# cat is really bothering dog. help!



## sketchymak (May 26, 2005)

I got my first kitty, Sketch, 3 years ago. She lived with me and my boyfriend alone until we had to take in a friend's dog two years ago. 

The dog, Karma, had lived with cats before and everything went smoothly. Sketch didn't take a huge shine to her and they mostly stayed out of each other's way, which was great.

Then last year we got a new kitten, Calia. After a rough time between her and Sketch things settled down and everyone got along.

Now Calia has started to take a huge interest in Karma. She is under her feet at every opportunity. She licks at her toes, paws her face (gently), sticks her face down the dog's ears, and rubs up against her face.

It is obvious that Calia is displaying affection and a want to play, but Karma is getting very annoyed. She stiffens now whenever Calia comes over but only gets reallt upset when the cat is messing around with her face. She starts with some nasty lip curling and then proceeds to growl. However, I don't think Calia is able to interpret this behaviour because she doesn't stop!

Karma has only snapped at her once and didn't even touch her, but I'm scared this behaviour will escalate.

Should I spray Calia when she goes near the dog? Or punish the dog for growling? Or something else entirely?!

Help if you can!


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## AllergyCat (Aug 7, 2005)

You don't want Karma to associate bad things when the cats are around. 

So before things start with the kitten bugging her, praise her and give her treats for just being in the room with the cats.

If the kitten comes up and sniffs her, again, praise her.

But I would remove the kitten and direct her play elsewhere. 

Sometimes, dogs and cats do play together. But their body language is so different. So neither can figure out when enough is enough. 

Lola and PoGo play but I need to let them know when to stop or when the other one is getting annoyed. Little Lola just bites on PoGo's legs and he just can't take those little kitten teeth on his skin (since he is hairless). And PoGo will just drag Lola around by her scruff.....again.....not behavior that Lola really likes. So that's when I jump in. I'll grab up Lola if she is ruff and play with her with a toy or I'll hand PoGo a bone to chew on instead of the kitten!

Hope some of this helps!


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## ihave4kitties (Aug 27, 2005)

I would agree. I have a dog too and when the cats were tiny, they would bug him and Wallace still does once in awhile. I think the main thing is to make sure your dog gets lots of loving. I think this is really important as dogs are so sensitive to that. And as stated above, definitely praise your dog when he is good and gentle with the kitten. Our dog knows what gentle means and we used that word a lot when he was around the cats when they were kittens. Definitely redirect your kitten when he's in the dogs face so to speak. I think any dog can only take so much from a cat in his face. I wouldn't make a big deal of it though. Just bring your kitty elsewhere. Personally I wouldn't give the kitten attention right way either, I would just redirect her so the dog doesn't associate the cat always getting the attention when they have a "disagreement." When the kitten is older and able to fend for himself a little more or take off quickly I think, unless there is major aggressivness, they can work it out themselves. I know Wallace will once in awhile "mess" with the dog, pawing and batting at him. I swear the cat is saying, "Nah, Nah, Nah Noo Noo!" Corky will growl or snap when Wallace is too much in his face but he's never bitten him. It's like they have to test each other, see who's boss. We just ignore it and nobody's ever gotten hurt. Of course you need to watch but as long as it doesn't get out of hand, I think they learn to work things out themselves. I think if we pay too much attention to it then their behavior can become attention seeking which could escalate things, kind of like human kids. Even negative attention can be a reward sometimes so I would definitely focus more on the postive interactions. Actually, it sounds like your dog has been quite patient. Good luck!


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## Aussie_Dog (Jul 27, 2005)

I agree with the positiveness. I sometimes have trouble with that, I can never figure out when is the right time to scold him for doing something bad. When he ignores the cats, he gets praise, but he's half Border Collie so he gives them "The Eye." I would allow him to do that, since it doesn't really harm anyone, but it irks the cats and I want him to ignore them, which means to NOT look at them. And sometimes he gets too bold and will lunge at them, which is happening more and more often lately. With Jake, it's tricky, the main part in training him with the cats is on how much attention _I_ give the cats. If I ignore them, Jake ignores them. If I look at them, Jake looks at them. And it doesn't help that Buffy and Jake hate each other. If Jake is getting into the garbage, which he isn't supposed to, I'll say, "Jake!" with a warning in my voice, and Buffy will predictably jump up from where she is, run at Jake and stop a few feet away, and will put on her siren meow as she's running (mreeeeowwwwwwwwww). And vise versa: when Buffy's doing something naughty, I'll say "Buffy!" and Jake will come running to give me a hand (he just comes, he doesn't act or lunge or anything, luckily). They're like any ordinary human brother and sister, lol. I think I'm going to have to carry around some treats now, reinforce Jake when he's behaving the right way.


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