Puppies
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Getting puppy to be calm around cat
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Getting puppy to be calm around cat
We have an 11 week old GSD pup, Neo. His basic obedience is coming along great. My issue is we have a 3 year old cat. The cat is quite confident and curious, she wants to come up and sniff the puppy and has no issues being in the same room as him. The problem arises when he gets a little too playful. The puppy with play bow and bark at the cat which usually frightens her, she bolts off and the puppy tries to chase her.
Does anyone have any advice on teaching him to be calm around her?
So far I’ve been putting the puppy in a down and calling the cat over and having them share treats. Even if the cat’s piece of chicken falls in front of Neo he won’t touch it and waits for his own. My logic is to teach him that good things happen when he is calm around her. If I catch him staring at the cat I’ll redirect to either myself or ask for a sit/down/place to avoid chasing. If in the rare case he does try to chase her, he gets a firm “no” and a time out.
Is there anything else I should be doing?
I should mention that the cat has multiple safe rooms, high perches and a cat tower but if we’re in the living room with the puppy, she’ll jump the baby gate and want to hang out. She’s a bit clingy so wherever we are, she is.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
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3 Replies
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I would love to see what Robert has to say about this, but I think what you are doing is great. I am picking up Ryker (8 weeks) this Sunday, and we have a “herd” of cats and this looks like a great way to introduce them. I would say patience is the key here and keep doing what you are doing. I am certainly going to try your method with Ryker
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Not sure if the situation is analogous or this helps but I have a 3.5 year old bunny (who sounds kinda similar to your cat) & a hunting dog breed pup! (Basset hound). It’s going well so far so here’s what I did
I made sure the pup respected me and had some basic obedience before I brought the bunny back home. Showed the pup the bunny’s area and taught him to stay out. Started them in separate rooms. After a couple days, bun was curious and wanted to come out. Pup saw the bunny hopping around freely (puppy always crated or in playpen, bunny has a hutch but free hops). When puppy barked or chased bunny from inside his gate, he got corrected/ redirected. Conversely, Gave him high value trears for lying down next to the bunny calmly. I also fed them
Next to each other (but separately) a lot. Bunny always eats and gets pet first!
Now they’re used to each other and even if the bunny runs, the pup hardly notices. He’s super gentle, never uses teeth, and only really barks when he’s jealous!
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If the puppy did try to chase or paw at the bunny, he would get a firm correction, because he now knows what I expect. I have also showed him through my actions that the bunny is precious to me and he is not to be messed with 🙂
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