Integrating A Dog Into A Household of Cats
What looks like a kitten and smells like a kitten and sounds like a kitten, but can easily be mistaken for a chipmunk by a dog obsessed with chipmunks?
A kitten, of course!
Our five resident cats were major contributors to Katie’s emergence from her fearful shell. Their natural curiosity and playfulness helped Katie transition to life with our family, and she, in turn grew very attached to all five of them.
When we adopted Rosie several years later, we hoped that the trend of multiple species living in harmony would continue. Since two of our cats were exceptional at teaching new dogs the house rules, we were confident that Rosie, too, would integrate seamlessly into our household.
We were spectacularly and utterly wrong.
The cats’ safe places were no longer safe with Rosie in the house, because she could breach any obstacle in milliseconds. A four and half foot high fence, on top of a dining room table, through a cat door, over a tall baby gate, up a tree, across a kitchen counter: all proved no match for her. We quickly realized that unless the cats stayed absolutely still, we could not override her natural instinct to chase them.
And so, a new era dawned in our house.
Dogs and cats were segregated by fences and doors and locks and whole floors, and none of us were happy.
We then started to counter-condition and desensitize Rosie to the least traumatized of the cats, starting on leash, behind a tall baby gate, from a great distance. Rosie would look at the cat, and I would throw treat away from the cat so she had to turn away to find it.
We did make some progress over the course of many months, but unless Rosie was supervised and the cat was stationary, we couldn’t allow them together in the same room.
Time elapsed and three of our cats, all between the ages of sixteen and twenty, passed away from unrelated health problems within eight months of each other. With only two cats remaining, we came to a gut wrenching decision. It would be kinder to accept our divided household as it was; until we could keep Rosie under threshold without restricting the cats’ movements, we wouldn’t adopt any more cats.
Last week, that all changed.
I got a call from my vet (and good friend) to let me know that she had three ten-day-old orphaned kittens. Did I want to foster them? Although my reasoning could still prove deeply flawed, I thought that maybe, just maybe, introducing tiny, helpless, non-mobile kittens to Rosie, gradually over time, might be a way to get her to accept them.
It’s now a week and a half later and we are moving forward, bit by bit.
If we can’t directly supervise Rosie, we keep the kittens on a separate floor in a crate, enclosed within a larger dog crate. There is a baby gate and a locked door between the dogs and the kittens, and the dogs are only invited up if they go into their crates with a bully stick or a frozen Kong.
We can have one dog loose in the room when we feed the kittens. We make sure to toss a treat every time either dog looks away, sits or lays down.
If Rosie or Katie gets too intense, we ask them to immediately go to their crates and allow them out to try again once they regain their self control.
Will 28 days be enough?
I don’t yet know whether these fosters will become permanent family members or whether 28 days will be enough time to see significant results, but it is a chance to do some good, teach the dogs some essential skills and enjoy the antics of three adorable kittens.
Question: What is YOUR 28 Day Challenge? Share your story and post your progress.
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