Somehow we’ve already been in Louisiana for just shy of two months. My, how time flies…
If you had asked me when we crafted our plan to introduce the dogs to the cat how long I thought it would take, I probably would’ve said a few weeks, maybe a month. We made some excellent progress at first, then we revisited our plan to refine it a bit.
Here’s the current status:
Emmett still doesn’t care about her and is totally fine off leash around her 100% of the time. When she darts quickly, he sometimes gives a halfhearted chase, but mostly, he couldn’t care less. (Which, incidentally, seems to make her more interested in him. She LOVES to chew on his tail.)
Cooper is all about Newt. Funny enough, as I’ve been working with him on reactivity, I’ve been working to instill an “automatic sit.” Turns out, it’s instilled! Newt loves to beat the crud out of Cooper, swiping at him, biting his back, tackling his tail… And Cooper just plops into a sit. It’s pretty funny. But, like Emmett, Cooper and Newt are 100% around each other, so he’s off leash.
In fact, he and Emmett hang out with Newt together every day.
Lucas…
Well, Lucas is still at the beginning. He’s still on leash getting tons of treats around her. He can only sniff her through the gate still.
He’s uneasy. He whines and cries. We’ve had a ton of improvement… and a few setbacks. We thought that since he’s SO leash reactive, we should try through the baby gate without a leash to see if he felt more comfortable. It worked perfectly until we called him away, then he lunged and snapped. Same thing happened on leash: We called him away, and he lunged.
We’re going to change our next session so that, instead of calling him away at the end, we remove her from the room. I hope that’ll help eliminate that reaction. (Honestly, I’m not even sure why calling him away would cause the reaction?? Six years of working with him, and he’s a CONSTANT mystery!)
We also tried working with him with Emmett in the room, but it achieved the opposite effect: His unease made Emmett on edge.
So, it’s a work in progress.
I’ll try to get some video of Newt whopping Cooper. 🙂 In the meantime, we’re just focusing on incremental, teeny, tiny baby steps with dear Lucas.
What are you training this week? Anyone else facing a dog/cat conundrum?
I just saw this video yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHrHBZIA5h4. Maybe it will encourage you.
Since we don’t have a cat, we have something different going on. There are a few cats who live with dogs in our neighborhood who will approach Honey (or at least not run away) when we come by. I’ve taught Honey to allow the cat to sniff her and to not go into a crazy play bow.
I think she’s curious about and likes cats.
But every once in a while we’ll meet a cat on our walk who starts hissing and spitting from 20 feet away and Honey looks very confused. Poor girl.
I hope you can help Lucas calm down around Newt. It must be very stressful to manage their interactions so carefully.
Thanks for sharing that video! I sort of wish Lucas were like the dog he showed and just wanted to chase… I’m afraid his intentions are a little more insidious than that! But, I like the principles, and we’ll give his tactics a whirl!
I can’t blame Honey for being confused. One thing that we’re witnessing is the complete communication breakdown between dogs and cats. Cooper play bows… Newt smacks him! It confuses Cooper to no end that his play isn’t being reciprocated, and Newt feels threatened that he’s getting up in her face. They’ll work it out eventually, I’m sure, but it’s definitely interesting to watch!
At least progress is being made, though I’m sure it is not coming quickly enough for you. It would make your life easier to just have everyone living in peace. My sister had similar issues when she brought a cat into the house with her dog….I will try to ask her how long it took for them to finally get along. It seems like it was quite a while. When he would come to our house we’d have to keep him from our cats though, he always whined and wanted to chase them. Wow, two months already, time really does fly, doesn’t it?
I have two dogs (7 yr old lab mix-Abby & a 16 yr old min. schnauzer=Kacee. Also have two cats 17 yrs=Sara & 16 yrs Piper. Piper has always been used to my dogs & loves to be near my Abby=Abby half heartedly chases her if they are outside but otherwise doesn’t care about her though Piper absolutely loves Abby-rubs against her, throws herself down near Abby, sleeps near her etc. Sara on the other hand does not like dogs & never has. She has made herself at home in my basement(finished) & comes out in the morning & at night to get treats. She tolerates the dogs near her only if treats are being handed out=She excites Abby & Abby will try to get near her or chase her which she hates. But Abby never bothers her in the basement & Sara though she watches Abby somehow knows where Abby won’t bother her and she doesn’t have to leave. Kacee is intimidated by Sara & will avoid her but likes Piper.
I think they all work things out in the end, as long as they have areas where they know they are safe.Good luck with Lucas-he’ll come around
Thanks so much for sharing your experience – and the words of encouragement! We’re trying to make sure she has plenty of ways to escape (even though we haven’t let Lucas off leash yet), so that she gets used to running from them if need be! I really appreciate your insights. Thanks, Margaret!