Potential Christmas dilemma, any advice please?

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Sunset70
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Potential Christmas dilemma, any advice please?

Post by Sunset70 »

Hi everyone,

I have a potential problem this Christmas regarding my step son visiting and staying at our home with their 18 month year old Labrador, over a few days during the festive period. The thing I'm concerned about is that I have a 11 year old cat, I don't think she is used to dogs (I adopted her 2 years ago from an animal shelter) , they haven't been introduced. I am worried that she will be stressed out and I am wondering if she would be better off in a cattery, although that can be stressful in itself. Is there any way I can safely introduce them? Or would it be out of the question. Could anyone please advise me what to do. I love my cat dearly ( especially after losing my own close family), and I am concerned about her and how she will cope

Thank you ..

P S. It is a 4 bedrooms house.
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Mollycat
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Re: Potential Christmas dilemma, any advice please?

Post by Mollycat »

4 years ago my partner and his dog moved in with me and my two indoor cats, one Ragdoll who had only met one dog and attacked it, and my extremely timid moggie who hid when the other dog visited and I had no idea how she would react.

A lot depends on the dog, I would say possibly more than the cat. If this lab is a calm and respectful dog who knows to avoid eye contact, keep distance and be generally quiet around cats, and the cat is given space to leave the room quickly but without panic when she wants to, she should figure out even in a few days that this dog might be scary but it isn't a threat, and calm down surprisingly quickly. If either the dog is bouncy, noisy, has a strong chase instinct, is generally young and excitable, or the cat tends lash out and attack rather than run away, I would be much more cautious.

If you have enough rooms for your cat to be given one room that she loves being in anyway that the dog can't get to and can't even get to the closed door, that would be less stressful than a cattery and perhaps she can have the run of the house and the dog can be restricted to one room at night, or for part of the day. Presumably the dog will be having walks and that's a great time, if you keep them separated, for the cat to be allowed to sniff where the dog has been so that it's less scary.

Regardless of how good they are together I would still keep them securely separated at night and while people are out.

And why should your resident cat be shipped out to a cattery anyway, rather than the visiting family's dog go into kennels?
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fjm
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Re: Potential Christmas dilemma, any advice please?

Post by fjm »

Is the dog crate trained? If so, everything should be manageable, especially if he is already used to cats. If he is an exuberant, half trained, lolloping adolescent it will be much more difficult. Will your stepson be up for following house rules, if you set them? If the dog is always on a lead, crated or confined to one room by a baby gate, and never, ever allowed to even begin to chase the cat (lots of rewards for ignoring the cat, looking at the cat and staying calmly sitting, etc, etc) you could set things up for future calm coexistence. If it is going to mean arguments and tears and rows and a horrible atmosphere I would either set up a safe room for the cat or consider a really good cattery.
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