Introducing my Kitten to a puppy???

Hi everyone! Im new to this so hopefully Im posting in the right place.
We got our kitten when he was 6 weeks old, he's now 5 months and is great and has settled in perfectly. My mum got a puppy recently and tonight we are taking our kitten to meet the puppy. Does anyone have any experience of this? or any tips on how to introduce them? Im quite apprehensive about it as I don't want my kitten to be distressed or anything.
Hopefully they will get on together as they will probably see quite a lot of each other in the future.
Do you think we should just open the door and let them sniff around each other or pick them and and just show them to each other first? The puppy is also male and is only 6 weeks old but the same size as our cat.
You experiences would be much appreciated.
Thanks

Lauren, Mark and baby Sleeves

One important tip. Let the cat know the room where the meeting will take place. I believe it is in mums house? Let him be there alone or with you a good while so he can take in smells and make himself comfortable. Important in all such new meetings.
- See there are some hiding places/shelves the cat can run to if he afraid. - this is also a security measure for the puppy, the cat dont need to scratch him up because he has nowhere to run... *smile*
Cut his nails a little too.

If you want to be sure, have the cat - or the puppy - in a carrier when they meets, so they can smell each other and feel secure. Or if you have bars of some sort, have them in door opening, so they can smell each other and look.

But if they are otherwise friendly creatures you can probably just let them meet together in this room they both knows. Have some toys prepared.

Young cats and puppys, not learned they are enemies, usually gets friendly fairly easily. What can happen is the dog may play chase-games too eagerly...

It is more difficult with grown ups with unpleasant experiences.

I think.

Thanks very much, my cat has been to my mums before and had a great time running round. He obviously felt very safe there. Ill make sure he runs around a little bit before we bring the puppy into the room.
We visited the puppy the other night and when we came home to our cat he wasnt at all bothered about the smell of 'dog' on us, because he has had no contact with dogs I dont think he knew what it was, so this is probably a good sign, as he wont know that dogs and cats supposedly 'dont like each other'.
I'll post up tomorrow and let everyone know how it went!!

Lauren

A word of caution with puppies: if they are fresh from living with their littermates, they often see other small furry creatures as their playmates. Puppies at play do a lot of wrestling and nibbling with each other. When I brought my puppy home, he came from a litter of 11 and moved in with 13 cats. He spent a month trying to play with the cats and was not appreciated. I gave the cats more high perches to get away from him. I then adopted his brother so he would have a playmate that could play the same way he liked to play. Once the cats were left alone and had their chance to observe their antics from up high, everyone got along fine.

Don't expect the first meeting to go smoothly. Don't leave them alone for a minute until you see how they react to each other and know that the puppy won't try to tackle your kitten. If this is a large puppy, doesn't matter that he is younger, he is probably bigger and can overpower the kitten.

thanks thats handy advice, I will be careful after all I don't want sleeves to get upset. The puppy is about the same size as my cat, but has humungus paws and is overall a lot heavier so I will be on guard. He knows all the people that will be there very well so hopefully he should feel protected.
The puppy is very clumsy and may be rough with the cat so I don't really want them to 'play' just be in the same room and get used to each other. Im gettin quite nervous about it now to be honest but they have to meet at some point and better to do it when they're both really young I think!
Thanks for your advice!

You should not introduce them until the puppy has been to puppy obedience class. Puppies tend to play rough and in the process harm or even kill a cat or kitten without trying. That does not mean they are cat killers, but with no manners, and no discipline, and no knowledge of who the handler is for this puppy, tragedy can and does occur.

Here is an article.The photo is of my german shepherd Brandy and Gulliver her pal. Right now the 14 cats I have here are being slowly introduced to the two german shepherd pups we recently acquired. Although some of my seasoned cats are used to dogs, I am still quite cautious about putting them together. One swipe of a puppy paw, and a kitten or a cat can be history. Vader just turned 6 months old, Chyna is younger. We just started Vader on obedience courses here at home. My husband used to train german shepherds in Alaska.

Introducing Cats to Dogs

I don't really have any advice but want to wish you luck... My dogs are all nice to my cats, but don't like other peoples

Weird experience - our 1 yr old cat watched our Samoyed (husky) eat his breakfast for ages, and finally (recently) went over to visit. The dog immed. sniffed him all over, the cat played right up to him, arching and rubbing, and now does it every day, but when it's not feeding time (the cat's a piggy and will eat the dog food as I dish it), the cat acts a little afraid of the dog... like all he wants is for the dog to feed him, but otherwise isn't interested.

Hi, well last night actually went brilliantly!! When we first arrived the puppy was sleeping so it gave my cat chance to sniff his way round and get comfortable with his surroundings. Then the puppy woke up and came to see us, the cat hid uner the sofa and just watched as the puppy played, totally oblivious of the cat!!
then the cat got more interested and went out and actually got quite close a few times until the puppy noticed him and then he ran away. It was so cute. Got a few good pics of them together aswell. So! I can now give advice to anybody trying this!
Im going to get them together again in a few weeks and then keep doing it until they are comfortable with each other.

Thanks again for all your advice! See you in the other forums!

Lauren x

When My cat's first met my ex boyfriends dog They all ran and hid, The dog is a full grown Coyote/German Shephard mix and I was really afraid, but Matt insisted on it, so it happened. He brought Marley over to my house and the cat's stayed way out of the way, but eventually they warmed up to her and now they will actually go up and play with her, batting her with there paws, jumping on her back, trying to catch her tail, and she loved it!!! lol

It just depends on the cat and dogs personality