"William Clodius" wrote
cshenk wrote:
Could use some advance advice. We have 2 established pets an are
looking
to add a 2nd dog.

BTW, thank you to all the rest of the group who helped!

Two pets but adding a second dog, is the other pet a cat, a rodent, a
horse?

Sorry, my fault for not giving enogh info. Other pet is a cat who is a
largely non-issue on this. She feeds on top of a 5ft bookcase he dog
(soon
to be dogs) can not reach.

A cat is always a potential issue with dogs. Be certain to give it an
escape room. If getting an adolescent or test with cats first, and be
careful.

Thats totally true. Grin, I'm a bit of an odd mix here perhaps. See, I'm a
very experienced cat person. Don's a very experienced Dog person. He
learned cats from me when we were dual military (you just can't both have
duty and away from the house for 24-36 hours with a dog inside. Cats are
not happy at that, but with plenty of food and water and change the cat
litter first, they can handle it).

Now that I am retired, I am learning dogs and while no expert at all, I ask
questions when unsure.

Many people get a rude suprise (sadly can be a deadly one) when thinking
'awww, such a cute kitty and the doggie is so nicely gentle' and don't
remember that cats pretty much are prey in dogs eyes often enough. Some
breeds are a bit more prone to this than others.

Although you can have exceptions *real easy* the best bets on getting them
to mix is if they were both raised witht he other type from 'babyhood'
though it isnt essential it be the same one. Daisy-cat and Cash-pup here
are both rescue pets and met the first time at about age 2 for both. Both
showed strongly that they liked the other breed and would play with them
after a bit of intro time.

In this case, it's the extreme. I found the cat sleeping in sin with the
dog on (what was it?) day 2 or 3 of arriving here. They got here same day.
That is *not* normal nor should it be expected. In fact, 'tolerance'
without attacks is the best you should expect in general. Cash-pup and
Daisy-cat exceed that but it is very rare. It may well be because we sorta
have a cat and a dog expert here? It was *definately* related however to
the personality of both pets as well.

I've seen advice on how to add a cat to a dog household. My personal
impression was most of it was written by someone who didnt have a *clue*
about cats. Stupid stuff like locking the cat in a room for 3-4 months and
wait for the cat to almost claw their way out to just 'dump them together
first day with no hiding space for the cat then hold it in the dogs face
(chomp).

Sorry for being opinionated, but I won't even bother with web sites on how
to intro 'Apple' (second dog, pit bull mix that likes to play with cats if
they will play and doesnt damage them). It's just easy. Every room will
have several hidy-holes for a bit and high spots the cat can jump to.
Adjustment period expected. Grin,she's the alpha among the 4foots.

Conversely on the alpha battle (if Apple wants to be alpha over the queen
cat) she's gonna find out Cash is very protective of his little buddy. If
'Apple' just wants to be alpha over him, he's just gonna wag tail and
continue to be bottom of the rung. I'm more worried about Daisy-cat and
Apple-pup on that issue.