My dog and the cat

[RedCat74]

I currently have two 75 lb german shepherds and one cat that I rescued and have taken care of for over 5 years now. The cat has lived with us longer than the dogs so originally we go one dog and he was introduced to kitty his entire life. That being said they have no issues with each other. my dog's litter mate came into our family at 8 months. The previous owners locked him up for 12 hours a day by himself and he never lived with a cat.

The problem I am having is the litter mate has this prey drive that he simply must chase and terrorize the cat around the house. My cat is too nice to learn to use his claws and it does not look like the litter mate wants to hurt him, just mouth him. I can't quite figure out what to do in this situation since introducing him in slowly seems next to near impossible since they live with each other continually. The only one time they are ever in their kennel is when they are eating or when they go out.

Before we got the dogs the cat used to sleep with us and I would love for him to be able to do it again with our two fuzzy dogs sleeping with us too.

[abbyneo]

I know this probably isn't too terribly helpful, but sometimes it helps to hear that someone else is in your shoes also..we just brought home an 11 week old puppy to our adult dog and 5 month old kitten, and we're having the same kinds of problems. I don't think puppy wants to hurt kitten, but she's very boisterous and sometimes her mouthing goes past friendly. When I posted about this a few days ago, I received a great suggestion about time-outs. Now every time the playing gets out of control, puppy has to sit in the bathroom by herself for 5-10 seconds. We have had to repeat this A LOT...but we are starting to see some results. Not sure if this helps or not, but good luck!

[emmabeth]

You have to provide escape routes that the cat can take, where the dog cannot follow. Baby gates tend to work as most cats can either jump them or slip through or fit them so they can go under. If the dog will jump the gate you will need to put one gate above another to increase the height.

Then, only let them be together when you can supervise - if you allow them together when you cannot supervise then the dog can if he wants to, constantly pester the cat and he will find this rewarding and fun to do, so he will do it more.

Your job is to break the habit (by seperating them) and create a new habit, by preventing him from bullying the cat and then rewarding him for ignoring or sniffing nicely.

[Eider]

You have to provide escape routes that the cat can take, where the dog cannot follow. Baby gates tend to work as most cats can either jump them or slip through or fit them so they can go under. If the dog will jump the gate you will need to put one gate above another to increase the height.

Then, only let them be together when you can supervise - if you allow them together when you cannot supervise then the dog can if he wants to, constantly pester the cat and he will find this rewarding and fun to do, so he will do it more.

Your job is to break the habit (by seperating them) and create a new habit, by preventing him from bullying the cat and then rewarding him for ignoring or sniffing nicely.

and from some1 that has the same problem, only the dog came home with 1 month, and until he was 4 or so they even slept together, played together, everything together (him, and the 2 cats). and i think it could've started when we weren't home, because they were all together without supervision. our fault, can't do anything about it now. but we do have a baby gate, and yes that cat's can pass trhout it, and dog can't. also, i have help from my parents, they live door to door to us, so the cat's spend most of the day with them, coz we found out, that the cats can stress the dog (he has stress issues), so we keep the contact with them under supervision, and only when the dog is calm. coz one of the cats can protect himself, he just made the dog know that if he goes in a rude way, he'll find his nails, but the other one it's just so..... well, so lazy, nice, and like a teddy bear, that he would let him do whatever, he even offers his haid sometimes (he's just soooooooo eatable). anyways, everytime he's around them and let them alone, he gets treats.

The biggest suggestion though is a baby gate or similar, instead of taking him to the bathroom, coz sometimes you can make him get more stressed.
hope it helps!