The key to stopping your pets from fighting like cats and dogs may lie in how you first introduce them to each other, research suggests.
People planning on taking a new puppy home to their cat should think about allowing them to get used to each other slowly, according to findings from Dogs Trust.
“The advice is that it’s done really gradually,” Dr Rachel Casey, a vet and animal behaviour specialist, told the PA Media news agency.
“In an ideal world, what you’d want to do is to have the cat in a situation where it can escape, it can get out of the way, so maybe somewhere high that the cat can go so it doesn’t feel threatened by the puppy.”
Casey, who is also the director of strategy and transformation at Dogs Trust, added: “And what you really need to teach the puppy is to be calm in the presence of the cat.”
As part of its Generation Pup research, the Dogs Trust is looking at the interaction between dogs and cats. The study found that factors such as the speed of introduction and a puppy’s age can influence their behaviour towards household felines.
The research found that about one-fifth (20.1%) of pet owners introduce their new puppy to their existing cats immediately, and 18.9% do it in less than two hours. However, gradual introductions between puppies and cats significantly increased the likelihood of them getting along.
According to the findings, puppies introduced to cats over more than one day – particularly those younger than 12 weeks – are calmer and more friendly, which can help form a more harmonious relationship.
Casey said the vast majority of dogs showed “undesirable” behaviour when first introduced to a cat, including being aggressive, or playing with the cat when it did not want to play. Less than 10% of the puppies who were introduced to cats were calm and stayed relaxed.
The Generation Pup study is the largest of its kind in the UK, with more than 9,500 puppies already enrolled, including 4,500 puppies where there is dog/cat interaction.
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The project is a cohort study – where participating dogs are followed over their lifetime. Generation Pup said this model enabled them to investigate how events or environments early in life, as well as genetics, influence the development of conditions and shape behaviour as dogs get older.
The findings will be presented at New Scientist Live 2024, taking place at the ExCeL London this weekend.