Hi everybody,
New user here and I apologize in advance for the long post ahead.
My wife and I have recently taken in a 6 year old golden retriever named Isabel. She's the sweetest, most docile and well-behaved dog in the world. We're having some challenges with our two 8 year old male cats, Reggie and Hubert, who have been with us since kittens, adapting to the change. They're the best cats I've ever owned and are generally very sweet, affectionate, and outgoing; however, we're having issues with the cats being aggressive with the dog.
Generally speaking, the can coexist peacefully under supervision, but there are instances where the dog will scare/surprise the cats, maybe just by suddenly lifting her head as they go by, and one will hiss at her, and the other one will hear and come and join the one who originally hissed and they gang up on her. I've also seen them stalking her a little bit.
We've had the dog for a little over two months now and kept them segregated in different parts of the house and would do face to face feedings through a baby gate for the first month or so (the feedings went fine, no hissing). Two weeks ago, we've started to reintegrate everybody but we're still having these instances of the cats getting upset and ganging up on her. Just an hour ago, I was working on a motorcycle in the garage, the cats had free reign of the house, and the dog was out on the deck with the screen door shut. I came inside, she got up because she heard me coming inside, and both the cats were at the screen door tails poofed up and screaming and batting at her. When they do this it doesn't really phase the dog too much but there have been some tail between the leg instances when the cats have done their ganging up.
Another story which may or may not be relevant, around two years ago my wife and I brought a dog home from a shelter who wound up having a very intense prey drive toward the cats and, unfortunately, she couldn't stay with us (she has a good home now), but there were some traumatic encounters between that dog and the cats that I'm concerned is translating over to our current situation.
I'm honestly not sure what's going on, whether it's a territory thing, fear things, etc. Does anybody have any experience with this? Any advice? I'm open to any ideas!
New user here and I apologize in advance for the long post ahead.
My wife and I have recently taken in a 6 year old golden retriever named Isabel. She's the sweetest, most docile and well-behaved dog in the world. We're having some challenges with our two 8 year old male cats, Reggie and Hubert, who have been with us since kittens, adapting to the change. They're the best cats I've ever owned and are generally very sweet, affectionate, and outgoing; however, we're having issues with the cats being aggressive with the dog.
Generally speaking, the can coexist peacefully under supervision, but there are instances where the dog will scare/surprise the cats, maybe just by suddenly lifting her head as they go by, and one will hiss at her, and the other one will hear and come and join the one who originally hissed and they gang up on her. I've also seen them stalking her a little bit.
We've had the dog for a little over two months now and kept them segregated in different parts of the house and would do face to face feedings through a baby gate for the first month or so (the feedings went fine, no hissing). Two weeks ago, we've started to reintegrate everybody but we're still having these instances of the cats getting upset and ganging up on her. Just an hour ago, I was working on a motorcycle in the garage, the cats had free reign of the house, and the dog was out on the deck with the screen door shut. I came inside, she got up because she heard me coming inside, and both the cats were at the screen door tails poofed up and screaming and batting at her. When they do this it doesn't really phase the dog too much but there have been some tail between the leg instances when the cats have done their ganging up.
Another story which may or may not be relevant, around two years ago my wife and I brought a dog home from a shelter who wound up having a very intense prey drive toward the cats and, unfortunately, she couldn't stay with us (she has a good home now), but there were some traumatic encounters between that dog and the cats that I'm concerned is translating over to our current situation.
I'm honestly not sure what's going on, whether it's a territory thing, fear things, etc. Does anybody have any experience with this? Any advice? I'm open to any ideas!
