allow him near her food.

Thanks for your responses so far- we've only had him six weeks so maybe we're expecting too much too soon! Please keep the advice coming its nice to hear others have been through it too!

Hi

We took on a rescued Springer and a few months later got a 7 week old kitten. The dogs have always had the dining room, kitchen, lobby area which leads to a large dog flap into the garden.

When we brought the kitten home, she was allowed upstairs (somewhere that the dogs are not permitted to go) and we kept a litter box on the landing for her so she didn't have to run the gauntlet to go outside (after jabs obviously).

In the early days, I couldn't imagine that she would ever go past the dogs as Ollie used to pounce on her every time. She eventually hissed at him a couple of times and swiped him round the chops and established herself as the definite boss in our household - They now get on great and she rubs herself all round Ollie - he still trys to pounce on her occasionally but she puts him firmly in his place.

At the time it seems as though it'll never work but with a bit of time I'm sure it will be fine. I would try to give the cats an area that the dog can't go to give them a bit of security.

Good luck

its taken ours 8 months - so don't despair!

because i have a stair gate on the front room and one at the top of the stairs the cats had dog free zones to relax in. Also I relaxed the 'no cats on the table or worktops' rule, so that they had safe passage in these rooms - i'm also considering putting a wide, high shelf up for them in the utility bit of the kitchen so they can eat and sleep up there with no fear of dogs noses intefering.

I honestly thought there was no way my eldest cat was going to come round, but this happened just last week...

Thanks to everyone for the responses we seem to mostly be doing the right thing, we have a baby gate and upstairs is strictly cat territory. We also have an outdoor run for the cats and they seem to like sniffing him through that. Think we might have been a bit ambitious in our expectations for getting them all settled together!