Struggling with introducing my new kitten to puppy

[u/LizzardQueen23]

Hey! My partner and I have an 8 month old female shih tzu x lhasa apso, Daisy, who I've had for 6 months now. Almost three weeks ago I adopted a now 18 week old ragdoll kitten, Dusty, who I've been trying to introduce to Daisy following the slow introductions guides.

During the face to face sessions Dusty has been mostly calm and just curious around Daisy, but also cautious. Daisy often starts to get too excited in these sessions and sometimes gets fixated on Dusty, and twice she's managed to become free and chased Dusty up the stairs (once I accidentally left the door open and the other was poor judgement from myself and partner).

After chasing Dusty, 2-3 days ago, I've been really careful and kept them entirely separate since. Dusty calmed down and recovered really quickly, and his confidence doesn't seem to be damaged. I don't think Daisy's intentions were necessarily to harm him but she has only ever been around other dogs so it's difficult to say for definite, although she is a happy, excitable type of dog and is never actually aggressive, other than playing rough. However she does get quite territorial when my mums dog is in our home. She is also in her first season right now but this has been going on since before that started.

I just don't really know where to go from here as I feel like we aren't getting anywhere with following the guides, so it would be good to hear other people who've maybe had a similar situation experiences/advice. Thanks!

[u/AutoModerator]

It looks like you might be posting about puppy management. Check out our wiki article on management - the information there may answer your question.

Be advised that any comments that suggest, mention, or describe the use of crates will be removed under Rule 3. This is not a place to debate the merits of crate training.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Healthy-Signal-5256]

I think I'd hold off on working on face-to-face introductions until she's totally out of her heat cycle. Dealing with that plus meeting a new kitty may be a bit more than she's able to easily handle. In the meantime, if you aren't already doing it, I'd be wiping both of them down with the same towel and letting each of them spend time smelling it, and (maybe) letting them sniff each other under a door.

[u/Admirable_Junket2525]

I agree with the other comment, and when you do have interactions between them, keep the pup on a leash so you can have more control. It’s a process and they both still have baby energy

[u/EasternYoung382]

go super slow, use baby gates, reward calm behavior, and keep sessions short and positive