Benny Issues
When Benny sees our cat in the house he sort of barks with a squeel and tries to climb over the stair gate after it. He also did this at the vets when he saw a puppy lab there. I held as tight on him and kept saying the first thing in my head, which was 'leave it'. Of course when he sees red he cant hear you. By the time we got Benny into see the vet his mouth was bleeding from the confrontation. The owner of the lab seemed to enjoy trying to make his pup come closer to Benny even though we pro-*test*-('")ed. He just stood in front of Benny and smiled at him losing it. Even the nurse pro-*test*-('")ed and I was relieved to drag Benny in to see the vet. Mandy stayed in reception and this chap gloated about owning several labs and the puppy drinking brandy.....lovely, not. Or am I wrong to assume he was in the wrong? How do we prevent him from seeing red in the first place? I know Benny and Jess our cat will probably never be the best of friends but they will have to learn to respect each other....or may that be immpossible? Benny prefers pond water to fresh. Is this ok? No chemicals in pond as there are no fish, just frogs and spawn.

Our cat scratchy and Frank have only been able to be in the same room and relaxed since about nov/dec, we have had frank since june. Scratchy would run as soon as he see frank and frank would automatically chase, but he never chased until the cat run. what we did was made upstairs the cats area with a gate so that he could come down as he felt ready but still had somewhere to go to get away. We also would regularly put franks lead on so we had control then bring the cat into the room and give them both treats. Sometimes in order to stop a chase we would have a squeezy bottle of water on hand to squirt at frank so give him a bit of a shock and stop him in his tracks. A few months down the line scratchy is definately the boss, he will even drink out of franks bowl and frank won't push past him at the back door. Scratchy decided one day that it's his house and he's not goung to run. If frank gets too close he gets a smack across the nose for his trouble, (sometimes several, even if it is scratchy that is walking past him then decided he is too close, lol). In the beginning I could not imagaine this, and even though it took a few months we got there.

We have also made upstairs the cat terratory and have now got a gate at the bottom of the stairs. But Mandy has to call the cat when Benny is not around and bring him indoors and upstairs. We will put them in the same room at some point in the future after Benny is calmer and we can have some more confident control. It's good to know there is hope though, thanks.

I thought you might have issues with this one, Ade!!! :lol: As frankie's mum says, it can take a bit of time. :roll: :roll: It all depends on the personality of the dog and the individual cat, too. If a cat runs away and a dog has a high prey drive (ie instinct to chase) then you have more of a problem than if you have a cautious dog and a fiesty cat which stands its ground and takes a swipe. There are two basic rules which I believe work in every case: i) If doing introductions and you think there might be some temptation to chase, restrain the dog not the cat. ie pop the dog on a lead, maybe just with you standing with your foot on the end. Don't even give the dog the chance to learn what great sport it would be to chase puss. Always give the cat somewhere to retreat to eg over the stair gate and off upstairs. ii) praise the dog for NOT chasing the cat - this works so much better than trying to punish the dog once it is already in full chase mode and can't even hear you anyway because its blood is up and it's in full pursuit. praise and reward the dog just for doing nothing! I had a good example tonight - poppy, my youngest rescue, an absolute huntress of all prey and a general tormentor of cats given the chance, was on the sofa. In crept my most nervous cat - the one most likely to flee at the bat of a doggy eyelid. I stood in the space between them, praising and petting the cat for being brave and then praising and petting poppy for staying put on the sofa. the enitre incident passed off well, Poppy stayed where she was told to - and the cat enjoyed a stroke and then wandered off again. With my other braver cat, I used to stand between them and feed treats to the dog for sitting still nicely and treats to the cat too for tolerating the dog in his personal space. this positive, rewarding approach is definitely a winner - you take charge, you keep calm and order - and everyone gets praise and rewards for doing what you want. Let the cat do stuff at his or her own pace - if you force the issue you could terrify the cat, make it run every time it sees the dog - and thus make the dog more likely to feel the urge to chase. if the cat can feel happy and confident, it's more likely to come into the room with confidence - and then the dog is less likely to regard it as prey. hope this helps - wow you have a lot on your plate this week!!! :roll:

Thanks Elaine, yep a lot on my plate but funnily enough I'm enjoying the challenge and Benny is such a sweet fella most of the time. I guess I'm training myself as much as the dog.

Had our first good night last night. Last let out in the garden at midnight and he diddn't wake me up until 6.15 am. No accidents indoors anywhere!! wooooohoooooo. I did wake up at 2.00 am and found Benny sleeping on my legs then he got up and got on his own sofa. Took him for his morning walk, fed him and went upstairs back to my own bed for an hour and when I came down again he was curled up on his sofa...no probs. :) :) :) :) :) :) :D

that's great news - so glad to hear it:D keep it up!

Hi Just thought I'd share with you our story. We got Pepper from Ireland nearly 2.5 years ago now, she was a bugger so being totally mad about 2 months later we got Toffee over as well. Both were wee pups at the time. Anyway we also had 2 cats, Lucy a mum and Jack one of her kittens. At first neither of the cats was impressed and Jack nearly starved to daeth cos he wouldn't come in at all. Lucy would come in and then hide for the day. Then Lucy got brave and now will actually rub her tail in the dogs faces and will then bash them if they get too hyper!! Jack was a different story he has only just started relaxing around them and in fact has actually started to come and sleep on the sofa in the evenings curled up next to me, but as soon as the dogs run in, he''ll most likely leg it back upstairs. Lot of waffling on my part to say, they'll both work it out and come to terms when they're good and ready. Stay positive and well done for sticking with it. Re other lab owner.........,my opinion......guy sounds like a total twit who shouldn't even be allowed to own an animal. Good luck and keep us posted. Anita

Had to laugh this evening. Benny was in the lounge at the rear of the house chewing his chewy bone and I was in the kitchen at the front of the house. The cat came down the stairs to exit through the kitchen flap and as he has a bell you could here him jingling. Next thing I see the cat enter the kitchen and could hear Benny in hot pursuit. Except we have parque flooring from loungr to kitchen and then solid tiles on the kitchen floor. Benny slipped and slid all over the place and lost the race!! We had to laugh. pepperpuppy, glad to hear yours have learned to tollerate each other looking forward to my Two doing the same.

My 2 will lay next to each other now in front the fire! If truth be known Bens a bit scared of Puss so he wont relax totaly in case she whacks him :lol: