Introducing A Kitteh

[LaFlaca]

My son has adopted a Siamese cat whom he has named Romero (after Night of the Living Dead George Romero). While DS does not live in our home, we would like to introduce Wendy to Romero. Since we pet-sit for one another it would make life ever so much easier if canine and feline got along or at least tolerated each other.

 

So....how does one go about introducing a kitteh to a Greyhound safely?

[OwnedBySummer]

Here are the instructions from Awesome-Paws/Camp Greyhound in Canada. Hope this helps!

 

"1. Muzzle your dogs. Give them time, they will calm down with the muzzles on, they are used to wearing muzzles both at the track and at Bill's, not just for racing either, so give them some time, and get those muzzles on. They are the key to your being able to relax a bit. That being said, it is possible for a dog to injure a cat even with a muzzle on, so you still need to be vigilant if the greyhounds and cats can get at each other.

 

2. Assess your greyhound's reaction to the cat. Signs of being unworkable include: panting, copious drooling, and persistence. Persistence means that the greyhound will follow the cat anywhere, if the cat walks down the hall and goes into a bedroom and you close the door, the greyhound will either stay at the door, or keep going back to check the door. If your greyhound shows all of these signs or even 2/3, it's possible that he may truly be a high prey greyhound (unusual) and not workable with cats.

 

If your greyhound shows one of these signs, or stares at the cat, or whimpers a bit, it's likely they are workable. You'll be able to reassess for change each day, and you should see a gradual relaxation of signs going on, rather than an increase in signs of high prey behavior.

 

3. Move all the furniture away from the walls enough that your cat can get back there if need be. In spite of all your efforts right now to keep them separate, there can be an escape very quickly, and you will need a safe area for the cat to get to where the greyhound can't follow. We had our couch pulled out from the wall for months, just in case.

 

4. If your hounds are food motivated, before working with them, have a ton of treats at the ready. If they prefer pets, then you can use praise and pets to reward them.

 

5. When you're ready to start, what you want to do is reward your greyhound every single time they give you the behavior you're looking for. What you're looking for is ignoring the cat. So if the cat comes into the room, on the other side of the baby gate, and your grey looks at him and then looks away, the second he looks away give him his reward. This is positive reinforcement, a popular method of dog training. You're marking that ignoring behavior with a treat and/or praise, and that's the most important thing you can do. Keep doing that as much as you can.

 

6. For some dogs, positive reinforcement doesn't kick in fast enough, and you have to also do a bit of aversive training. At Camp Greyhound, that's a squirt of cold water and the words "no kitty". Again, the second your hound obeys the "no Kitty" command, reward him.

 

7. Repeat, repeat and repeat.

 

These methods have worked for us at Camp Greyhound very well. The longest we ever had to keep it up was a month. There are a few other tricks you can try, they include reinforcing the cats as alpha, meaning feed the cats first in front of the dogs, but if your greyhound is getting excited around the cats at this point, it's best to wait for some of these other things, and stick to a simple method.

 

They need to learn to associate ignoring the cat with good things happening, and not ignoring the cat with no rewards whatsoever. Some would say that aversive training will give the reward of attention, even though it's negative attention, but with some hounds, just using postive reinforcement is simply not enough.

 

Also, don't force introductions, let them handle that in a natural way with their own timing, and try not to pick up the cat in front of the greyhound, that can start some jumping behavior that you don't want."

Edited July 30, 2012 by OwnedBySummer

[LaFlaca]

Thanks Lisa! This is fabulous! I'm going to print it out and share it with Alex (my son). I would love it if Romero and Wendy could be buddies.

[OwnedBySummer]

Glad you like it! Sorry about the reference to "Bill's" -- I didn't want to alter anything since it's a direct quote. FYI, "Bill's" is what we call our local adoption group, as it's is owned and run by a man named Bill, LOL.

[Guest kirstenbergren]

I love the advice from Lisa!

 

We have had our Siamese cat (Parker) for 9 years before we brought home PJ. We had the muzzle on PJ and introduced them slowly. I never knew that Parker could get so puffy! I also never had heard a cat growl like he did at PJ. But it must have worked because they are buddies now. They lay in their beds next to each other at night. I think most of our success was that PJ has a very low prey drive and that Parker told him to "back off" from the beginning.

 

I think your dog and the new cat will be fine with each other with some time and patience. Good luck!

[GeorgeofNE]

Just FYI: cats really don't do all that well being shuffled from home to home. He'd really be better off having you come check on the cat once a day than have you bring it to your house.

 

Of course SOME cats probably just love being uprooted--but cats are very territorial, and I myself would not stress my cat out by expecting it to not only deal with a dog, but being in a strange place.

[LaFlaca]

Just FYI: cats really don't do all that well being shuffled from home to home. He'd really be better off having you come check on the cat once a day than have you bring it to your house.

 

Of course SOME cats probably just love being uprooted--but cats are very territorial, and I myself would not stress my cat out by expecting it to not only deal with a dog, but being in a strange place.

 

Thank you for the good advice! It makes perfect sense. Romero visits our house quite frequently as Alex lives literally right next door; his apartment connects to our house via a door. But, when Romero is in, Wendy is out. They're aware of one another and have seen each other through a glass in the living room door. Neither has shown any more than a passing interest in the other...like a mild curiosity...but Alex is very hesitant to let them meet face to face; more afraid for Wendy than Romero, actually! Strangely, Romero is not cat friendly but we don't know about dogs yet.

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

Strangely, Romero is not cat friendly but we don't know about dogs yet.

 

This isn't strange. Most cats are not cat friendly, they are solitary and territorial creatures, so new cats in their environment are generally not welcome. Now, that doesn't mean they can't live together, I have two non-related kitties who act like litter mates. They positively HATE other cats, but while they find dogs to be disgusting, they accept them in my home as visitors and/or residents with very little fuss. (Ron disapproves of active dogs, so he'll swat one that's tearing around and bothering him, Jayne included.)