- Joined
- Mar 14, 2016
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"K did a lot of crouching-cat-sniffing-cat (that's supposed to be a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon joke) but she was much more subdued and nervous than I thought she would be. She refused to eat any treats at first, and after doing her scent rounds, she went to the door and asked to be let out, which of course I couldn't do." - This is normal as it is new territory. Trying to make it as positive as possible is what is important.
"She then only ate treats if I hand-fed them to her, she wouldn't eat them off the ground." - That is fine and great she did make a positive association.
"T ran up to the door and K hyper-focused on the crack, and they had a hissing/growling/pawing round. My partner reported that T was sort of tense but also sort of playing? To me, K was definitely not playing, and ignoring treats, and my reassurances. Her pupils were blown the entire time we were in T's room." - Yes, this happens, we want to try to avoid this so it isn't a negative encounter. But it is not the end of the world that it happened.
"My partner tried to get T downstairs, away from the door, and was only successful as long as he was good enough at distracting her with a toy - stop for one second too long and T was back at the door of her room." - Great. That is exactly the right thing to do.
"K spent the rest of the time focusing on the crack, patrolling, asking to be let out, and lying down. Toward the end she started eating treats off the ground, which I thought was good." - GREAT you turned a potential negative into a positive. WELL DONE!!!
"By the way, her scratching is more like stretching, she puts her claws out but pulls her paws away instead of dragging them down like what you would expect when you hear "cat scratching the couch"." - That is good, she felt comfortable it sounds.
"She didn't use T's litter box." - That is fine, shows she isn;t feeling territorially insecure.
"T on the other hand tried to use K's box many times but I think only ended up with one #1 and a tiny #2. From what my partner tells me she tried her best to conjure up more "stuff". I hope K isn't put off by it but I feel like K would prefer her litter box be private only to her (for example I feel like she wouldn't try to use T's...but just a feeling)." - T was feeling a little insecure probably. We'll see how K responds. If she is really secure she will be fine. Let us know what happens.
"Actually, we tried to limit this site swap to half an hour, but it ended up taking a full hour because we were both trying to get at least one of them into their carrier, so that we could swap back without them meeting. K will ignore even a mountain of treats if they're inside the carrier, because she knows it's a trap, but if you can pick her up you can generally drop her in and shut the zipper without much issue. But she has to let you pick her up. T is impossible to physically put into her carrier (and even if you could, she'd dash out before you could blink), she has to go in by herself, and usually we achieve that by putting food or treats inside. K didn't want to be picked up so I had to work at that for a while, and my partner was unsuccessful trying to entice T to enter her carrier fully.
Every time we fail to close up the carrier with T, it gets 75% more difficult to get her in there again, because she gets scared of the carrier, of us, of the treats, of everything. I say this in affection only: sometimes they are so smart...but sometimes they are so dumb... " - Just try to make it as positive as possible. Don't force things. It is all about making things as positive as possible.
"At the hour, K finally let me pick her up and I dropped her in, closed up the carrier, and out we went.
T ran back upstairs because she got scared of me holding K's carrier (large unfamiliar object, panic! panic!) so I put the gate up behind her, and let K out with a treat waiting. K ate the treat immediately, which I didn't expect given her earlier reluctance in T's room. But I guess she's so familiar with the downstairs area that she felt confident?" - That sounds really great. Yes, confident. SOunds really positive.
"
They both laid down here totally chill about a minute after we returned things to "normal". I don't know how long it would have gone for because I wanted to reward them with treats, but was too clumsy and accidentally threw a treat to T which bounced off the gate to land near K, who got up because she wanted the treat...I ruined it. " - they look great here. AN EXCELLENT sign!! GREAT job on the site swap.
"The "swap" itself I feel like didn't go that well" - Totally disagree. I thought it was an excellent site swap. Went better than I would ahve thought. They are in a better place than you think.
"I am wondering if the closed door stressed K out more than it would have if we had put the gate up instead. " Probably but for safety it had to be done and she did well in time. Over time she did really well.
I am really happy with how they did and how they reacted after (always watch what they tell us). I am really proud of them and you and your partner. Did a GREAT job!!
"She then only ate treats if I hand-fed them to her, she wouldn't eat them off the ground." - That is fine and great she did make a positive association.
"T ran up to the door and K hyper-focused on the crack, and they had a hissing/growling/pawing round. My partner reported that T was sort of tense but also sort of playing? To me, K was definitely not playing, and ignoring treats, and my reassurances. Her pupils were blown the entire time we were in T's room." - Yes, this happens, we want to try to avoid this so it isn't a negative encounter. But it is not the end of the world that it happened.
"My partner tried to get T downstairs, away from the door, and was only successful as long as he was good enough at distracting her with a toy - stop for one second too long and T was back at the door of her room." - Great. That is exactly the right thing to do.
"K spent the rest of the time focusing on the crack, patrolling, asking to be let out, and lying down. Toward the end she started eating treats off the ground, which I thought was good." - GREAT you turned a potential negative into a positive. WELL DONE!!!
"By the way, her scratching is more like stretching, she puts her claws out but pulls her paws away instead of dragging them down like what you would expect when you hear "cat scratching the couch"." - That is good, she felt comfortable it sounds.
"She didn't use T's litter box." - That is fine, shows she isn;t feeling territorially insecure.
"T on the other hand tried to use K's box many times but I think only ended up with one #1 and a tiny #2. From what my partner tells me she tried her best to conjure up more "stuff". I hope K isn't put off by it but I feel like K would prefer her litter box be private only to her (for example I feel like she wouldn't try to use T's...but just a feeling)." - T was feeling a little insecure probably. We'll see how K responds. If she is really secure she will be fine. Let us know what happens.
"Actually, we tried to limit this site swap to half an hour, but it ended up taking a full hour because we were both trying to get at least one of them into their carrier, so that we could swap back without them meeting. K will ignore even a mountain of treats if they're inside the carrier, because she knows it's a trap, but if you can pick her up you can generally drop her in and shut the zipper without much issue. But she has to let you pick her up. T is impossible to physically put into her carrier (and even if you could, she'd dash out before you could blink), she has to go in by herself, and usually we achieve that by putting food or treats inside. K didn't want to be picked up so I had to work at that for a while, and my partner was unsuccessful trying to entice T to enter her carrier fully.
Every time we fail to close up the carrier with T, it gets 75% more difficult to get her in there again, because she gets scared of the carrier, of us, of the treats, of everything. I say this in affection only: sometimes they are so smart...but sometimes they are so dumb... " - Just try to make it as positive as possible. Don't force things. It is all about making things as positive as possible.
"At the hour, K finally let me pick her up and I dropped her in, closed up the carrier, and out we went.
T ran back upstairs because she got scared of me holding K's carrier (large unfamiliar object, panic! panic!) so I put the gate up behind her, and let K out with a treat waiting. K ate the treat immediately, which I didn't expect given her earlier reluctance in T's room. But I guess she's so familiar with the downstairs area that she felt confident?" - That sounds really great. Yes, confident. SOunds really positive.
"
They both laid down here totally chill about a minute after we returned things to "normal". I don't know how long it would have gone for because I wanted to reward them with treats, but was too clumsy and accidentally threw a treat to T which bounced off the gate to land near K, who got up because she wanted the treat...I ruined it. " - they look great here. AN EXCELLENT sign!! GREAT job on the site swap.
"The "swap" itself I feel like didn't go that well" - Totally disagree. I thought it was an excellent site swap. Went better than I would ahve thought. They are in a better place than you think.
"I am wondering if the closed door stressed K out more than it would have if we had put the gate up instead. " Probably but for safety it had to be done and she did well in time. Over time she did really well.
I am really happy with how they did and how they reacted after (always watch what they tell us). I am really proud of them and you and your partner. Did a GREAT job!!