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Sunday August 08, 2004

Animal Update

You may remember that four weeks ago, I blogged about us getting a dog Dusti for our son, to join our household, and my wish that she would be bonding with our two cats, Bob and Sorcha, within days. Hah!
I've now had a dose of reality and realize that this could take a long time. Picture this. ~~A day in December. Sorry, I just had a Blondie flashback~~. A highly energetic dog that has the run of the house and the back yard. Two cats, in mortal fear for their lives now living upstairs with the staircase being the DMZ.
We only see the cats twice a day when they want to be fed. They used to sleep on our bed before. The dog rules the rest of the house. She sleeps on Duncan's bed during the night, then comes in to sleep with Mom when I go off to work in the mornings. She loves the large back yard, keeping us safe from all those feral squirrels out there.

I'm slowly feeling more comfortable with her. I wonder whether we've introduced a lunatic to the house though. When we all come home, after going somewhere where she can't go, she greets us in a frenzy. Tail wagging I can understand. Jumping up and down at us. Okay. But running from one end of the house to the other until she's exhausted, with an Oh Boy, Oh Boy, They Came Back! look on her face? Hmmm.

Now I'd just like peace in our household. It's really the cats that need to adjust. We took Dusti around to see her "cousins" the other day. My wife's sister and her family have a Westie and an old Siamese cat that's grown up with the Westie. Dusti bounded over to the cat who just stayed still. (Are you listening Bob and Sorcha? You're supposed to just stay still). Dog met cat. A few sniffs later they are best friends and life continues. Same with the Westie greeting.

Now if I can only find a way to get our cats to stay still without spot welding them to the carpet. We've tried introducing them in a closed room. I never realized a cat could jump from the ground to the top of a seven foot bookcase in one bound. And stay there no matter how I try to coax him down.

If anybody has any ideas on how to solve our detente, I'd love to hear them.

[Technorati Tag: pets]

( Aug 08 2004, 07:12:40 PM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [4]

Comments:

Rich try having your cats in an large, enclosed cage. That way they can meet the dog and not run away.

Posted by Martin Hooper on August 09, 2004 at 12:03 AM PDT #

Superglue the cat's paws to the floor :-)

Posted by Animal lover on August 09, 2004 at 01:39 AM PDT #

I think you have a couple of different issues here. The unruly dog behaviour is easily treatable - you should get a copy of the book "The Dog Listener", by Jan Fennell. Basically, your dog misunderstands its position in the pack heirarchy, and you just need to give it consistent clues as to where it fits in. This may or may not sort out the cat problem; the book describes introducing dogs to one another, but I don't think cats were mentioned.

Posted by Julian Satchell on August 09, 2004 at 06:33 AM PDT #

Thanks Martin. We tried this the other way around. Dog in cage. Cats in room. That's the result you read above - cat on bookshelf. We'll try your suggestion too.

Thanks Julian. Yes, this dog does still need training (even at four years of age) and we are planning to do that. Our son actually loves the "crazy dog" moments and we are tolerating it. It's crazy in a nice sort of way, but it does eventually need to be controllable. As for the cats; I think it'll work out over time. One of them actually came downstairs last night and prowled around after the dog was in Duncan's room behind a closed door. There's hope in sight.

Posted by Rich Burridge on August 09, 2004 at 07:26 AM PDT #