living with cat training

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Loha'sDad
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living with cat training

Post by Loha'sDad »

Loha is about to cohabitate with a cat for the first time. On walks he acts, of course, like he would dearly love to get at cats we come accross and rip them to shreds. I was thinking of putting a muzzle on him for training purposes inside the house with the subject cat to prevent serious injury. Thoughts?

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Sirchow
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Re: living with cat training

Post by Sirchow »

I don't know from your post whether you are getting a cat permanently or looking after one for a short time. If it is the second then I suggent damage limitation as most cats will not come round short term to living with a dog that wants to run madly after them. If it is longer term then the cat needs to gather courage in its own space and time to deal with Loha in a way that he will learn to respect it.

We made a gate between Bramble and cats when we first got her so that the cats could have there own space and take their time to come round. You can't force a cat or a chow! Anyway one cat decided that a mere puppy was not going to spoil his life and he just did what he wanted and ignored the Bramble. Never a cross word - the puppy did not exist. What ever Bramble does to him and believe me she tries to get a rise out of that long suffering cat, Peplo refuses to aknowledge her existance. He can be lying on the floor with Bramble standing all four feet round him and he just hums a little song to himself and waits for Bramble to give up!

The other cat has spent the best part of four months on his side of the gate and spits at Bramble if she comes too close. Now at last Ollie is begining to come over the barrier and tell Bramble what he thinks of her. The one thing I try never to happen is for Bramble to chase Ollie. If i see it begining to happen I grab her collar and sharply pull it to break her concentration and say NO...LEAVE IT. She now knows that cat chasing is not allowed. The trick is to get there before it escalates and in my opinion that is the trick with "training" a chow anyway because once they are off and running there is no stopping them. Let your cat set the pace and make sure it has safe places to go. A baby gate is probably ideal. I don't know if any of that is any help. Good luck and it will depend a lot on the nature of the cat.

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Siriol, Bramble, Izzie and Isla.
lightforce18
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Re: living with cat training

Post by lightforce18 »

we have a 10 year old cat with our 11 week old yogi. Man the cat hates yogi so bad lol. Yogi runs at it and barks and the cat slaps the living hell outta him and he then backs away. I fear one day when yogi is ALOT bigger hes gonna eat the poor guy :( . As of right now the cat is living in the basement only with the door closed when yogi isnt crated. I hope they eventually like eachother.
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Ellie
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Re: living with cat training

Post by Ellie »

Hmmm, yeah, I'm going to have the same problem when we get our Chow baby in the next few months.... I have two one-year-old cats now, and am getting a kitten in the next day or two (my surprise present from my partner yesterday for our two-year anniversary - awwwww :D ), and I'm a bit worried too.

I think Sirchow's baby gate idea is brilliant, and I'm definitely going to try that. I think that my situation will be easier than yours, as it's the young cats that are on their home turf when a small baby Chow is introduced. A cat into a brand new environment with brand new humans and a big Chow will be very daunting for it.

I'd recommend restricting Loha's movement to one room for the first few hours, and allow the cat enough time to scope out the house and feel more comfortable in its environs. Give it something to eat, show it where its litterbox is etc etc. Definitely restrict the Chow, not the cat, to begin with. Then, with you in the area reassuring both dog and cat, gradually introduce Loha and the cat together with the baby gate/obstruction between them, and see what the reaction is. If Loha goes skitz and the cat disappears behind a cupboard, then things will have to be taken slowly for the next few days, and there will have to be a barrier between them all the time I think. The last thing you want is for the cat to bolt out a door and never be seen again! A muzzle might be good just in case, but to be honest, if the cat runs the risk of being seriously injured, is it even a good idea at all to introduce it? I agree again with Sirchow though - if it's only for a short time and not a forever cat, damage limitation is the only real option in this case.

Perhaps over a few days put their food bowls on a good distance either side of the barrier, and gradually move them closer and closer together, so that eventually they will eat in each other's company?

Good luck! Please let us know how you go and what you learned- I'll be very interested to know!
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Re: living with cat training

Post by Auddymay »

Haley has a cat that lives at Grandma's house because her father cannot abide them...and it seems neither can Lily. Pip and Kitsy Wu can be together, but with her high prey drive, I am afraid Lily would try and kill The Empress Wu. As it is now, Lily turns all aquiver every time we take her to Grandma's house. She searches high and low for any trace of the cat. The one time they were face to face, they had a door between them, the screen kind that still had the storm windows on it. If I had a video camera, I could have made money. Lily attacked the door from the outside while Kitsy kept jumping up above the solid bottom, and smacking the window with her paws. They were face to face in the house as well once, and Kitsy was under a wrought iron table. She turned into a statue, and Lily just kept on going, thank goodness. If you have a Chow with a high prey drive, it is nearly impossible to safely over-come that.
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Babs64
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Re: living with cat training

Post by Babs64 »

You might want to search the training section. There have been some really good threads on how to integrate cats and chows.
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