Introducing a kitten to a dog.....any helpful hints?

ecrozier

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Right, so we have taken the plunge and bought ourselves a BEAUTIFUL bengal kitten. He is 12 weeks old on Saturday and will be coming home next Friday.
I've done a few bits of research about best ways to introducing him to Kaiber, our nearly-4-year-old Rottie.
Kaib is relatively used to cats, he's been in houses with them plenty of times, mostly my mum's two persians. He desperately wants to be friends with those two, but they object violently to being licked by him! He's only chased one of them once and that was when the cat shot past already running and he just kind of joined in! Bearing in mind this is the dog that doesn't even bother chasing pheasants when he accidentaly trips over them.....
I've bought a puppy cage for the kitten to go in initially when we introduce them, but obviously don't want to leave him in there for too long. We had thought about spending the first evening alternation kitten in cage for half an hour then kitten loose, dog on lead tied to something solid for half an hour and so on and so forth.
I honestly don't think Kaib would intentionally harm the kitten but he is a big lump with massive paws and don't want him scaring the poor mite!
Anyway, any additional ideas? Good/bad experiences to bear in mind?
I'd love for them to be really good friends one day. Part of the logic in chosing a bengal was that they are big strong brave cats usually, plus he was the bravest of his litter!
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I would do what you suggested, we did the same for our old mongrel - but he was bloody minded and it didnt work - but your boy sounds sensible - then maybe dont let them quite loose with each other til kitten is a bit bigger - and always allow an escape route for cat!
 
Hi WelshrareBit - thanks for reply. When you say it didnt work, what happenned? Were they just never friends?
Should always be plenty of escape routes for the cat, once we move we are having a stairgate so he can whizz up the stairs (more for the sake of the rottie's joints as he gets older really than anything else) but also cat will hopefully be able to get up on sofa/table etc and get away!
 
No well my dog was far too interested - ie I felt that if he got hold of the kitten he'd kill it - or at least make a go of trying- so we rehomed the kitten. But he had terrier in him - which I dont think is a good mix - and had picked up his mothers hatred of cats!
If you have a dog that is cat friendly anyway Id just be careful he didnt squash it more than anything - so crate training would work purrrfectly! (sorry I had to!)
 
Oh crikey, what a nightmare. God I hope Kaiber doesn't do anything like that. The only tyhings he has ever killed are a guinea pig (my friend did take it out of the hutch to show him though, and to be honest it died of shock more than anything so I blame her not the dog!) and a pheasant that he literally tripped over, it ran forward....straight into a stock fence and got its head stuck! He pulled it out of the fence and it prompty died, at which point he dropped it and left it there! So hopefully he wouldn't try to hurt the kitten. I think by having kitty in a cage they should get used to seeing each other and the kitten can't run, so nothing to chase!
Fingers crossed they'll be ok.
Thanks for advice anyway!!
 
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