Introducing new kittens to existing dog?

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I have just picked up two 3 months old Siamese kittens.

My dog has grown up with a Siamese (she was here before we got the dog) and unfortunately we had to have our beautiful lady put to sleep a few months ago :(

I decided to get two kittens as I feel our house is empty without a Siamese trotting around the place and finally today I went to pick them up.

They are currently both in a room settling in with their litter tray, food and bed but I am not really sure how best to introduce them to the dog. I plan on keeping them in their own room for a couple of days at least until they have settled, then following what we did with our previous lady, I was then hoping to open up their room and allow them to venture out.

However, what do I do with the dog?

When is best to introduce them?

The dog is not bothered at all by cats or other dogs coming in our house, she is so chilled out about things like that luckily. However, she is a big boisterous lady (she is an English Pointer) so I can imagine she would frighten the kittens a lot due to her size. However, she will be more frightened of the kittens as she is such a timid pup.

So, any suggestions???
 
When we got our 2 as kittens we put them in a dog crate and had them in the room with the dogs, so they could get used to each other without the kittens feeling intimidated. Once the dogs weren't showing much interest in them we let them out for short spaces of time and they were soon the best of friends.
 
MurphysMinder said:
When we got our 2 as kittens we put them in a dog crate and had them in the room with the dogs, so they could get used to each other without the kittens feeling intimidated. Once the dogs weren't showing much interest in them we let them out for short spaces of time and they were soon the best of friends.
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dittoo. X. nothing to add
 
Thanks... They are upstairs at the moment in their own little room as the dog is with us. If she wasn't she would be really upset as she is always with us. I guess it would have been easier having them downstairs but the dog has run of the house during the day so I needed somewhere I could close them in.

What I may do is invest in a little cage and bring them down in a couple of days in the evening and let them meet her as you have with yours.
 
When I got mine I jsut let them get on with it. Yellow Dog is cat safe - apart from trying to wash them to death :rolleyes: The were snuggled up to him within the hour (after a thorough exploration of their new pad) :)
 
Thanks everyone...

They have now settled really nicely with me and my husband going in (not as much hiding and crying for lots of attention), so I think it may nearly be time to introduce them to the dog. I am conscious that I don't want to leave it too long as they have to get on with it in a way.

So tonight, I think we are going to allow the dog to sleep in her cage in the same room as the kittens. That way they can get used to her without feeling threatened. I know the dog will not give two hoots, so it is more about getting them used to her as she will be absolutely great with them.

Does this sound like a good idea?
 
It sounds fine to me, I have just been throught the self same scenario, except my dogs had never been close to kittens before and neither had the kittens seen a dog. Now they all sleep in the same bed !

We NEED kitten photos !
 
I promise kitten photos... I plan on getting my camera out tonight but whenever I am in the room they are right next to me so hard to get a picture :-)
 
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