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[Home] [Hints, Tips and Articles][Links][cat-training] Cat Training Hints The first thing you do when you introduce a greyhound into your home with cats is keep the animals in separate rooms. Do not let the new dog off the lead with the doors open. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only way to ensure that the cats will not scratch your new dog's eyes out and your new dog will not eat your cat. After a few days, you can open the doors, but keep your dog on the lead because he is likely to get excited when he sees the cat/s. I always found that it helped to feed my dog somewhere near the cats feeding place (at different times) so that the smell of the cats became familiar to the dog. Once the dog shows little interest in wanting to bound over all the furniture to get at the cat/s and the cat/s show waned interest in this monster canine invading their space you can introduce the cats into the room but keeping the dog on the lead and the cat in wire cage cat basket if possible. Let the dog sniff around the cat. The cat/s will probably hiss and raise their heckles, but they are safe in the cat box and you should reassure all parties that there is no danger. It is an individual thing as to when you feel the cat and dog are ready to stay in the same room and be civil to each other, but in our experience (bearing in mind we had 3 dogs and 5 cats, not forgetting our sheep!) it took about 4-6 weeks to get them to the point where cat would snuggle into dogs tummy and sleep quite contentedly. Eventually, your dog will not chase his "own" cat - but I have still never quite fathomed out how to stop the dog from chasing other peoples cats, squirrels, rabbits or anything that runs basically!!!!! I hope this will be of some help to other
cat owners...remember, it also depends on the
cat...Oriental cats are extremely nervous and shy of
newcomers and tend to be a little harder to want to
integrate into the new family set up. Big farm cats
don't give a damn and soon let the dog know who's boss! comments to Shelley B Jackson This page last updated 24 March 2002 |
Oxford Greyhound Information 