Help! Old angry cat and new dog - what to do?

Hello All,

We have a 9 year old cat - barn variety. From the time she came home with us at 8 weeks old, she was with a Toy poodle. The two of them were not the best of friends but got along just fine (i.e. no fighting or hissing) occasionally even playing together. We had to put the Toy poodle down 1.5 years ago at almost 16 years of age. 6 weeks ago we brought home and 8 week old standard poodle puppy. The cat wants absolutely nothing to do with him. She hisses and deep belly growls whenever he approaches her. We thought with time, she'd get used to him -no it's only getting worse - he can't even be in the same room as her, without a major temper tantrum on her part, hissing and growling, ears pinned back and the hair stnding up and she eventually just runs off. I'm really not sure how to socialize the two together. I don't want the cat to feel like she's always running for her life and scared of the dog, and I'd liek the dog to have a positive impression of cats. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

hi, any luck with your cat and puppy? i have exactly the same problem with you and am still looking for a solution.. pity,, training books usually don't say much about cat and dog getting along. if u find any solution, please let me know, i am still searching.
good luck.

well the best thing really to do is to train your dog just to ignore the cat .. don't let your dog sniff it or go near it and your dog should not eat the cat once grown up and if for one day the cat ever comes around and decides to take a sniff at the dog.

and if your really wanting your current dog to get along with cats your best option would be to get a new baby cat and make the dog and baby cat cuddle together while they grow up and like I said maybe the other cat may come around after awhile.. but takes time and majority of the time never happens..

cats are one dog cats.. they may become friends with a dog but not all dogs.. where as dogs will become friends with all dogs not just one..