InuYasha/Kitty Update
InuYasha has been doing well so far.
But he constantly harasses the cats. At first they were giving him warning hisses and swatting, but he continues to go after them. Now they are getting fed up and the swiping and hissing has become more aggressive. This morning the little one Frannie managed to bite him on the head and must have had claw contact with him. He has a little blood between the nostril hole and fur.
He completely ignores anything we are saying. When they run he chases, when they don't run he tries to chew on them.
I don't think they would mind playing with him if he didn't chew on them.
Should I just keep telling him no and wait it out?
But he constantly harasses the cats. At first they were giving him warning hisses and swatting, but he continues to go after them. Now they are getting fed up and the swiping and hissing has become more aggressive. This morning the little one Frannie managed to bite him on the head and must have had claw contact with him. He has a little blood between the nostril hole and fur.
He completely ignores anything we are saying. When they run he chases, when they don't run he tries to chew on them.
I don't think they would mind playing with him if he didn't chew on them.
Should I just keep telling him no and wait it out?
Comments
Both Kuma and Sachi wanted to chase cats as puppies. Kuma was worse than Sachi, it took a few weeks to break him of cat chasing. Now he is 99% reliable. Sachi was better in a few days.
What I do is make A LOT of noise, stomp feet, clap hands and give a loud "No" and try to block her off from the chase. I also initially grabbed her neck rough (not pinching, just holding). I wanted her to know in no uncertain terms that cat chasing was wrong. She has learned really well and now just sniffs them without chasing. But I did make so much noise initially. Didn't hurt her at all, but the noise made an impression.
Things will get better, just be consistent :-)
I sincerely doubt Miko would do intentional harm but I will never risk it.
Now outside in our yard, all bets are off, Kuma will chase cats, but hasnt really done anything. He is Mr Hyde in the house, Dr. Jekyl in the yard. As Jessica said, they are a high prey drive animal.
"because they are old, fat and declawed." lol, that read funny!
Cats suck.
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ouch! lol!
...if you haven't heard before, Brad had a cat that ruined his love of cats completely (;-). Certainly not all cats suck, but in remembering his story, his kind of did...
Advice given to me in regards to puppy-cat interactions is to take cues from the cat most of the time- dogs and cats can enjoy playing, despite some bad sounds. Puppies need to learn to respect that the cat is saying its had enough, too. Cats can also be jerks- Jeff thinks I just always take the dogs' side, but I find it true that Finn (cat) can be sitting in the stairwell and Sage will trot by on some errand but Finn will attract his attention by growling at him, which of course send Sage into chase-pounce mode, and its very exciting and fun up and down the stairs. I yell at the CAT for instigating. Sage will rush Finn, he will slap his paw down on him, but he has never tried to bite him. The other cat, Loki, wont run, she just hisses and Sage leaves her alone. He likes to wash her, and shovel her belly up with his snout- its quite funny. You can imagine Loki saying "Quit it, you big oaf!" In fact they have been known to cuddle up on the couch together. Finn will never do this. Reilly guards objects from cats, but will leave it at a serious request.
Kris is right- dogs' policies with inside cats do not apply to outside cats. Sage tolerates the two house cats- he even LIKES 'em- but he is driven into utter hysteria if he sees a cat outside. As a pup/teenager he blasted out of the Invisible Fence (I vehemently do NOT recommend this product! Never never again.) we had at that time and had the time of his life chasing a cat, I caught up with him barking way up on a neighbor's deck BEAMING with satisfaction, the cat clinging to the screen door as high as it could climb. He has never forgotten that little joyride. That's the power of positive reinforcement with a chase for a high prey motivated dog.
When the cat takes a certain level of "okay I WILL kill you if you do that one more time" Tomoe suddenly lays down.
You know Kris I was looking at the videos I took last week and realized InuYasha is growing pretty quickly. I have to charge up my camera battery. Here are a couple from the phone. His ears went up today.
Yea, the cats hiss and swipe and he continues to go at them. We have to physically break them up because he will have Frannie on her back with all claws flailing.
Your pup is really nice looking, I love his face. Kimi is one of my favorites at Katja's place, so I'm a bit envious of your little stud (and that you will be getting a KBD - but you already know that).
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I would also reiterate the caution that even when YOUR cats are accepted, free-roaming or stray cats may still be fair game to harrass, tree, and kill. Mine weren't raised with cats and have all killed outdoor cats and so chances of a harmonious household with one at this point are exceedingly slim, but since you're dealing with a puppy you will have much success with consistency!
When/where is your KBD coming from? How exciting! It will help tremendously to have InuYasha thoroughly cat-broke before another dog is on the scene. If two dogs are interested, it really compounds things in a hurry.
As an aside (I AM NOT ADVISING THIS FOR A PUPPY...JUST BRINGING IT UP) when host Terry Gross at NPR interviewed Temple Grandin, she talked about one good use for E collars:
She asked Temple "Would you ever use negative reinforcement punishment as a way to discipline an animal?
Grandin's reply: "Most of the times I would not, but I would never say never. I would never use punishment on something that's fear-based behavior because that will worsen it. If you want to teach the animal a new skill - like if you want to teach a dog a trick, I want to do that all with positive reinforcement. You want to teach the lion or the dolphin at the marine park or the zoo to cooperate with veterinary work, that's all done with positive reinforcement -totally, totally, totally.
There's only one thing where punishment is - you just about have to use punishment and that's stopping prey-drive behavior. You've got a dog that's killing cats or you've got a dog that's killing sheep and they've ALREADY DONE IT (emphasis mine). I absolutely despise shock collars and I despise a lot of the things that hunters are doing with shock collars. I think it's totally wrong. But there's one legitimate use for it: Car chasing, jogger chasing, cat killing, deer chasing, anything that's prey-drive behavior. And this is not aggression and it's not fear. It's a very special other kind of emotion that the animal has. And you'd want to put the collar on, have the dog wear it for two days, and then - because you never want him to find out that the collar did it. And then one day a thunderbolt from the sky blasts him for chasing deer. And that's one of the few situations I would use a punishment. For all kinds of other things, no."
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=123383699
Koda outside of the house will chase and try and kill the cat.
To start I think the most helpful things to get us started were:
-There are places Jeri can and will go that are inaccessible to Ki.
-Ki knows 'Leave It!' very well.
-Ki will do anything for treats.
So Jeri has a couple places in each room he might be in where he can go to be out of Ki's reach. This allows him to not feel threatened all the time...he knows he has safe places. Ki is not allowed to bother Jeri in these safe spots. If he jumps up to see him on his shelf or goes for one of his hidey holes he is told to Leave It and is redirected to focus on something else (he does get *very* focused as you can expect). For the first week or so Jeri stuck to these (with mad dashes between them) and observed from safety. When Jeri started venturing down onto the floor to investigate, I'd tell Ki to 'Leave It' and put him in a down/stay and offer treats for him not approaching the cat. There was still a lot of chasing and hissing and swiping at first but we went out of our way to reward him ignoring the cat.
Now they'll be on the floor together (they are not to the point of cuddling...Ki probably would tolerate this if he was already in chill mode but Jeri thinks he's a butt), Jeri will hop down from a cat spot and go sniff Ki if he's being calm and then go to another room and Ki will just lay there and not do anything. I still have Ki practice his 'Stay' whilst Jeri checks him out...it's an ongoing process to try to reinforce good interaction and treats are still involved along with lots of praise.
However, sometimes Ki is in excited mode and will sniff too all-up-ons or paw Jeri or get slapped and thinks it's an invitation to play. On these crazy energy occassions, we have Foxy...his poor, abused stuffed fox toy with one ear, only some face fur, and lots of crunchy slobber. Basically Ki is told to 'Leave It' and 'Get Foxy'...he is allowed to chew on Foxy and we'll play fetch with him and chase him around but he is not allowed to approach Jeri when he's in crazy mode. Correct and redirect. We're thinking it will still be a couple months before they are fully comfortable and polite with each other and their boundaries but they do get better week by week. ...Oh and we do walk Ki a lot to avoid him being too pent up around the cat.
Good luck!
I figured I would give you an update on InuYasha and the kitties. This is a conversation that InuYasha and I have multiply times a day.
InuYahsa and I are hanging out in a room and Eeyore or Frannie casually rolls into the room. InuYasha approaches kitty....
InuYasha: Mmm kitty neck!!
Me: InuYasha NO!
InuYasha: oh okay, Mmm kitty back!!
Me: NO!
InuYasha: oh okay, Mmm kitty leg!!
Me: NO!
InuYasha: oh okay, Mmm kitty tail!!
Me: NO!
InuYasha: oh okay, how about I approach from the other side like this?
Me: NO!
InuYasha: Well this is no fun!
Waits a few seconds.....
InuYasha: Mmm, kitty....
Many times the cats expect me to protect them instead of moving up high, which gets annoying cause then they just sit there flicking their tails in InuYasha's face. They are pretty placid and it took awhile before they started to fight back, especially Eeyore. But Eeyore soon developed what we call the "Hurricane". When he gets real pissed he will charge the pup with the same paw swatting continually with a war cry. It is pretty hilarious and dramatic.
During feeding times they actually all hang out in the kitchen together and watch me. Frannie will brush on him continually as he keeps his eyes on me and my hands preparing his food. InuYasha is cool with the cats hovering over his dish while he eats. Today Frannie ate out of his bowl with him and he didn't care. They now all share the same water bowl.
The cats have accepted InuYasha in our siesta. Each has their own little spot on the bed. It usually just take one "no, lay down" and he is cool.
InuYasha has become my shadow and the cats love to hang out in the same room with people so it makes for an eventful home. I feel bad for him though cause I know he really wants to play with them. But there is too much risk involved to encourage or allow that.
She is also the 3 or 4 time testing "you mean not to do this"--->try again-->"did you really mean not to do 'this'"?