cats and dogs getting along together. lol

[betsy]

Our new basenji pup is coming along very well with her training. She's four and a half months old and a total cuddle love bug. She's got a very good temperament with no aggression or fearfulness. She's been cool about the vet, no I lie, she loves our vet. She's quite the social little thing.
She's housebroken knows the house rules for the most part.
She also gets no unsupervised time out of the crate.
She sleeps in the bed, but is crated when we are away from the house. We both work from home for the most part so she's never been crated for more than 3 hours She's cool with the crate for the most part though she does grumble when she thinks she's been put in there for 'no good reason'.
We also have three lovely rescue cats. I say rescue because we have a cat dumping problem at the end of our road. Not cool. All of the cats we have decided we were their people.
Our boy cat has made friends with Mrs. Walters. They are besties. As long as she doesn't puppy play too rough. I'm expecting their relationship to blossom as she grows out of puppyhood. Here's the thing, our two 'grey slayers' have learned that we have a 'zero tolerance' with puppy play with them. They don't run away from her, but they do hunker down and get a little hissy. We don't allow Mrs. Walters to bother them, or be on the same couch/nook with them. These cats have taken to hanging out near her and basically teasing her so they can take a swipe. The cats are too smart! They know this puts the puppy in a crate time out and they win!
No one is pleased with this - except the cats.
One of the reason we decided on a puppy was to increase the chance that they would all get along. And honestly I think it's going as well as can be expected.
So here is the question. As far as puppy play goes, will Mrs Walters eventually get it and ignore the cats that don't want to play? Any training tips? (besides ejecting the cats from the house)
My goal is eventually to let her roam around the home a bit with less supervision. But there is no way I'm gonna leave her alone with the grey kitties right now!

[DebraDownSouth]

Cats are jerks. But they also are training the pup. My tendency would be to stay out of it as much as possible. Perhaps a spray bottle to get them from hanging to close and when he tries to approach them. Teaching "Leave it" or "to me" to get him away from them might help. I am sure those here with cats will have better ideas. Setting up gates to keep the pup away from them might help.

I think the cats not running is a good sign that you have a chance of happy co-existence.

good lessons
http://www.clickerlessons.com/index.htm

[tanza]

@betsy - sounds to me like you are doing everything right.... the pup and cats need to make their own peace... and sounds like it is going as good as expected. The pup will learn the body language as she gets older of the cats... and yes, agree with Debra... good that the cats done run... and if the pups gets "swiped" by the kitties... what a better way to learn to back off...