Cat Gets Hostile At Wild Greyhound Play

[PrairieProf]

I can't believe I'm posting a question about managing a greyhound in a house full of cats (or vice versa), after I've lived with a grey and cats for seven years. I currently have five cats, all of whom were completely unfazed by my former greyhound, Beth, and 99% by my new girl Cocoa. Cocoa is also just fine with the cats and was fostered with cats as well -- she occasionally chases briefly if one zooms past her or comes to see if they make noise squabbling, but she's definitely cat-safe.

 

BUT. Beth never once ran inside the house and almost never played with toys, and Cocoa, who is just two, is MUCH more energetic indoors. Now that she has gotten comfortable here she sometimes starts doing zoomie laps back and forth in my small house while throwing toys around (much skidding on the hardwood and area rugs involved). Twice now my cat C.J. has been on the living room couch while she zooms past nearby, and he has started hissing and yowling at her in a very threatening way. This morning if I hadn't gone over and kept a hand on him, I am afraid he would have flown at her and attacked her -- he sometimes attacks another male cat in my house he feels threatened by, although not severely (mostly they just yowl at each other). I am afraid of what this might do to her (I clearly will be keeping his claws well trimmed) but also what might happen to him if she retaliated to an attack.

 

Any advice here? When C.J. is not in the immediate vicinity of Cocoa's dashing he seems okay. But when the wild play-energy comes over Cocoa, and it's happening more and more, she isn't easy to settle down. And I don't have an accessible yard where I can just scoot her outside to play. I definitely try to give her plenty of outdoors exercise and she does get to run, but this morning for instance it was raining so our first walk was short, and then the play hit her after we came back in. She is also loose and muzzled when I'm out, but I haven't seen evidence of zoomies then, more likely right after I come home. I do have a baby gate and doors I can close to give C.J. some space, but it's hard to anticipate the timing.

Edited September 29, 2015 by PrairieProf

[LBass]

That's a tough one. Does CJ respond to any particular food or treat? If so, maybe you could help him feel safe amid the zoomies by distracting him with his favorite treat when Cocoa starts her romping. It also may be that he will get used to her play spurts as time goes on. My cat was raised with 3 Greys but when my sister and I moved in together we had to introduce her 2 Siamese cats to my cat and to the dogs. There was lots of Siamese hissing and hiding. 2 1/2 years in, the cats are much less worried by the dogs presence, including by zoomies.

[NeylasMom]

I will post more later, but you can do CC&D with a cat just like you can with a dog with some high value treats. That would be the best approach.

 

In the meantime, try to anticipate when she might do it and move him to a safe place beforehand. And I would keep them separate when you're not there. Violet does these in house zoomies and she's been known to do them when I'm gone for a longer day and she gets bored waiting. If it helps at all, Cisco and Zuri had some squabbles in there time and he just reacted to Cisco like he was a dog, snapping and barking. He never picked him up or anything like that, but Zuri has zero prey drive. He's the kind of dog I can drop off in a multicat house and not worry at all.

[PrairieProf]

CC & D stands for counter-conditioning and .... ? (I'm feeling stupid)

 

So far I only leave for three hours at a time. It's a small house and separating the cats fully is difficult, especially as C.J. and the other cat he gets into spats with do better when they can spread out. Maybe I can separate just C.J., although it seems unfair to lock him up when he came first. At least Cocoa is muzzled.

[NeylasMom]

Desensitization.

 

I would just separate CJ. If he won't jump it a baby gate may be sufficient so he doesn't feel totally isolated.