The catmoma is getting a puppy

I've been putting this off a few years now. We lost our German Shepherds 5 years ago when most of our cats now were kittens. I figured if I were to ever get a dog again, it HAD to be a puppy ( I want to make sure that the kitty babies are safe and can boss the little puppy around until he gets bigger).Well there was a stray puppy explosion at a rescue. Long story short, We'll be bringing our new little furry guy home June 4th.

 I'd like to gather advice from the community on how we can integrate the puppy in a house with so many cats. Do any of you have experience with this?It's been so long since I've been a dog/cat house. We had our dogs first and the cats came later. We were just VERY lucky that is all worked out, we had ZERO plans. It just worked out.

I plan to make my bedroom training room central that way he'll be in a cage anyway most of the time for training. I'll be home all day with him.

I think baby gates are perfect for this, because cats can get over them but puppies can't! That way at least in the beginning the cats can have a guaranteed puppy-free area to escape to.

Lots of the introducing cats to cats methods apply for dogs and cats. Keeping the animals separate at first, scent swapping, short and sweet meetings in the beginning and graduating to longer and longer sessions as everyone gets more comfortable, and always go at the pace of the most nervous animal.

The biggest difference is the different styles of play that the cats and dog have to adjust to. A puppy's not as likely as an adult to see a cat and think "prey," but they can still be pretty mouthy and annoying to cats so the most crucial command to teach is "leave it," which you can use if he starts getting too rough with the cats and isn't understanding their signals to back off. 

Congratulations on your new puppy! How exciting.