please help cat behaviour
please help cat behaviour
Hi I have a 15yr old cat that has lived on our shed roof for 5yrs,we lost him and brought a dog 3mths later he came home and the dog wouldn't let him in, we have tried everything but Jake (our cat) just gets so stressed if we catch him and bring him in. I am worried about his age living outside now with winter approaching and don't know weather it would be kinder to re home him? He has also starting using a neighbours roof as a toilet which I need advice to stop him he has a cat house on the roof but is this enough? can anyone please advise.
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Jacks
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Re: please help cat behaviour
When you say the dog won't let him in, what exactly do you mean in terms of behaviour?
One way of integrating a cat with a dog is to put the cat in a large dog crate in your living area and reward the dog for being nice to him... or at least not barking or showing aggression. You might also consider contacting a dog behaviourist - someone might offer some sort of training and exposure for dogs with cats.
Your poor old boy. at 15 years he just wants a quiet life so it may be that this would be too stressful for him - but it sounds like although he's lived an outdoor life before (is this correct?) he wants to be indoors now. Goodness knows where he's been for the last 3 months but if he's your cat you'll obviously need to work something out for him.
Do you have any friends or family who could take him? Homing a house-shy 15 year old cat would be VERY difficult unless you could find him a place in a cat sanctuary, I would say.
I do hope you can sort something out.
One way of integrating a cat with a dog is to put the cat in a large dog crate in your living area and reward the dog for being nice to him... or at least not barking or showing aggression. You might also consider contacting a dog behaviourist - someone might offer some sort of training and exposure for dogs with cats.
Your poor old boy. at 15 years he just wants a quiet life so it may be that this would be too stressful for him - but it sounds like although he's lived an outdoor life before (is this correct?) he wants to be indoors now. Goodness knows where he's been for the last 3 months but if he's your cat you'll obviously need to work something out for him.
Do you have any friends or family who could take him? Homing a house-shy 15 year old cat would be VERY difficult unless you could find him a place in a cat sanctuary, I would say.
I do hope you can sort something out.
Re: please help cat behaviour
Thank you for your reply, the dog is a jack Russell and is very aggressive we saved her from a puppy farm but she came with problems which we are trying to sort, she just runs at the cat barking and snarling. unfortunately Jake wont fight back. He was tempted away by an elderly lady feeding him fish and such but I guess she changed her mind and threw him out, i'm just going on what a neighbour told me. We moved and brought him along obviously, but he was out of the house first chance he got (the dog was kennelled for 2wks so he could settle.) As I said he was ok outside but he is getting too old to survive too many winters although he is an outdoor cat I don't think he would have any trouble settling in a dog free house as he is still very affectionate, I will try to rehome him but I don't want him going anywhere else first.
Re: please help cat behaviour
What a sad situation. While it's been lovely that you've built this relationship with this fella, to be honest, from what you describe, I doubt that your dog is ever going to get to a stage where it doesn't attack the cat, and I don't blame poor puss for freaking out when you try to get him inside. I'd suggest contacting a local rescue and see if they can take him in to find him a permanent home. That's probably the kindest thing you can do for him right now.