Good morning all!
We are proud new greyhound owners to handsome brindle boy Winston Wheels, who is about 2 years old and has been with us for almost two months by now. He's been fitting into our house and lifestyle very well, and we're so happy to have him join our family!
We also have two cats, about 3 years old, who pretty much rule the house. I am VERY cautious about having them together, and so we've been following all of the advice for dog and cat intros (muzzle and leash on Winston at all times when the cats are around, supervision at all times, keeping interactions short & sweet, having cat-only areas, baby gates high enough to let the cats escape, furniture pulled from the walls to give the cats escape routes, redirecting his attention away from the cats and praising him for ignoring them, etc.). Our cats have never been around dogs either, so we're happy to take things as slowly as we need in order to make sure everyone stays happy and healthy, and now that we both work from home it feels like we have all the time in the world.
Winston has overall been doing very well around the cats - he is (almost always) able to be redirected, gets lots of praise when he ignores them, etc. He's always been interested in the cats, of course - ears perked, wants to sniff them - but it's normally pretty easy to break his attention. However, when the cats are in the living room, which is where he spends most of his time, his reaction to them is different. When one of them comes in the living room, he'll start to whine/whimper, his tail will wag, if he was lying down, he'll jump up, and he sometimes starts puffing air through his cheeks. We're still able to redirect him, but it's such a different reaction than when he sees them in another room in the house. We're beginning to think he is territorial about the living room, like he's associated it with being an extension of his crate, so maybe he feels like the cats are invading his space. Is that possible? If so, how do we work with that?
We're also wondering if he might be a little afraid of them as well? We have a setup where the cats can crawl behind some furniture to reach the back of the living room, so when he thinks they're there but can't see them, he's constantly looking over his shoulder, almost like he's afraid they'll jump out suddenly.
As a little bit of background:
-I contacted our group who said that he tested cat-safe - they didn't even think he was on the fence between safe and workable. He sniffed the test cat, got hissed at, and was done. I know sometimes dogs lie on these tests, though, which is why we're still proceeding with extreme caution.
-He was fostered in a house with a cat, but I think that cat mostly spent time away from the dogs. When they did interact, he was labeled as being 'interested' in the cat.
-Winston loves spending time in his crate which is in the living room, where he can see into the kitchen. He does not have the same reaction to the cats when they're in the kitchen, even though they're closer to him there than they are when they're on the far end in the living room.
-Our cats haven't run away from him yet, but they're also not the type to give him a swat. They might eventually, but we always make sure that they have an escape and so they'll just slink away if they're feeling too threatened. Our boy kitty will hiss at him if he gets too close, but that's been it so far.
-I've read that sometimes cats jumping up onto things will excite a greyhound's prey drive. He's seen the cats jump up onto things in the kitchen and hasn't reacted at all. But he gets excited when the cats are on the couch in the living room.
-I'm not terribly concerned about his prey drive, otherwise. He isn't bothered whatsoever by squirrels, birds, little dogs, and even outdoor cats we see when we're on walkies.
-One of our kitties has been recently hospitalized for a condition that might be related to stress. The advice from the group was to keep that cat isolated for a while as they thought Winston might be able to tell he's been sick, which we followed. The cat has 100% recovered and we're managing his condition, but I'm not willing to put him in a room with the dog where he can't escape. (I've read some advice that says to put the cat in a small room and bring the dog in, etc. - we're just not willing to risk putting our cats through that kind of stress, even if it takes us longer to introduce them.)
So basically, my instinct tells me that he'll be fine once he learns the cats are the boss of the house, not him, but I guess what I'm curious about is whether there's anything we can do to speed up that process! If he's feeling territorial about the living room, like it's an extension of his crate, is there anything we can do to help him learn the cats can be in that space too?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
