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Thread: Puppy and cat

  1. #1
    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    Puppy and cat

    Need some advice on how to get my puppy to stop terrorizing the cat. Right now Diggity is confined to three rooms in the house and there are gates separating the rest of the house. Yet the cat keeps coming into the rooms where Diggity is which results in a chase and either the cat escaping back to safety or Diggity catching the cat and pouncing on him. I’ve tried introducing them slowly with one person holding Diggity and the other holding the cat and they sniff but then Diggity gets all riled up and scares the cat. And I’ve put the cat in the backyard with Diggity on the leash and that doesn’t seem to work either. I’ve also tried clicker training and reward Diggity for ignoring the cat while I give him treats. He does ignore the cat momentarily but then goes right back to being ultra focused on him. The clicker training is probably the method I’m going to continue with but we just don’t seem to be making much progress.

    I just hope I don’t have to wait until Diggity grows out of his puppyhood. The cat used to love my old dog because she was super mellow and basically steered clear of the cat.


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    Teach Diggity "leave it" and alternate that with "leave kitty" until it sinks in. Use a leash whenever Diggity and the cat are in the same room. Don't give him a chance to chase the cat.

    In my house, cats have always been "alpha" (after me)...they call the shots. The more you let Diggity get away with, the longer it'll take for them to be OK together.

    Be glad the cat already likes dogs.

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  4. #3
    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SunDance View Post
    Teach Diggity "leave it" and alternate that with "leave kitty" until it sinks in. Use a leash whenever Diggity and the cat are in the same room. Don't give him a chance to chase the cat.

    In my house, cats have always been "alpha" (after me)...they call the shots. The more you let Diggity get away with, the longer it'll take for them to be OK together.

    Be glad the cat already likes dogs.
    I am teaching “leave it” already so we can add “leave kitty” to that. Good idea.

    I know, this cat is a great cat that likes pretty much everything and everyone and I don’t want to spoil that.


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    -palmtreedanny002-jpg

    Danny grew up with Charlie as his big brother...he respected that cat and they eventually played chase both ways and bitey face. He mourned Charlie's passing for six full months afterwards. Best relationship ever. Charlie was in charge and thrilled with Danny...the first dog who responded exactly the way Charlie wanted.

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  7. #5
    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SunDance View Post
    -palmtreedanny002-jpg

    Danny grew up with Charlie as his big brother...he respected that cat and they eventually played chase both ways and bitey face. He mourned Charlie's passing for six full months afterwards. Best relationship ever. Charlie was in charge and thrilled with Danny...the first dog who responded exactly the way Charlie wanted.
    Hoping we get to that. Would be awesome.


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  8. #6
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    We had gates off areas with cat sized holes in them. Two gates kept puppy from falling down stairs. Two cats laid down the law pretty well, when they had to. Dogs drool, cats rule. The third cat, the one who was really bonded to our previous Lab, hid for a year. It took that long but she and Oban did become friends.

    One thing I think really helped was a training exercise suggested for use with a second dog. I only had one puppy so I used a cat. Puppy SIT, too slow, cat gets free treat, dog gets no treat. This seemed to work in three ways: Cat with dog in same room means treats for both. Cat earned respect as obviously cat controlled the treats. Puppy sat so quickly the next time his little bum went SMACK on the floor.

    Another thing I've always done is speak to, pet, feed, play with whoever was here first. I think it helps establish a hierarchy. Maybe it only makes me feel better.
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  10. #7
    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Snowshoe View Post
    We had gates off areas with cat sized holes in them. Two gates kept puppy from falling down stairs. Two cats laid down the law pretty well, when they had to. Dogs drool, cats rule. The third cat, the one who was really bonded to our previous Lab, hid for a year. It took that long but she and Oban did become friends.

    One thing I think really helped was a training exercise suggested for use with a second dog. I only had one puppy so I used a cat. Puppy SIT, too slow, cat gets free treat, dog gets no treat. This seemed to work in three ways: Cat with dog in same room means treats for both. Cat earned respect as obviously cat controlled the treats. Puppy sat so quickly the next time his little bum went SMACK on the floor.

    Another thing I've always done is speak to, pet, feed, play with whoever was here first. I think it helps establish a hierarchy. Maybe it only makes me feel better.
    Thanks! Very helpful!


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    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    I'm being a little laid back on the puppy/cat thing. I got the cat a really tall cat tree and she's got a lot of places to jump, hide, etc. Her food is elevated. And, the puppy is crated when napping as well as when I'm not home and at night. We also spend a lot of time outside. That gives the cat lots of opportunities to be out and about. When the cat does happen to come out when the puppy is up and I see her first, I call them all to the cookies before there is a chase. When the cat gets in "I'm prey!" mode, it makes my other dog chase her, too. I can also call the puppy off the cat with calling him to the cookie jar. I trained the puppy early on to accept delayed reward because I just don't always have cookies on me and I don't want to miss opportunities to reinforce certain behaviors like giving me what is in his mouth or not chasing the cat.

  12. #9
    Best Friend Retriever silverfz's Avatar
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    Lay good get out areas/spots for the cat and have them sort it out. Gigi when puppy would put the whole damn cat in her mouth. But now they sleep on the same love seat. Leave it a command the pup has to learn. Gigi used to hang out with our guniea pig who crossed the the rainbow bridge a few weeks back and now we have diablo [He has blazing red eyes and hence was 60% off as no one wanted him]. So Gigi very curious as diablo is a climber, hopper and runner. But she does sniff him and very jealous when i am playing with him.

    takes time, i then a cat which smacked gigi once and she left him alone. His brother who is alive now is more gentle and she does get a bit pushy.

  13. #10
    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    We’re making very small improvements on the cat - dog interactions, but it’s still nowhere close to a peaceful coexistence. The good: when the cat is settled on the top of the cat tree, Diggity will calm down and either sit and stare at the cat or even go to sleep. The bad: as soon as the cat gets down from the tree or comes into the same room with Diggity, he leaps up and sprints after the cat and pounces on him. The cat then runs, gets cornered, starts hissing, and then rapid-fire swats at Diggity who backs off, but keeps coming right back for more. I monitor the scene and if it goes on for more than a minute or two (I don’t want his eyes to get scratched), I’ll pull Diggity back and try to calm him down, but he’s too riled up at that point and he just pulls to get back to the cat. After a few minutes, I’ll separate them. One interesting thing is when the chase ends up at the top of the stairs where the door is closed, I’ll come around the corner and they’re both sitting there next to each other and for a split second I think they’re ok. But then Diggity jumps on top of the cat and it starts all over again. What amazes me is the cat has such a good temperament that as soon as the craziness is over, he’s walking around like nothing happened. I do think there’s some gamesmanship going on with the cat too because when he’s up high in a safe place, he’ll roll over on his side and reach his arm down towards Diggity almost like he’s teasing him. I’m hoping Diggity calms down at some point because I really think the cat wants to be friends like he was with Sprocket (who always gave the cat plenty of respect and space.)

    Anyway, still looking for other suggestions on how to get past this. It’s probably my biggest stress with Diggity at this point.


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