We adopted a lovely girl, Lulu, one week ago. She is two years old and never raced. We were told she has a low prey drive, and is "cat workable." Her foster family didn't have a cat, but apparently spent some time at a family member's house who did, and while there Lulu showed interest in the cat bu backed off after being swatted, hence the "cat workable" title. As far as prey drive, outside on walks we encounter many squirrels, and she is very interested in them, often pulling towards them, but is easily pulled away.
We have been slowly introducing the two, very safely (baby gates, leashes, muzzles, etc). Our cat is very dog-savvy--she swats, hisses, and doesn't bolt from dogs (actually moves in slow-motion, as if she thinks that makes her invisible to the dog lol). Currently Lulu is kept downstairs except at night, when she sleeps in her crate in my sister's room. My cat, while she could come downstairs safely within view (but not reachable due to baby gate placement), decides to stay safely upstairs. So our training sessions have been mostly forced, for a few minutes a couple times per day--as long as the cat decides to stay. However, I feel like we are making no progress, or if anything, moving backwards. We are using boiled chicken as treats, and for the first few sessions, Lulu was so obsessed with the chicken that she barely looked at the cat. However, now that the novelty of the boiled chicken has worn off, distracting her is becoming more difficult. She rarely looks away from the cat when we call her name, and today, after being swatted a couple times, seemed to become more interested in the cat, pulling towards her and whining slightly. After the cat leaves the room, she seems to go around looking for her for 10-20 minutes.
My family thinks this is normal, the cat is novel to her, and it has only been a week. I really want to believe this, but am becoming discouraged, for the reasons above. We are all developing a strong bond with Lulu, who is literally perfect in every other way, and just really want this to work out.
Does anyone have advice for helping the cat training? Or, opinions on if she sounds "workable" from the description I've given? I have read through several threads, and I guess just wanted advice/ impressions of people with a lot more experience in the topic? Thank you!
