Hey all, I used to be active on this forum, but haven't been for quite a while (though I've lurked on occasion).
We now have a dog, she is 9 months old. We trained her pretty darn well to not bother the cats. The bedroom, storeroom and bathroom are baby-gated off. We have scratching posts, toys, catnip, food, water and litter in that area. The livingroom/kitchen area is where the dog hangs out. There are also several high safe places in the livingroom for the cats.
Ollie did VERY well when we got the dog (older cat, kind of grumpy). He growls when there is proximity and otherwise him and the dog ignore each other. Hemi is the problem. Younger bratty calico with huge polydactyl paws. She has been obsessed with the dog from day one. She followed us on walks, ate out of the dog's food dish etc and the dog never bothered her for this. Her and the dog used to sniff at each other occasionally and that would be it. Seemed good. Some interactions have been downright cute....Hemi actually licked the dog's eyebrows last night, and all the dog did was sniff back and go back to napping.
Hemi will NOT leave the dog alone. She has started running up and batting at the dog, then running off a few feet and stopping (she never goes to the "safe places", she just waits for the dog to catch up then rolls on her back!). The dog is still a puppy technically at 9 months, but she is over 55lbs....big and can be inadvertently rough. Hemi will not stop harassing the dog, even though she has been thoroughly freaked out several times. The dog loves the idea of this play, but loves it too hard I guess, calling her off works to a point, but with the cat instigating its pretty much impossible to stop all together. Hemi has TONS of places to be, and has no reason to go into the livingroom-kitchen (which she does even when we are in the bedroom). I should add that this got worse when we started keeping the cats in 100%, there has been an upsurge in our area of predatory wildlife, so its not as safe as it used to be (I know outdoors is never completely safe, compared to some places I've been, its pretty good). Yes, Hemi is bored, but despite having toys, and us trying to play with her as much as possible she seems to ignore all of that in favor of harassing the dog, which we are scared will inadvertently end very badly. I have also tried removing Hemi, buy putting her in a safe place, playing with her and giving her toys....she'll still take off, jump the baby gate and go back to the dog.
We are implementing additional training to increase the dog's self control, but no matter what, at a certain point she can't be truly blamed for playing with the cat when she seems to keep being invited to do so, she's just too puppy-clumsy making her rough. The dog is barely the fault here, Hemi keeps batting and harassing the dog out of the blue. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to deal with Hemi? Squirt bottles have been suggested to me whenever she starts batting at the dog, but I'm reluctant to do that to her, although if it does turn into a choice between that and potentially having her get inadvertently killed by the dog I'll be kind of stuck. I also don't feel that I should be penalizing the dog by kenneling her all day because the cat won't leave her alone...its a more fair solution I'm looking for. I know cats aren't known for being trainable enough for obedience competitions, but if there is a good (and preferably fast) way to do this I'm all ears!
We now have a dog, she is 9 months old. We trained her pretty darn well to not bother the cats. The bedroom, storeroom and bathroom are baby-gated off. We have scratching posts, toys, catnip, food, water and litter in that area. The livingroom/kitchen area is where the dog hangs out. There are also several high safe places in the livingroom for the cats.
Ollie did VERY well when we got the dog (older cat, kind of grumpy). He growls when there is proximity and otherwise him and the dog ignore each other. Hemi is the problem. Younger bratty calico with huge polydactyl paws. She has been obsessed with the dog from day one. She followed us on walks, ate out of the dog's food dish etc and the dog never bothered her for this. Her and the dog used to sniff at each other occasionally and that would be it. Seemed good. Some interactions have been downright cute....Hemi actually licked the dog's eyebrows last night, and all the dog did was sniff back and go back to napping.
Hemi will NOT leave the dog alone. She has started running up and batting at the dog, then running off a few feet and stopping (she never goes to the "safe places", she just waits for the dog to catch up then rolls on her back!). The dog is still a puppy technically at 9 months, but she is over 55lbs....big and can be inadvertently rough. Hemi will not stop harassing the dog, even though she has been thoroughly freaked out several times. The dog loves the idea of this play, but loves it too hard I guess, calling her off works to a point, but with the cat instigating its pretty much impossible to stop all together. Hemi has TONS of places to be, and has no reason to go into the livingroom-kitchen (which she does even when we are in the bedroom). I should add that this got worse when we started keeping the cats in 100%, there has been an upsurge in our area of predatory wildlife, so its not as safe as it used to be (I know outdoors is never completely safe, compared to some places I've been, its pretty good). Yes, Hemi is bored, but despite having toys, and us trying to play with her as much as possible she seems to ignore all of that in favor of harassing the dog, which we are scared will inadvertently end very badly. I have also tried removing Hemi, buy putting her in a safe place, playing with her and giving her toys....she'll still take off, jump the baby gate and go back to the dog.
We are implementing additional training to increase the dog's self control, but no matter what, at a certain point she can't be truly blamed for playing with the cat when she seems to keep being invited to do so, she's just too puppy-clumsy making her rough. The dog is barely the fault here, Hemi keeps batting and harassing the dog out of the blue. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to deal with Hemi? Squirt bottles have been suggested to me whenever she starts batting at the dog, but I'm reluctant to do that to her, although if it does turn into a choice between that and potentially having her get inadvertently killed by the dog I'll be kind of stuck. I also don't feel that I should be penalizing the dog by kenneling her all day because the cat won't leave her alone...its a more fair solution I'm looking for. I know cats aren't known for being trainable enough for obedience competitions, but if there is a good (and preferably fast) way to do this I'm all ears!