# How can I get my Chocolate Lab & Cats to get along bette



## Zippy&Co (Nov 11, 2006)

*Toby my Chocolate Labrador came first .....*










*Then 6 months later, came Zippy .......*










*12 months later, Scooby joined them (Scooby on the right) ....*[/b]IMG]










*& Millie*









Toby is 18 months old now, when I first got Zippy, Toby was very much a puppy himself, so all he wanted to do was play with Zippy, but because Toby was a very big puppy, Zippy just kept one step ahead of him! :wink: Zippy will venture downstairs, as he always has done, but not as much I would like him to do. However, Scooby & Millie hardly ever come down stairs, because Toby tries to corner them, just so he can lick them and play with them! :jump :catsm 

I keep bringing them downstairs and putting Toby at the otherside of the "Child gate" so he can't get to them, but this still doesn't seem to be working. I want them all to share the house, and for the cats to have the run of the entire house, instead of just upstairs :? 

By the way, Toby will not go up the stairs, as he once slipped on them when he was a pup, so he stays downstairs through his own choice.

Any ideas how I can get the youngsters to come down stairs more, or how to stop Toby wanting to lick them to death :mrgreen: 

Carol x


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## carolsclan (Jun 28, 2006)

Im also carol .....

It takes time to get cats and dogs to be buddies..... start with the cats .. make sure they know where safety is .

Then teach pup how to be "nice" to cats .... treats and HUGE praise when she is good ....

Use the child gate downstairs .. a cat will get curious and want to come and see ... just be patient .

I have 10 cats and one of them a feral who is still semi feral only likes my boxer .... consider carefully having your dogs and cats buddies ..... I have a permanent circus with my dogs and cats cos they are all pals! :lol:


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## Zippy&Co (Nov 11, 2006)

Hi Carol

Thanks very much for the advice  

I will certainly keep trying and reward Toby for being good around the cats.

I would love for them all to enjoy each others company more  

Carol x


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## dmcwlvssr (Apr 24, 2005)

It took Freesia and his kitty almost a year of being behind a baby gate for them to get along. I agree time & patience


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## Shadue (Oct 31, 2006)

Hi Zippy&Co,

I've made a few posts in regards to "making friends" from a cat/cat perspective, as well as a cat/rabbit and cat/bird perspective.

Ill cut and paste my posts, probably be easiest... hopefully a few of these tricks help... just keep in mind each post was directed to a specific problem, so try and pick out the tricks we did apposed to the direction the posts were made.

*In regards to Cat vs Other animals*

Well, a few schools of thought on this one. 

First, I am a believer that most animals can be taught pretty much anything if given the right approach, time and effort. 

However, what you are wanting to do here, is stop your cat from being a cat, and more so, suppressing a very ingrained instinctual habit. 

Approach this along the lines of "You don't want that" apposed to "Your not suppose to do that". 

We had a cockatoo when we first got Tink, and we spend TONS of time with the two of them. My wife holding Tink, me holding our bird. For half hour sessions pretty much every day, we would let Tink sniff her, and gradually after about 2-3 weeks of this were able to put the bird on the floor with Tink (within arms lengths of me and my wife of course just in case) without Tink attacking. 

We did allot of rubbing the bird on Tinks chest or paws, so she could smell her, and we discouraged any type of pawing action right out of the gate. 

Again though, it took a good month easily of this to get her to basically not see the bird as prey, but actually ended up having her look at it as a friend. Tink would actually ask us to take the bird out and do our "together" sessions. 

Mind you, we had a rabbit also, and with the same type of training, were able to leave Tink and Shadow (our rabbit) alone with no worries. 

In both cases, we changed Tinks view of the other animal from prey to friend, and something they would rather spend time with rather than kill. ****, when we had company over, if someone went to the rabbit cage to look at Shadow, Tink would often jump up on top of the cage and glare them down... pretty funny to watch actually. 

Point is... it can be done, but its gonna take allot of time and patience.

*Cat vs Cat*

Tink, our 4yr old female acted the exact same way when we brought Cleo, our now 3 month old kitten into the house. 

At the time we were not privy to proper introductions, but we worked around it on our own with positive results luckily. 

Tink has always been very territorial, even with human visitors. So we kind of expected the type of initial response we ended up having from her. The first 2-3 days was simply Tink doing allot of hissing and growling, with the occasional swat at Cleo if she came in too close and was persistent in staying in close proximity to Tink. 

What me and my wife did, was after the first day, once Cleo seemed adjusted to her new environment, we would have 1hr / day play sessions, with lots of toys present. We found that with the toys, the 2 cats tended to ignore each other after a few minutes and they would actually at times end up playing with the same toy. 

On the 3rd day of this, Tink mysteriously did a 180 in her behavior. The night before, hissing and growling, the next morning, bathing and sleeping with Cleo. 

May want to give this type of play session a try. It seemed to work for us. We also put wet food on the same plate in 2 different piles on opposite ends of a large plate. We then would place each kitty on opposite ends of the plate and this also seemed to help with the bonding process.


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## kana (Apr 23, 2004)

I had an older lab with my young cat and things went pretty smoothly. Your situation can take a bit longer, but I believe they can all live in harmony oneday. I just want to caution you that I wouldn't allow your dog to be alone with your cats. Labs are pretty rambunctious when they are young and might harm the cats.


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## carolsclan (Jun 28, 2006)

Shadue , i enjoyed your post , i also have made many introductions and also have a parrot that lives in harmony with my cats .

I focus on rewarding good behaviour and reinforcing safety zones.

Between my geese, my bantams and Snoopy my sun conure my cats have given up anything with feathers.

Let me not forget we also have Mynahs here that chase cats...

But remember something no matter how much we try , a cat and a dog remains a predator ... nothing will ever remove that instinct so always supervise.


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## Shadue (Oct 31, 2006)

Thanks Carol... glad you did


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## Zippy&Co (Nov 11, 2006)

Hi Shadue,

Thank you so much for all the wonderful information!  

I had a good read, and it certainly makes sense! I'm going to put it to the test, and hopefully in time to come, they will all get along fine and accept each other as part of the family  

Carol xx


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## Bengal Ragdoll Lab Mad (Dec 27, 2006)

We have a Brown Labrador (Rupert) who is also young (16 months old now) who is the spitting image of your boy.

We have 2 Ragdolls (8 months and 6 months old) and 1 Bengal X (4 months old) together with a new kitten we got last week (a Bengal girl who is 13 weeks old).

We got the boy Ragdoll (Stuie) first when he was 6 weeks old and Roo was 8 months. We went for the approach of having Stuie on the sofa (near his covered bed) and Roo would come over and look and sniff him and we would tell him to be gentle. For the first week or so we kept them apart unless we were on hand.

After a week or so we were able to leave Stuie with Rupert and now they are the best of friends. (Stuie kicked Rupert out of his new dog bed he had got for christmas!) We have repeated this with our other cats and Rupert and them all will sleep together, etc. 

Here is a link to a thread where I showed photos of them getting on. This is earlier in the year when Roo was 12 months and Stuie was about 4 months:

http://www.thehovel.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=7358

I think Rupert sees them as part of his pack so does not chase them if they run. We have also found that since getting Stuie (touch wood!) we can now go out without coming back to shredded post, newspaper, flowers, etc! Now they all just roam the house while we are out. 

Best of luck.


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## Zippy&Co (Nov 11, 2006)

Hi Bengal, Ragdoll, Lab Mad

Really sorry, I've only just seen your response.  

At least I know it can now be done! :lol: Crikey, I would never have thought there could possibly be a Chocolate Lab who is the spitting image of my Toby! I'm not sure whether Rupert could possibly me as naughty as my Toby though! 8O He's a real live wire, absolutely barking mad! But I love him to bits.

Carol xxx

P.S. Unfortunately, I couldn't see your Chocolate boy and kitties, the link you posted, asked me for a user name and password.


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## jennifer2 (Mar 5, 2005)

I have a golden and a labmix.
In my case, the cats were here first. They were the only pets for the first 7yrs of their lives, then I brought in Bear (golden) as a puppy. That was almost 7 years ago. Almost 4 yrs ago, I added my lab to the mix.
Lets just say, I've given up on my cats ever _liking_ the dogs. They're not afraid of them, they just don't want anything to do with the dogs. And pretty much hate the fact that they are even in their house. Although, they seem to tolerate the lab better, maybe because they were used to dogs when I got him.
One cat is very social, so she will come out more often. Although, if the dogs so much as look at her, she will hiss. My second cat became very anti-social after getting the dogs to the point where she wouldn't even sleep with me anymore. She'd sit in the doorway and stare. For whatever reason, when I moved to a new house, she became more sociable, maybe because it wasn't _her_ house.
So, in my house, they basically just co-exist, and I've accepted that.
The only advice I can offer, is to make sure you teach your dog to NOT chase the cats. Others have suggested positive reinforcement for the dog being nice to the cats. I'd personally take it one step further and give treats for _ignoring_ the cats or showing very little interest in them.


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## fbodgrl (May 10, 2004)

I have 4 cats and a dog. Khan (dog) was adopted in August as an adult 1 1/2 yrs.

Previously all the cats lived with the dog my ex and I had. I can say that made absolutely no difference when Khan came home. They had lived almost a year dog free. Khan hadn't lived with cats. He was very excited around them, but didn't act aggressive.

The first couple of days I was trying to take him to the cats that I felt were most tolerant. Then I realized that wasn't going to work. Cats WILL not be forced into doing something they don't want to do :lol: So I left it up to them to come to Khan. He was baby gated in the lving room and 1 bedroom. Plus on a leash in the begining to avoid him chasing them. I slowly made the area bigger. Eventually the cats came around. He is best buds with Mateo. The other 3 more or less tolerate him. It is nice though alot of times I have all 4 cats and Khan sleeping in bed with me! They will all come up and snuggle on the couch if they want attention even with Khan laying there.


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