HELP! Part time dog owner gets a kitten!

[Rammy]

My bf often comes over with his 10 yr old Bullmastiff. I even have a bed here for her when they stay here. However, they haven't been over here since I got my 10 week old kitten. The dog is very mild mannered and doesn't bark. I really miss their company but I don't know how to introduce them to each other or if is gonna be a reintroduction everytime. I'm sad and feel bad for my dog who loves coming here and I also feel bad cuz I don't want to stress out my kitten... Does anyone have any ideas of how I can make this work? I live in an apartment and don't have much space to keep them separated and I feel it's unfair for both animals... will it ever work???

[Longblades]

What I do with my resident dog.
- Kitten - claws cut short
- Dog - collar and leash on

Some people keep them separate, behind closed doors even, while they learn there is another animal in the house. Then let them see each other, still safely separated.

Introduce both parties with the dog firmly under control, since the dog is the one who can do the most damage. Make sure the kitten has an escape route to a safe place. I put gates with a cat size hole on my kitchen doors.

Supervise all meetings, you might have to do that for a year. In my experience kittens love dogs so the dog might be in for some loving/playing/beating up.

I don't know how much difference it makes but I make sure to greet, pet, feed first the one who was here first. I think this works best for cat on cat and in your case it might be the kitten, who lives there, who needs to be first.

I have had a jealous dog but most dogs seem to accept whoever, people or animal, you say is allowed in your house. Still, watch them.

[marko]

All good info from LB!
If the dog is calm and doesn't scare the cat....I'd bet hard that they will eventually be friends.


Do it NOW though. Socializing animals is best done as babies and tends to go smoothly when following good advice as in the previous post.
Good luck!