How To Deal With This Cat/puppy Situation?

[Guiltycatowner]

I have a 16 week old Eurasier puppy and two adult cats (Cat A and Cat S). Puppy is not aggressive but would love to play with the cats, and tries to get to them every time he sees them (in a playful, curious way, not a prey drive way). The cats do not want to play with the puppy. Puppy came home five days ago and the cats immediately retreated upstairs. The layout of my house is such that the cats can be upstairs and come down whenever they want, but the puppy cannot go upstairs. This works fine for Cat S, who is mostly an indoor cat, but Cat A is an active cat who enjoys going outdoors. In order to go outdoors, she has to come down the stairs in the lounge and go through to the kitchen in order to use the cat flap, which she can usually do when she sees that puppy is asleep or out with me.

The problem arises when she wants to get back in. She obviously can't see whether puppy is present and awake before she sticks her head through, and, due to the layout of the lounge and kitchen, it's impossible to prevent puppy from seeing her when she does. When he does, she immediately retreats, regardless of whether he is restrained (e.g. by a pen) or not. My solution when that happens has been to go get her from outside and carry her upstairs, but she doesn't like that and the last time retreated away from me when I had set her down (she's not traumatised or anything, just angry at me), so I'm afraid that, if I keep doing that, it will damage our relationship. On the other hand, if I just let things take their course, I'm worried that she'll stop feeling safe to ever come home and move away (there are no other places to put a cat flap which would protect her). The third option would be to lock the cat flap and keep her inside until they sort themselves out. I think this could work, especially given that her enormous energy will have nowhere to go except downstairs to deal with puppy, but at the same time, she hates to be confined inside. For what it's worth, I think once the pecking order is established they could be great friends (she very bold and he's totally not aggressive).

I genuinely have no idea what to do, any advice would be most welcome.

 

[Columbine]

Hi, and welcome to TCS

It sounds like you're dealing with what I refer to as a language barrier. Puppies, especially bouncy and exuberant ones, can be rather overwhelming for cats in the early weeks (or sometimes months, depending on the confidence of the cats). There are several tricks and techniques you can try, though, and you have no reason to feel guilty.

The first technique is the most labour intensive for you. Get a training dog leash (see below), or one made for runners, and keep puppy physically attached to you whenever he's awake.
When he's sleeping, he should be in a puppy pen or dog crate. I buy crates big enough for the adult dog, and crate train all my dogs. It's incredibly useful for all kinds of reasons, and can help the cats gain confidence around the dog faster. I start with feeding puppy in the crate, and keeping a few safe toys in there too (things like Nylabones and rope chew toys). Puppy also sleeps in the crate at night, and goes in there if I have to go out. I never leave puppy unsupervised with cats (or indeed loose overnight) until I'm 1000% confident that puppy will respect the cats and give them their space, and that the cats are totally confident around the puppy. Done right, a crate trained dog will actually seek out their crate when they want some peace and quiet. My current lab starts her night in her crate (being let out once everyone's settled for the night), and bedtime is one of her favourite times of day!

If having puppy attached to you for the bulk of the day is too much, I'd get a puppy pen that can be used in multiple configurations, and use it to create a puppy-free walkway from cat flap to stairs (or to wall furnuture/cat trees etc set up in such a way as to give the cats a safe path to the stairs that's well out of puppy's reach).

Alongside this, you want to be working daily on obedience and training (and ideally puppy classes with a good dog trainer) , and give puppy plenty of appropriate outlets for his energy and excuberance. Something that really used to help my girl (on top of walks, training etc) was to stuff a Kong (the original type, not the fancy designs) with part of her food ration, maybe 'seal' it with some all natural peanut butter (or whatever yummy paste he likes) then stick it in a plastic baggie and freeze it. This will take puppy a good long time to eat, and provides extra mental stimulation. When my girl was very young, she'd get so tired eating it that she'd stop for a nap halfway through! It's also a great thing to give puppy before you go out, as it will keep him busy and (hopefully) prevent any separation anxiety.

For the cats, make sure they have plenty of safe high spaces, so they can watch puppy whilst being safely out of his reach. Encouraging them to come down when he's penned or crated will help too. They'll gain confidence faster when they know they're not in danger of being bounced on

You could talk to your vet about trying them on a food based calmer, such as Composure or Zylkene, just to help them relax and feel less anxious during this transition stage. It never hurts to try Feliway diffusers either. Also, make the time to give them affection and playtime when puppy is sleeping. This will help reassure them that they're still just as important in the family.
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