Episode #259 Preparing Puppies for a Multi-Species Household

Adding a puppy to a home with cats, birds, or other animals? This episode dives into how to safely introduce, train, and manage puppies in multi-species households—without stress, chaos, or unrealistic expectations.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Multi‑Species Planning Matters
• 1:51 Redefining Success As Calm Coexistence
• 3:46 Prep Work: Safe Zones And Management
• 5:13 First Meetings As A Process
• 7:08 Species‑Specific Guidelines
• 8:20 Core Skills: Impulse Control
• 9:45 Protecting Emotional Health
• 10:40 What Not To Do
• 11:36 When To Call A Trainer

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Today we are diving into a topic that doesn't get nearly enough attention but affects a lot of households. Because let's be honest, most homes are not just dog homes anymore. You might have a cat, maybe a rabbit, maybe a parrot who speaks and has some pretty strong opinions, or reptiles, rodents, ferrets, chickens, you name it, there are other animals involved. And you might be wondering, how do I get them to live together? Today let's talk about it. Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter and Bella, the online puppy school. Here we are all about helping you create the best possible experience raising a puppy. From training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering a happy, well-behaved dog who truly feels like part of the family. So if you are ready to enjoy the journey and strengthen the bond with your dog, let's get started. Hi, and welcome back to the puppy training podcast. So you have more animals at your house and you're bringing home a new puppy or you're getting a new dog soon. What do we do about that? We want to make sure that it all goes well, right? So today we are talking about multi-species homes and how to plan introductions safely, how to manage expectations, and what are our expectations and are they realistic, right? For both your puppy and your other animals. And then how to prevent stress, because if you're like me, stress is one of my least favorite feelings. So let's make sure we discuss that. Now let's start with why this topic matters so much. Modern dogs are entering homes that are smaller, busier, more of us live in uh cities, right? More things going on, more animal diverse. And here's the key issue: most puppy training advice assumes that the puppy is the only animal in the home. But when there's other species present, we have things that come into play like natural prey drive, fear responses that can escalate pretty quickly, and stress can build silently in animals who can't speak up. So we need to learn how to recognize those signs. And a puppy doesn't automatically understand that the cat is not a toy. How many of us have seen that, right? Or the snake enclosure is not a mystery box, or that the rabbit doesn't actually want to play chase with me. And your existing pet doesn't automatically understand why there's this loud, bitey creature that suddenly invaded their space, or why their routines suddenly changed, and why their safe zones now are feeling threatened. So this is where problems can begin, not because anyone did something wrong, but because no one planned for this kind of communication between species. So before we talk about introductions, we need to reset some expectations. Because here's an important truth. Not every animal needs to be friends, right? I know in an ideal perfect world, many of us have that dream, but that's not a true statement that every animal needs to be friends with every animal. That's just not the case. Not every animal needs to be friends. But every animal does need to feel safe, in my opinion. Now, success does not always look like dogs cuddling with cats or rabbits grooming puppies or parrots riding on the back of their dog as they travel through the house. Realistic success often looks like management. It's calm coexistence, it's predictable routines, setting clear boundaries, and minimizing that stress. So your goal is neutrality. We're not going to try to force any kind of bonding between animals. A puppy who can ignore a cat is far more successful than one who's obsessed with loving on it. If you're still in the planning stage, this is where you can prevent a lot of future problems. So I want you to ask yourself, what animals already live here? What already lives at my house? Are they prey animals? Are they predators? Are they territorial? Okay, and then I want you to identify: are they confident? Are they shy? Are they reactive? Are they elderly? Are they fragile? And for whatever number of animals you have, do this for each of those animals. Now, a confident adult cat is very different from a nervous senior rabbit. Each animal is going to have its own unique characteristics and personality. Now, before your puppy arrives, let's do a few things. Let's create species-only safe zones. You might need to use baby gates, exercise pens, elevated spaces, or closed rooms. But we want to make sure that each animal has a safe zone. And then we want to ensure that every existing pet can eat, sleep, and escape without interference. In these early weeks, management matters more than obedience. We want to use barriers, leashes, and schedules to prevent mistakes. And then every prevented incident is actually what we consider a training success. Remember, your puppy in the beginning doesn't have training. They're not going to know what you want them to do or how you want them to behave around these animals. They're going to rely on dog instincts, which is going to involve chasing and capturing, okay? And we don't want that to happen. So remember, in the beginning, management is going to be most important. Now, first introductions is where many households make a mistake. They're viewing these as events or one-time events versus this is going to be a process. This is going to be a series of events. So some general rules for all species are first, our puppy should be tired, fed, and on a leash. The other animal should have full escape access, and sessions need to be short and end on a calm note. So for puppies and cats, for example, let's let the cat control distance. Reward the puppy for ignoring the cat. So anytime the puppy looks away from the cat, little food scatter on the floor is great. But we're not allowing our puppy to chase ever, not even just once. It's not just a let's go chase the cat. They're going to really love that. If they get the chance to do that, that's going to be a natural reward to them. So instead, let's reward them for maybe they look at the cat, we help them walk away. They look at the cat, we help them walk away, and we're rewarding them with something they love, like a little piece of meat or a little piece of cheese. Um, freeze-dried meat is works great, but we're not just letting our puppy fixate, stare, stiffen, stalk that cat, okay? Now, what about small mammals? We're talking uh rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters. Uh let's just assume that our dog has prey drive until proven otherwise, okay? Don't assume that's going to go well if you just let those two things be together. The dog's most likely going to want to chase it and try to pick it up. So physical separation is not optional. It's likely that interactions will always need to be supervised or just non-existent. They don't have to interact, and that's okay. Now, if we're talking puppies with birds or reptiles, uh, visual exposure first from a distance is good. And then we want to make sure that these animals have safe, secure enclosures. That's non-negotiable, right? They just have to have a safe enclosure, and we don't want our puppy's nose to be able to go up and get close to these animals where they could get back at that puppy. Next, let's talk training. Your puppy does not need a thousand tricks. What they need is impulse control. So here at Baxter and Bella, we teach you how to train your puppy to have patience and impulse control because that is a necessary skill in a human world, or I guess as we're talking about today, in a world with other species, right? So we focus a lot on that. That first week together, we focus on let's start to teach your puppy how to wait for something, how not to just see something they want and go get it right away, because that's the natural dog instinct. So key skills I recommend prioritizing with your puppy would be a leave it. We teach you how to do that in our basic training course, teaching them a recall. We again focus on this in basic training as well. In intermediate training, we talk about uh place training or go-to-bed work where we're teaching your puppy how to settle. That would be really valuable. And then leash manners inside the house, what to do when there's tension on the leash, that it's actually the dog's job to release that tension and what that looks like. We go over that in our basic training course as well. And then how to observe something calmly without engaging with it. So we want to reward your puppy anytime they choose disengagement, anytime they're relaxed and other animals are nearby, and for responding to you instead of the other creatures. You are teaching your puppy other animals do exist, but they are not your responsibility. Okay? All right, now we want to protect the emotional health of all of the animals in our household. And we don't want to overlook this part of it. Now, our existing animals might experience, because of this new puppy, some increased anxiety or resource guarding of their most favorite things. Um, maybe you'll see some withdrawal or behavior changes. Signs of stress would include hiding more than usual, changes in their appetite, maybe they're showing some aggression or avoidance, maybe litter box or enclosure issues that are not typical of what you currently see. Make sure that they still receive one-on-one attention from you, that they have a predictable routine, and that safe spaces are untouched by the puppy. So adding a puppy should not feel like punishment to these other animals in your house. Now let's talk about what not to do. We don't want to force interactions, we don't want to laugh off chasing or play because it's cute. Um, we don't want to assume the puppy will just grow out of it, right? We have to show them from the get-go what we are expecting from them because they don't know. Again, they're a dog and they're going to do dog things. Um, we don't want to just let the puppy practice bad behavior because whatever they practice is what they become, okay? And we don't want to punish curiosity. We just simply want to redirect it. So let them be curious. Don't punish that because we don't want that to be a negative thing. We don't want the creature to be a negative thing to the dog. We just want to help redirect that puppy from it. Now, if you notice escalating fixation, so your puppy's staring at this animal and they can't let go of it, they're kind of obsessed with it, or any kind of predatory behavior, if they're acting aggressive towards these other species, or if maybe they have extreme fear. Um, this is not a do-it-yourself moment. This is when we want you to reach out to us, we want you to contact us, you can email us, you can schedule a call with our trainers to try to help these interactions go more positively from the get-go. So remember, you guys, when we're talking about a multi-species household, this is about respect, it's about safety, it's about thinking ahead and doing some planning so that each animal has their safe zone. And we want to make sure that every animal feels safe. That's most important. Now, when done right, puppies raised with other species often do grow into more adaptable dogs. They have better impulse control, they're calmer, more observant companions. Your puppy doesn't need to love everyone. They don't have to be best friends with everyone in the house. They just need to learn how to live kindly with other creatures around. Thanks for listening today, you guys. Have a great rest of your week. Happy training. Thanks for tuning in to the Puppy Training Podcast. I hope today's tips help you feel more confident and excited about raising your dog. Remember, with a little patience and consistency, you can create a loving bond and a well-behaved pup who's a joy to have in your family. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with fellow puppy parents. For more resources, visit Baxter and Bella online. Until next time, happy training.