How to make a dog and a cat friends?

[Mike521]

My girlfriend and I just adopted two new pets (our first ones), a puppy and a kitten. We knew, or thought, that in order for them to get along we had to get them very young, but since we were adopting we had no control of their size/ages.

The dog is an 11 week old doberman / german shepherd mix, probably weighs 10 - 15 pounds. The cat is 7 weeks old and maybe weighs 3 pounds. The dog is desperate to play with the cat, there's no aggression whatsoever, but the dog is big and rough. She runs toward the cat, cat gets scared and hisses and scratches. Basically the cat wants nothing to do with the dog although it is definitely curious.

We tried bringing them together by me holding the dog and my girlfriend luring the cat over with toys, hoping they'd introduce themselves calmly, but no such luck, cat will no longer come in contact with the dog, or entertain even sniffing each other.

Anyone have any thoughts on if it will be possible to make them friends? Or at the very least, teach them to steer clear of one another (ie: teach the dog to stay away from the cat, cat already stays away from dog)?

I want the dog to be a family pet but also guard the house, so I want it to have free roaming in the house when we're out. Cat will also be free so we need to find some sort of solution

Thanks all!!

[TacoGrl]

They would need to be introduced the same way as two cats have to be I would think...you don't want to make the dog hate cats...that never turns out well for all the cats he will meet in the future and quite frankly, there is no reason they can't be friends.

The cat needs to feel safe...set up a room with a door for the cat...play with both...both will sniff at each other under the door and when the hissing stops, introduce for short periods of supervised times...it may take a few days/weeks, but because they are young and hopefully haven't had any bad expereiences with each others species, it might be quick. Remember, cats will hiss to establish boundaries...not necessarily because they hate the other animal...just putting the dog it his place The dog will learn how rough is too rough...the cat will teach him...try to find activities you can do with both to get them playing together.