Cat/Dog problem - please help.

[Lippitt]

I’ve got a 7 year old cat that I’ve had since a kitten, and I’m having problems with him and my rescue dogs. He grew up with dogs (spaniels and lhasa apso) till he was 6, and was never particularly happy around them but not terrified either. Now I’ve moved into my own house and I’ve got a shar pei x, and an English mastiff – got the shar pei x first, last July, and him and the cat lived together in relative harmony (both would probably prefer the other wasn’t there but no real problems) until we got the English mastiff. She is a bit obsessed with the cat and wants to sniff/lick/chase him all the time and he is pretty upset by this. I don’t think there is any malice in her, but the problem is she gets excited when she sees him, which hypes up the other dog, the cat runs away and because he is running the dogs chase him….. repeat etc, you get the idea!
The problem is now the cat is terrified of coming in the house, so he comes in and out via the back bedroom window which we leave open – it’s ok in the summer but obviously not ideal! He has also started to wee on our bed which I am taking is a sign he is pretty unhappy.
I really want to fix this situation, has anybody got any ideas? I know that if he doesn’t run the dogs don’t chase, but how do I give him the confidence not to run and hopefully break the cycle without seriously stressing him out?

[paintman]

If the problem has only started since you got a dog that wants to chase the cat and can't be stopped from doing it the answer is simple.
Get rid of the mastiff. Or, if you insist on keeping the mastiff, consider having the cat rehomed. I see no good reason why the cat should be expected to accomodate the dog's behaviour and as you yourself say, its not doing the cat any good.

Edited by paintman on Wednesday 25th May 18:36

[Jasandjules]

Keep the dog on lead for a while when the cat is in the house? And keep them both in the same room for a whole day etc so they can get a bit more used to each other and hopefully it'll pass. It is the dog that needs to be controlled/trained a bit more.

[Karyn]

Ooo, sorry for your troubles Heartbreaking when there's no harmony.

As JasandJules rightly says, it's the dog that needs the attention, not the cat.

I think this is one of those things that will take hard work, time, time, patience, hard work, time, patience, hard work, time, time, hard work, patience...........................

The dog needs to know that any excitement exhibited when in the vicinity of the cat will not be tolerated.

I think I'd be tempted to work it so that the dog was removed from the room as soon as he became fixated on the cat. Rinse and repeat. No negative actions on your part, just a calm and firm removal of the dog from the room, for any fixating behaviour regarding the cat: staring at the cat, trying to move toward the cat, etc. Anything like that.

Although, I'm completely not sure about this, so I'd probably do what you've done, and post a thread on PH so that Becks and Mrs Grumpy see it!

Hope it gets solved amicably, with no need for rehoming.

[Mrs Grumpy]

I know next to nothing about cats, but this is what I would do...

Management: Put up some baby gates so that the cat can safely get into another room/upstairs aways from the dogs.

Training: Keep the mastiff on a lead and the other dog out of the way. Condition the mastiff to the clicker. Then, when the mastiff looks calmly at the cat, click and treat. Timing is key. Click when the mastiff looks in the direction of/at the cat. You will need to do this at quite a distance away from the cat to start with, so the mastiff is not reactive. Over time, that distance should be able to become less and less. Treats should be high value (roast chicken, ham, frankfurters, etc) and tiny so they can just be swallowed in a nano-second.

Hope that helps

[bexVN]

All above advice is pretty spot on although I'd be cautious about the cat being forced to stay in the same room as the dog all day I think this would completely send the cat over the edge however short periods is not so bad.

I would add some chill pill meds for your cat on top. I don't mean prescription drugs but things like Feliway and zylkene to help destress your poor cat.

Have a good read of the following link:

http://www.fabcats.org/behaviour/introducing/index...

You should see a slow but steady improvement between them over the next few weeks, if you see no change after a few weeks and you have followed advice then I'd say you need to reconsider who you keep and who you give up (would be harsh on the cat as he was with you first)

[Lippitt]

Thanks for some good advice guys
Getting rid of Tia (mastiff) is not an option - she had a really st first three years of her life and the difference between when we first got her and now is incredible- I simply won't give up on her. I agree she needs more training, but it's a slow process as due to aforementioned horrible start in life she is very nervous and seems to almost panic if she can't work something out.
Taz (cat) could return to my parents if worst comes to worst- he would have a charmed life there but of course I want to avoid this if at all possible.
He currently has the upstairs so he has a safe zone away from the dogs - they don't come upstairs.
I like the idea of getting them in same room and clicker training Tia - only trouble is as soon as Taz sees her he legs it so I would have to shut him in with us. Perhaps I'll start with half hour a day and see how it goes and try and build it up.
I'm interested in what you said about the meds Bex - I did buy a feliway but it didn't seem to do much good! Perhaps I'll try again and maybe put one in each room!
Thanks for all of the input - I'll report back!

[bexVN]

It may be worth trying the feliway and zylkene. Put the feliway in the room if spends most time in.

Both the above are natural products so whilst they do often work the affects are variable.

[Mrs Grumpy]

I would start with a lot shorter time than half an hour . That's a long time to have two possibly stressed animals in a room together. A couple of minutes maybe to start with?

[Lippitt]

Pleased to report excellent progress - I gave him zylkene and bought him some of the feliway spray you actually spray on stuff. That plus the dog training now means he hasn't weed indoors for ages and is calmly tolerating the dogs being in the same room as him as long as they ignore him. Tia is still quite fascinated with him but I've been praising her lots when she ignores him, and just removing her from the room if she can't calm herself, so not letting it get to the point the cat runs or dogs chase.
Still some work to be done but I'm confident we will get there

[bexVN]

Well done for the effort, looks like it's saying off. The improvement will probably continue. All good stuff