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- Nov 5, 2021
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Thanks to al of you who reassured me on my thread below about dude and Willow and how the integration is going. We have peace, except for feeding times and we'll have to work on that.
We do have one additional issue with Dude. He yowls a lot. The SPCA didn't mention it, and I can't imagine he lived in a small apartment for nine years without the neighbours complaining, so I think it might be a newer behaviour, but it is an issue at night.
Basically, Dude howls very loudly when he wants something. It seems more play-oriented than anything else. He is far more rambunctious than the SPCA thought he was, based on what his previous family told them, and he was at the SPCA for along time. He races around the house howling, which is sort of cute during the day and our Willow does it too, though to a lesser degree, but if he doesn't get his way with attention and play he keeps on doing it. And he does it at night, which is a HUGE problem for me because if he wakes me up I won't go back to sleep, and since I'm a full-time caregiver to my partner I cannot have that.
I'm obviously going to have to give him a good play session in the evenings, which is fine, since that's when Willow likes to lie around having lap time with my partner so there won't be any jealousy. But even so, he howls early in the morning, like 4 am..
I don't know if the howling is boredom, or stress at being in a new place, or he's hungry, but it has to stop.
I can't leave food out for him because food is the one issue the two cats will fight about. Even one piece of dry food can cause a hissy fit. Eventually I'll be shutting him out of my room at night (Willow is not allowed to sleep in my room, either) but since I can't trust them on their own just yet I don't want to do that now.
I try to ignore it as much as I can and reward him with play when he isn't yowling. With my other cat, if she bugs me in the night I hiss at her, which generally gets the message across, and I'll try that with him, too.
I don't really know what else to do. Are there any training methods to deal with this?
We do have one additional issue with Dude. He yowls a lot. The SPCA didn't mention it, and I can't imagine he lived in a small apartment for nine years without the neighbours complaining, so I think it might be a newer behaviour, but it is an issue at night.
Basically, Dude howls very loudly when he wants something. It seems more play-oriented than anything else. He is far more rambunctious than the SPCA thought he was, based on what his previous family told them, and he was at the SPCA for along time. He races around the house howling, which is sort of cute during the day and our Willow does it too, though to a lesser degree, but if he doesn't get his way with attention and play he keeps on doing it. And he does it at night, which is a HUGE problem for me because if he wakes me up I won't go back to sleep, and since I'm a full-time caregiver to my partner I cannot have that.
I'm obviously going to have to give him a good play session in the evenings, which is fine, since that's when Willow likes to lie around having lap time with my partner so there won't be any jealousy. But even so, he howls early in the morning, like 4 am..
I don't know if the howling is boredom, or stress at being in a new place, or he's hungry, but it has to stop.
I can't leave food out for him because food is the one issue the two cats will fight about. Even one piece of dry food can cause a hissy fit. Eventually I'll be shutting him out of my room at night (Willow is not allowed to sleep in my room, either) but since I can't trust them on their own just yet I don't want to do that now.
I try to ignore it as much as I can and reward him with play when he isn't yowling. With my other cat, if she bugs me in the night I hiss at her, which generally gets the message across, and I'll try that with him, too.
I don't really know what else to do. Are there any training methods to deal with this?