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I wasn't sure whether to post this in a cat thread or dog thread, so I guess I'll give it its own thread! Long story short: I have a 5-year old beagle and earlier this year wound up with my childhood 15-year old cat. It has proven impossible to find a responsible adopter so I'm keeping her. Not too torn up about it because she's an absolute sweetheart, if not just a bit shy around anyone but me. The dog's experiences with cats: 1. The rescue found him as a stray at 2 years old. No idea on past history. 2. We lived in an apartment with a small stray cat colony on property; he constantly barked/bayed/tried to chase them out of the bushes while on leash. 3. He met the cat in question last year face-to-face (sort of accident) and she hissed/yowled, he bay/barked in an "offended tone" at her (I know it sounds ridiculous) and we quickly separated them. 4. We visited a family member's house with cats (who previously had a dog). He got in the giant lazy fat cat's face (who looked a bit offended) and then wandered off. He got in the face of another cat, who hissed and swatted him. I broke them up and he seemed unconcerned. 5. Not a cat, but there was a bird in our yard and he chased it, caught it, and killed it all while I was screaming at him  That's a prey drive right there.The cat's experiences with dogs: 1. Nada. They're aliens as far as she's concerned. 2. She was declawed in front paws a long time ago, so she is not able to give him a swat if needed. She is also senior and not so great at jumping to high places. (He, on the other hand, is a freaking Olympic jumper) I'm not sure she'll be able to ever truly escape if he's tailing her.Steps so far: For the past few months I have SLOWLY been introducing the two of them. She lives upstairs, he lives downstairs. There is a built-in baby gate at the foot of the stairs. The door upstairs is closed when we are not home so there are no unsupervised interactions. I have been feeding the cat some yummy wet food on the landing at the halfway point on the stairs so that she has a reason to observe us (and the dog) as we go about our daily things. One time they got real close through the baby gate, and the cat hissed. A different time, the dog got so excited he reared back his head and bayed to nothing in particular (He does this a lot on car rides because EXCITINGGGG). Surprisingly, kitty stood her ground! Yesterday I had the dog on a leash already from being freshly exercised at the dog park, so my husband and I decided to open the baby gate and let them see each other without a barrier. Husband fed the dog training treats to do little "sit" and "lay" tricks while the cat ate her can of wet food about 4 feet up the stairs next to me. It was a bad decision because he gets SO EXCITED when we pull out the treats. Oops. Once we put them away he was staring at her, but she was ignoring him. Things felt a little tense after a minute, so we decided to disperse the situation. From what I understand with human anxieties, you want to build up little successful episodes without allowing a "breaking point" to happen. I assume it would be the same with the animals. I didn't want it to get to the point of a hiss or a bark. We wanted to end things on a high note. The dog got close enough to sniff the cat's tail while her back was turned (showing she couldn't have been that scared). Today I let them eat their food semi-close to each other.  It mostly was uneventful, even though the dog got a bit tense once he was done and she was not. I think he wanted her stinky wet food. I snapped him out of it by saying his name and patting my leg. So, that's where I am right now. I'm not really sure what I'm looking to happen next. What body languages/sounds to watch for. What body languages/sounds to say "okay, we need to dial it back." They aren't going to curl up in a cuddle-puddle right now. But I'm pretty scared to let them get close enough to touch. Dogs sniff butts to greet each other - cats probably are not up for that invasion of butthole privacy. When this dog sees something run, he chases it. Joggers, bicycles, toys, other dogs, squirrels, birds. He chases everything! And I'm pretty sure the cat will run if he gets close enough to touch her. So he will probably try to chase her too. I know the general theories with introducing cats and dogs. Let them get acclimated to the other's smells, let the new one establish a comfortable "home" spot, let them eat on opposite sides of a door/gate to associate positive things with the newcomer. I guess I'm just asking what to look for next, what step comes next, and how to do it safely and semi-relaxedly. I'm sorry this reads grammatically oddly. It's 1am here.  I noticed halfway through typing that I didn't give their names. The dog is Roger and the cat is Callie. That would have made it easier to follow, probably.
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Sep 20, 2014 07:07
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 21:46 |
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No one? Today we took a step backward. Roger had finished his (dry) food bowl but Callie was still picking at hers (wet). She came down one more step to investigate Roger, who was staring at her, and hissed loudly. Roger immediately bayed loudly in her face, sort of with a lunging motion. She stood her ground, but it scared me... I'm not sure if there wasn't a baby gate there if he wouldn't have bit her.They seem so aloof when they're ~4 feet apart. Turning their backs on each other, eating, accepting my hand for pets/scritches. Ugh. Maybe it was the fact that Callie had the food but Roger didn't have anything anymore. And that food was particularly stinky and therefore high value to both of them?
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Sep 21, 2014 05:00
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