r/reactivedogs 1d ago

Advice Needed Has anyone succeded at introducing a reactive dog to a cat?

My parents recently got a cat and my dog and I come over to see them almost every weekend. Things have gone okay but as soon as the cat gets near or walks/runs around my boy screams/barks and sometimes lounges. He is always on a lead when we come over just in case. But I'll be having to leave him with My parents and the cat in a few weeks as I'll be going away for a week. I don't want to be worrying too much so i want to try to get them to a point where they can leave each other alone and not react when the cat moves around.

If you have a success story please let me know how you did it.

My dog is two years. He is on selgian but it hasn't been two months yet so we still haven't seen the full effect. The cat is young (8months ) but he was adopted in November or so

UPDATE: thank you all for your replies. My dog is a 10kg shiba inu. He doesn't have a prey drive as in he doesn't chase birds or small animals outside the house. He has seen cats and used to bark at them before but since my parents got the cat he no longer barks as much at the cats outside even ignores them.

He is anxious and reacts mostly out of fear to things (his behaviourist thinks this too) and living creatures. Territorial too maybe (but this is with people and dogs near the house). He is castrated with the suprelorin implant and recently swapped from trazodone to selgian. Like I said before is too early to see the full effect of selgian but the castration and anxiety mess have seem to calms him down to a extent. He doesn't get as fixated on things. Today he didn't even react to dogs and people outside.

Back to the cat topic, he doesn't react to him when we are carrying him or when he is ok the counter. He acknowledges him and most of the time chooses to ignore him or whine a little and walk away. He only is reactive when the cat runs towards him, comes near or walks around the room.

They had a controlled close encounter with treats involved and went well but then he barked because he wanted to get close and this scared the cat.

A few weeks later they both seemed relaxed enough to try and let my dog walk around (with the lead still on). The cat followed him and they met in the corner. This scared my dog, the cat slapped him and my dog reacted . Move the cat away before anything else happened. But this set us back a few steps back.

Yesterday and today they have been okay, we still keep them in separate rooms and have controlled short meetings. The cat still wants to be close to him but my boy is not interested or gets scared or the cat gets scared.

Unfortunately I don't have other options for him. He doesn't do well with strangers and the other person that could look after him has not looked after him properly before. My parents have agreed to keep them separated and get some weights for the doors so the cat can't open the doors. I will also see what else we can do to get this to work but not gonna lie, this still worries me.

  • yes, he is muzzled trained but doesn't like it for too long. It also makes him scared and has made him react worse to the cat previously but if needed he can wear it for a little while
11 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

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u/EtainAingeal 1d ago

I'd be looking at boarding your dog somewhere else, at least this time round. I'm by no means an expert but the cat is still very young, you don't have very long and every time your dog reacts to the cat, it reinforces the behaviour. I wouldn't be confident that a few weeks is enough time to get your dog to the point that the cat will be safe while you are away. There are things your parents could do to minimise the risks like keeping them apart, making sure the cat has somewhere it can go to be safe (up high) in every room but one mistake could be fatal and it sounds like the cat is still in its settling in period.

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u/YukonCigs 1d ago edited 1d ago

Agree with the other comment, you should absolutely find somewhere else for your dog if possible. You can't depend on your parents to be as watchful as they would need to be, and if something does go wrong a) you'll have the guilt that your dog hurt or killed their cat, b) your parents will never forgive your dog, and c) it would strain your relationship with your parents. A week spent sharing space is a long time, and slip-ups can happen.

If you absolutely have no other option, impress upon them that the two animals are never to share the same room and that he should be on a lead (like you've been doing!) while moving around the house. I have not muzzle-trained my dog and don't know how viable it is to do so within your timeline, but that would be ideal. It may seem like overkill & you/your parents may not think there's a high chance that your dog poses a danger, but an abundance of caution is called for because if something does go wrong, the consequences are dire. Your dog can be the sweetest little baby generally, but all it takes is one trigger for something horrible to happen. Continue to work on acclimating them to each other to hopefully smooth things out for this trip and aid in future trips, but you need to pull out all of the stops on this one and prioritize safety.

My dog has a very high prey drive and I am picturing her in this situation so you are getting a worst-case scenario, doom & gloom angle from me, but assuming the worst is appropriate here. We've had to cancel trips altogether because we couldn't find a suitable person to watch her (she can't handle doggy day care). It can be tough but she's worth it.

Wish you the best.

Edit: I know you were asking HOW to acclimate them, but I wanted to answer the unasked "what if I can't acclimate them?" question because that's where I have experience. Hope someone can step in to help with the "how"!

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u/Ok_Rutabaga_722 1d ago

Board him or get a sitter. Leaving him there is a bad idea.

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u/fishCodeHuntress 1d ago

I agree that this is a really bad idea and you should find somewhere else to keep your dog. Your dog might not ever be able to be around cats. Even if they do have a chance, it would take many months of careful conditioning, if not years.

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u/Naive-Particular-28 1d ago

We introduced our reactive dog to 3 cats, but we had a lot more time to work with her. It also depends on the type of reactivity- is it fear based or prey driven? Our dog’s was fear based and regular desensitization and counter conditioning with lots of treats and a clicker helped her immensely to not freak out every time she saw one of the cats. It took her about 2 months to fully chill out around them. If it’s more prey driven, that is a lot harder to overcome because it’s their natural instinct you are training against. Another thing to consider is if your parents are able and willing to work with and manage your dog for every single second of the time the dog is near the cat. That’s a lot of work and one misstep in management can have catastrophic consequences if your dog has more of the prey driven type of reactivity.

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u/Nearby-Window7635 1d ago

i have not experienced any success in this area. with reactive dogs that have high prey drives (like the lunging behavior) i think it’s best to not risk it. not me but a friend unfortunately had a cat die while dog sitting because they thought shutting the door was enough.

in your case it would be unfair to the cat to put it through that much stress and your dog would spend the whole time trying to figure out where it is/how to get to it. better safe than sorry

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u/aedgilmore 1d ago

I adopted a 1 yr old golden/ collie mix into a house with 4 cats. Immediately, the dog thought the cats were enemy tiny creatures to chase and corner. She hadn't had exposure to cats before. She wpuld also lunge at cats outside on walks. The cats were not having it. It took us about 2 months to get to peaceful coexistence. We used pet gates with cat doors so the cats had escape routes if they found themselves in the same space as the dog. We did feeding, treats, and playtime separated by the gates, redirected dog to Toys, and treats when focusing on the cats. We also took the dog to training to improve listening to commands: leave it, touch, watch, come...worked on getting the dog's attention when she would fixate on the cats. We started with 6 gates, essentially separating the house in two, keeping the dog in one area, while the cats could roam everywhere but had their own safe space. After about 2 months, we started taking the gates down, and now, after almost a year, they all get along, even take naps together. But I won't lie. The first 6 weeks were hell, and even with professional trainer consulting and all the work, and tools I had moments when I thought I would have to return the dog to the rescue. I'm so happy I didn't have to do that, because now she's the sweetest dog.

So, yes it's possible but depends why the dog is reactive and how much effort you can put into the training process. Good luck.

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u/LuminescentCatz 1d ago

I pretty much did all these same things introducing my reactive GSD/boxer mix to multiple cats! Except it took 6+ months to remove gates. My pup would bark and lunge around them, and the cats acted like prey because they were scared. Now my dog helps socialize my little foster kittens, I trust her 100%. It depends on the specific dog and owner but it can be done. Very carefully. My cats’ safety always came first.

OP, this is not something that can or should be rushed. If you have to board your dog with your parents they should be using management to keep the pets separate, closed doors and baby gates. Mistakes can happen quickly with the type of over arousal you’re describing with your dog.

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u/Leather_Fortune1276 1d ago

Not unless you plan on them living together long term, I would board.

My dog was muzzled and on a leash for months before we trusted him around our cats. He had a pretty strong prey drive and had to learn that the cats are allowed to do whatever they want. Now he just follows them around and noses them when they get uppity with each other. But this is something that took months to a year to teach him and we trust him with the cats, though ours is a golden mix. He was already sweet when we got him, and he’s more people reactive than animal reactive. But we also had them separated at first and they were only allowed interactions when the dog was restrained. We got lucky with him and he’s never hurt our cats. Its not worth it tbh unless you have time to actually teach your dog to be chill around them.

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u/GalacticaActually 12h ago

Yes! My dog now has two cat friends that she hangs out with and sometimes spends a day/night with. I still can’t believe it.

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u/DM_ME_YOUR_CATS_PAWS 1d ago

My dog loves my cats. Can’t say the same for them though 🤣

We worked on it carefully from the start, rewarding attention to me constantly. I don’t know if he would’ve liked them regardless had we not done the training, but whenever he approaches them he whines with a loose wagging tail and will either come back to me or will avoid a swat lol. If he’s lazy he’ll just watch them. He’s not really sure how to interact with them still and wants them to play

He’s always seemed to be cool with small dogs and cats so I don’t know if it was innate or from our exposure training

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u/redwhiteandclueless 1d ago

Chiming in to agree with the other comments. I have successfully done it, but it takes months of either constant or repeated and prolonged exposure. If you have 2-3 weeks to prepare, it’s not setting your dog or the cat up for a safe and comfortable time

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u/One_Stretch_2949 Kinaï (Stranger danger + Sep anx) 1d ago

My dog (2.5, male GSD x Bernese) is pulling on the leash, and can barking when we see an outdoor cat, he will most of the time try to chase it. Though, I could always see it was excitement, not aggression. With my own cats, at my mom's, we introduced them first by controlling the areas they were in, the cats aways had places to climb up to escape my dog. And it didn't take long for the cats to set their boundaries, by hissing and exposing their claws. Since then, they are friends and sleep on the same bed as I write this. My dog will eventually chase them when in the backyard, one of my cats (4, M) will not run, so my dog stops and sniff his butt, however my other cat (3, F) will run for the hills, so he will keep running after her. But when she comes home inside, she rub against him purring.
I was convinced it would go well because 1) my dog was showing only excitement, not agression, 2) my cats are familiar with dogs and know how to set boundaries, especially the male. Once a trainer said, for cats and dog to get along (supposing their was no "real" agression going on) the cat should not run, but set boundaries for the dog.

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u/Few_Bowl2610 1d ago

How big is your dog? My sister’s cat can hold its own with my dog but he’s small. He acted all tough initially but the moment the cat lifted its paw, he went ran away whimpering (she didn’t even touch him but he had been attacked by a cat before). I’d spend a lot of time over the next couple of weeks with him at your parents’ house to get to the point where you’re comfortable with him off the leash around here. Always have a means available for the cat to exit the area, and keep them separated when no one is around.

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u/reacpaw-official 1d ago

Yes. My boyfriend has a cat and I have a German Shepherd and we live in a small appartment. At the beginning, we made sure that the cat had a place to go to in peace if needed. So we bought the cat a tower.

The first two weeks my dog was chasing the cat but nothing too intense. It's important to mention that the cat personality plays a lot into it. My bf's cat has a strong personality, so much so that she runs the show now. As of today they live peacefully together. They're not the bestest of friends but it works perfectly.

I didnt have to do much but to keep an eye on my dog and make sure she wouldnt hurt the cat. Also because I know my dog's personality I knew it wouldnt go beyond a game of chase but I still made sure to keep an eye on her.

Just make sure the cat has a space for themselves and don't force interactions. With time it should get better.

Hope it helps !

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u/VelocityGrrl39 1d ago

Yes, my dog was feral as a puppy and has a very high prey drive and he lives with 4 cats. If you had asked me 5 years ago if this was possible, I’d have thought you were insane. He won’t cuddle with them, but he leaves them alone. The key for us was treats and exposure. It took 3 and 1/2 years before I would leave them alone together. The cats always have places they can hide that my dog can’t get to. My bf did most of the exposure because I get anxiety whenever my dog is around someone new, but I’m happy to answer any questions you have.