How do you keep a cat from attacking a puppy?

Lissa: How do you keep a cat from attacking a puppy?
I have a 5 and a half week old puppy, a 3 year old dog and a year old cat. The older dog and the cat get along OK but the cat wants to “play” with the puppy by attacking her. He grabs her and kicks with his back claws. We had his front claws taken out (He is strictly an indoor cat, I am allergic to his claws), but the vet refused to remove the back claws. I have been scolding the cat for playing with the puppy this way and the puppy even does her little growl at him. Does any one have any suggestions?

Answers and Views:

Answer by W.
Sounds like typical intereaction to me. The only way to avoid it is to keep them seperated. I imagine as the puppy gets larger the puppy will end up teaching the cat when enough is enough.

Answer by Sam
Spray it with water every time it does. And, it is not typically since normally there would be a mother dog to scare the cat away.

Answer by my_zander
as the puppy get older it should be okay. I have a small dog and a cat and they go at it like that too. The cat will get on top of the dog and the dog will bark and chase after her. They do it all the time.

Answer by chang z
thats normal, just let them fight it out. The cat cant do to much damage without its front claws. Eventually they will outgrow it

Answer by Moma Dancer
The only thing I know to do to cure this (and it works – seen this scenario 3 times in my life.) to do nothing. Let them work it out. If the puppy gets scratched the puppy will get to a point where she’s had enough and strike back. The ‘little growl’ becomes a pinning to the floor and a mean growl to let the cat know he can’t do that anymore. The cat then has learned it’s limits just like it would with members of it’s own litter. The cat is probably kindly letting the dog know “Hey, I was here first. This is my house and you need to learn who runs the roost.” Setting the limits for the dog. It is true there may be blood shed but it won’t go on forever don’t worry. They are animals you can’t reason with them but they will know when enough is enough.

Answer by Andy P
Get rid of the cat, keep the dog. 🙂

Answer by nikki_06au
When the cat starts being rough with the dog, tell it NO! and take it away, and put it in a crate or room alone with food, water and litter. Give it time out!