A new home can feel like a sudden jolt to your new pet’s life and the arrival of the “new guy” can cause a big change to each individual’s norm. While our end goal may be to give the new pet access to each pet and space, integrating them into the home haphazardly or too quickly can be dangerous and often times counterproductive. Therefore, a strategic and thoughtful integration process is essential in setting everyone up for success. There isn’t exactly a one-size-fits-all approach, but there are elements of consideration that I typically follow to help the new and established animals maintain a sense of safety throughout the integration process. While the amount of time it takes to reach our behavior goals varies from case to case, the initial discomfort that comes with big change is only temporary. There are lots of small victories to look forward to as everyone adjusts to the new dynamics of the group.

Starting with a Safe Space

Choose a room or section of the house that your new pet can call their own. The area should be completely closed away from other pets so that they don’t have constant visual access to each other or the ability to reach noses or paws through gaps. Prep the space to meet all of their basic needs such as food, water, hiding options, access to bathroom, beds, and species-specific enrichment. The amount of space you choose will depend on the pet i.e., a dog needs more horizontal space while a cat requires ample vertical space. Dogs will also need access to outdoor space along a route that doesn’t involve interacting with other pets to learn potty training.

The safe space is temporary as your pets will eventually be fully integrated, but until then, it’s helpful to have a place where your new pet can acclimate to the smells and sounds of their new home and build a trusting relationship with you away from the others. When you do start introducing them to the other pets, the space will act as a break room between introductions.

As your new pet becomes comfortable in the new space and with you, it may be time to introduce them to other areas of the house.

Getting to Know the Lay of the Land

Set up your existing pets in a space closed away with something rewarding to do and begin to gradually give your new pet access to more and more spaces in the house. The first space they will have access to will be immediately outside of the safe space, then each subsequent room can become available as they move around the new spaces with confidence. Make sure they always have a route back to their original room in case something like a sudden noise spooks them. Treats to tell them “good job” along the way can be helpful as well.

Spend short intervals of time a couple of times a day to move about the different areas of the house. Your new pet may be a little nervous about exploring new places and demonstrate some hesitancy, but that’s ok! Wait to show them a new space once you see confidence in their behaviors. Try to go at their pace.

“Howdies”

The term “howdies” is jargon from my zookeeping career, but it implies that the animals “meet” through a barrier. Ideally, there is a buffer of space between the animals so that they aren’t able to touch each other, but they can see each other at a distance. One way this could be set up is with two gates: one gate on the new pet’s side and one gate on the O.G. side.

It’s critical that neither side is able to breach the gates. Howdies are meant to be a safe way to observe the other’s behavior and communicate safely. As the facilitator, it’s your job to observe their behavior and look for signs of interest in sharing space. If an animal is hiding, hissing, barking, growling, showing tension in their body, etc., then it’s not the time to remove gates. Spending time looking at each other with relaxed body language, resting near the gate, pawing at the gate, etc. could be indicators that it’s time to meet “in person.”

Howdies should always be supervised and they can be managed with some training on board such as rewarding behaviors you want to see at the gate/ towards the animal on the other side. They can start off as briefly as just a few minutes or go as long as 15-30 minutes. Short, positive sessions are helpful in making significant progress.

Prepping the Shared Space

The main ingredients include:

1. Escape routes: For a cat, this includes multiple vertical options and a route back to their safe room. For a dog, they will require wide open space such as a backyard or perhaps a rented Sniffspot space. Routes to barriers are essential.

2. Enrichment geared towards behaviors you want to see: Within the shared space, each individual should have something positive to engage with that will not create competition with the other individual(s) involved in the introduction. For a Sniffspot yard, the environment is likely to do the job for you since there will be novel sniffing spots, natural landscape variety, and critters to observe and chase. For cats, this may include a bunch of boxes, balls to bat at, a new bird feeder outside of the window, feather toys, catnip, or anything that you know to be successful for the individuals. These enrichment items are ideally contingent on the introduction. The animals don’t necessarily need to interact with each other, but given lots of fun things to do, they may naturally build up a relationship together based on the shared reinforcers and a sense of safety given the escape routes.

3. Well established cues: The ability to call away an individual and replace shared space with barriers is critical. Work on your recall cue diligently before introductions begin. Cues can range from the sound of a treat bag to a verbal cue to an established bridging stimulus to the movement of your body in the opposite direction, whatever you choose should translate “if you come with me, good things are on the way” then reward them with something they enjoy.

Start and Stop Signals

The start of the introduction should be predictable, so try to create a pattern of your own behaviors that predict the gates are about to open. When I worked with 2 Amur Leopards on introductions, we fed them their full diet across their “howdie” space, captured calm behavior with each bite of meatball, we then moved to the doors, after the leopards went into position in prep of the gates opening, we said “door” then opened the doors and stepped away.

When it was time to end the introduction, we walked towards the doors again, prompted each leopard into their respective space with our established cues, said “door” before closing the doors, then pampered them with high value treats like chicken, fish, knuckle bones, the works! There was value to the introduction from start to finish, and those leopards are now parents to two beautiful cubs. The same sort of process can be applied to our pets.

Using Time and Behavior as Measures

Time is not a measure alone. What the animals are doing (their behavior) is our measure, but time does play an important role for our data tracking. You can look at time as a pressure cooker. The longer the animals are sharing a space, the more pressure is applied. You can stretch the time and relax the time like a rubber band. But take note of their behaviors along the way. For some individuals, 5 minutes could be a pressure point, but for others, it may be 30 minutes. Try to wrap up the introduction before too much tension occurs, and look for signs that the individuals would like to have their own space (hiding, tail tucked, shaking, moving towards escape rooms, etc.)

Early on, plan on introductions being brief, then as they have success, the time can be stretched, then relaxed, stretched, then relaxed. Variably increasing the duration together will build duration with minimal errors along the way.

Successful introductions look like animals sharing a space and engaging in positive, natural behaviors such as sniffing, resting, engaging with enrichment, playing, being able to move around each other without much conflict, etc. Take note of the behaviors along the way and the time interval.

Some conflict can be normal at the start, but the goal is two-way communication. A cat may hiss, but if the hiss is met with distanced behavior, then that is effective communication. If fights occur, then the relationship is at risk, and it may be best to pause introductions and seek help from a qualified professional.

Good Dog & Co. is well versed in facilitating introductions between pets with clients, so feel free to reach out if you need assistance!

Facilitating Thoughtful Introductions Between Pets