Afraid Of The Cat...and The Second Floor

[kathleenmaeve]

Hi all, this is my first post so I appreciate any advice you have regarding this issue. We adopted our grey about a week ago and he's been doing great...except for the cat. No, he isn't chasing the cat- doing very well in that respect. Rather, he's scared of it! All interaction between grey and cat has to be on cat's terms, otherwise the cat puffs up and does his best "I'm going to kill you" stance until the grey backs off (which, by now, is very quickly). At this point, our new grey is so scared of the cat he won't even look at him or walk by him- he'll walk in the complete opposite direction. Our cat was declawed when we adopted him so he obviously hasn't hurt our new grey physically- just psychologically. Our grey's cat avoidance is to the point where he will no longer walk upstairs with us to come to bed because he knows our cat is also upstairs. We've tried waiting it out and seeing if he will eventually come up, prompting with high value treats (hot dogs, cheese, peanut butter kongs) yet, he still freezes like a statue at the foot of the stairs. We obviously cannot/will not drag our grey up stairs but we would prefer that he sleep in the same area as we do.

 

Has anyone else experienced something similar? Is there anything we can do beyond what we've tried? I know it's still very early but we'd like to get him accustomed to being with us at night if we are able.

 

Thanks in advance!

[kathleenmaeve]

*our cat had been declawed when we adopted him- realized the wording sounded as if we'd done the procedure ourselves, which we never would

[Guest longdoglady]

I would not worry, your grey is still settling in, given time his confidence will grow and they may even become friends

 

 

Edited to add

Edited May 8, 2012 by longdoglady

[Feisty49]

A week is barely a drop of water in the length of time you'll have your new pup. It can take 6 months or more for a Greyhound to settle in totally and his personality to come out. The way he acts will change almost daily for a while.

 

If it were me (and it almost was), I'd let my pup have the run of the house without the cat by putting the cat in a room with food, water and litter and close the door. I'd do it for a few days or perhaps longer. The cat will be fine. They don't hold grudges. But your pup will be able to move freely around your house and gain confidence that it is his house too. Once his confidence is more secure, re-introduce the cat.

 

My Annie Bella, who I adopted last July, was sorta afraid of the cat and would avoid her like the plague in the beginning. She still has a slight issue with the fear or whatever it might be. A few days ago the cat was sitting in the doorway to the den, and Annie Bella was standing in the hallway, looking at the cat with a pained expression as if saying, "My bed's in there. Please move. Pleasee??" The cat has never threatened Annie Bella. The cat has never scratched Annie Bella. She just sits there, being a cat.

 

Maybe this picture has something to do with Annie Bella's reluctance to get too close to the cat.

 

[Guest ShanYu]

Nike was terrified of the cats at first - and the Siamese liked it that way. They gradually accepted eachother though Nike remains respectful. For us this was the best possible scenario to keep the cats safe.

As others have mentioned a week is a very short time. and your dog will slowly learn what is scary and what is normal. Good luck!

[kathleenmaeve]

Thanks, everyone. I figured that it's just something that needs time to work itself out- I just feel awful that he sleeps downstairs on the couch all alone But, I will try confining the cat to one room (as suggested) for a bit to help our boy gain some confidence.

[christinepi]

I don't want to rain on your parade, and I hope my dog is in the minority, but he's not overcome his fear of our 4 cats in 2 years, and most likely never will. He won't get near HIS water bowl as long as the cats are drinking out of it or are sitting near it, pleading with me to make them go away (which I do), and he'll NEVER try to watch a movie with us in the TV room ever again, because once or twice he got whacked in the nose when he came into the room and didn't notice one of the cats in the dim light. We feel bad for him, but he seems fine with it now.

 

One major difference might be that your dog hasn't gotten whacked, whereas mine certainly associates felines with a lot of pain--he even "avoids" strange cats on walks, meaning he'll keep walking even though his prey instinct is yelling at him "kill! kill!"... so yours still has a good chance of getting over it.

[Guest cwholsin]

1336495411[/url]' post='5236640']

Thanks, everyone. I figured that it's just something that needs time to work itself out- I just feel awful that he sleeps downstairs on the couch all alone But, I will try confining the cat to one room (as suggested) for a bit to help our boy gain some confidence.

 

You can also try treating him progressively closer and closer to the cat. If your boy won't even be in the same room as the cat, you could try starting with the cat shut in the room and work on getting your boy closer to the shut door. The key being to get your boy to start associating the cat with good things instead of fear. You could even just treat your grey being in proximity to something that smells like the cat (a favorite cat bed, pillow, whatever). Feeding by hand also helps establish a bond/trust between you and your boy, so it's kind of a win-win

 

Our first grey liked the cat, but is so submissive that he avoided the cat-- who would tell Hermes how much he hated his guts every time he saw him. Now they're almost friends, and Hermes isn't worried about the cat murdering him in his sleep anymore.

Good luck!

Edited May 8, 2012 by cwholsin

[sweetdogs]

He sounds like a sweetheart. As he settles in, so will the cat. They both have a lot of adjusting to do.