| 1. The first encounter.
I faced a similar situation when I moved in with my housemate 5
years ago. Her family had 2 cats (8+ years old). My dog
(husky-shepherd) chased them, and scared the you-know-what out of them.
The cats ran upstairs, and would not come down.
I requested help in this file, and was advised to teach the dog a new
command related to not chasing the cats. Since Omega (the dog) did
know and would respond to both a verbal and a hand signal for "down",
we added the command "NO CAT!" to the hand signal.
It took about 3 weeks, but finally, in mid-chase, she made the
connection and dropped to the floor when I raised my arm and gave her a
firm NO CAT. Peace among the family had begun.
Both cats had leukemia, and the last one died this past April.
2. The feral strays vs Omega.
When we brought the 3 feral kittens home a couple of weeks ago, we kept
them confined in the backroom (both doors work) and completely away
from the dog. Their introduction has been very gradual.
step 1. Pet the dog and let the kittens smell my hand...pet the
kittens and let the dog smell my hand.
step 2. Open the backroom door and put up a small window screen
as a reminder that Omega shouldn't go in there. Now the
kittens can see the dog and the dog can see the kittens.
step 3. Bring the bravest kitten and the dog together ... fur-to
fur.
step 4. Allow Omega into the backroom with the kittens (under
supervision).
Yesterday was a breakthrough. The male kitten (Duffy) became so
entranced with Omega, that he tucked his head in, rolled over to his
side and "presented himself" to the dog. Next came nose-to-nose
contact, then Omega slurped his face (he spit at her on that move ... I
don't think he expected such a greeting). One of the other kittens is
also very intrigued, but hasn't yet attempted any kissy-face stuff.
The third kitten just hisses and spits -- clobbered Omega's nose
yesterday, too. Curiously, though, she kept her claws in.
None of the kittens run away when Omega approaches. They just hang
around and stare at her ... makes her r e a l l y nervous, too.
I guess the bottom line is, control the dog with known commands, or
teach a new one. Put the cat in a safe place where it can view the
dog without being threatened by it, introduce them gradually, and have
a lot of patience.
Jo-Ann
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| The first birman that I came home with was greeted by four overzealous
shelties who wanted to see just what Mom had brought home for them. My
kitten had never seen a dog so therefore was terrified to say the least. I
confined her to my bedroom for the first two weeks which is on the
second floor of my house. I set up a cat tree in my living room and
closed it off from my family room with a baby gate. The next thing I
did was open the door to the upstairs and allow the kitten to come down
by herself when she wanted to. Cats are so curious that in no time she
was hanging out on the stairs and eventually within a week was on the
cat tree peeking out at the dogs. She never had to go past a dog for
food, water or a litter box. She didn't feel threatened by the dogs
because she knew they couldn't reach her beyond the baby gate and in
the cat tree. Within a month she was walking amongst all four dogs and
she rules the roost now!
This method also allowed my dogs to see her, smell her and get used to
her before ever being able to touch her. Now that I have more birmans
than I do the shelties I find that my cats rub up against my dogs and
even curl up against them.
If you could try and give your kitty a definite place of her own where
she can feel safe and where the dog knows he cannot reach her maybe you
can work out an introduction very gradually. Good luck and let us know
your progress.
Nancy
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