For those that may not have seen my other thread, I brought home a cat that I found out is 7 months old, and right now is about 1.5 weeks away from having 2-3 kittens. I already have a 9 month old puppy (small Bichon about 10 lbs) and a small 9-10 week old kitten. They both get along great, and our puppy loves cats.
I have been reading a lot about how to introduce different pets, and yet, even feeding our puppy outside the bathroom door gets the pregnant cat very angry and upset. My girlfriend and I have decided that, rather than trying to get her to a point where she can tolerate our puppy, we want to keep one of her kittens instead so that it will be more used to dogs when it's born and will not try attacking our puppy. We want to try and have another cat that can be good buddies with our dog, like our current kitten, rather than have one that just avoids him and tolerates him (which seems like the best scenario with this cat we could hope for).
What is the best way, if there is any good way, to socialize the kittens with our kitten and puppy without the mom being around?
Is there a certain age where it becomes okay to take them from the mother and try putting them with our puppy?
Is there a chance that if we take the kittens from the mother occasionally and try holding them around our other pets and introducing them to each other that the mother could then reject them based on them having a slight scent of our other pets on them?
Is it more common to wait until the kittens can be apart from the mother permanently to introduce to other pets?
I have read everything about how to socialize pets but I've seen nothing on how to try to socialize kittens with another kitten and puppy without the mother being there (since this cat wants nothing to do with our puppy who is the most friendly dog I've ever seen around other animals, cats or dogs).
I have been reading a lot about how to introduce different pets, and yet, even feeding our puppy outside the bathroom door gets the pregnant cat very angry and upset. My girlfriend and I have decided that, rather than trying to get her to a point where she can tolerate our puppy, we want to keep one of her kittens instead so that it will be more used to dogs when it's born and will not try attacking our puppy. We want to try and have another cat that can be good buddies with our dog, like our current kitten, rather than have one that just avoids him and tolerates him (which seems like the best scenario with this cat we could hope for).
What is the best way, if there is any good way, to socialize the kittens with our kitten and puppy without the mom being around?
Is there a certain age where it becomes okay to take them from the mother and try putting them with our puppy?
Is there a chance that if we take the kittens from the mother occasionally and try holding them around our other pets and introducing them to each other that the mother could then reject them based on them having a slight scent of our other pets on them?
Is it more common to wait until the kittens can be apart from the mother permanently to introduce to other pets?
I have read everything about how to socialize pets but I've seen nothing on how to try to socialize kittens with another kitten and puppy without the mother being there (since this cat wants nothing to do with our puppy who is the most friendly dog I've ever seen around other animals, cats or dogs).