Picking on the dogs

Okay, this has got to stop.

The cat is picking on the dogs. She'll pin them in a corner or stand in the doorway and refuse to let them by. She hisses and swipes at them if they do. All they want to do is get past her and she's sooo mean. She also will swipe and hiss at them if I'm petting one of the dogs and not her AND if one of the dogs comes into the room she'll charge and attack.

Obviously, if it were my dogs doing this to my cat, it wouldn't be allowed and I don't think my dogs should live in fear of the cat. Also, I don't want the dogs to get to a point where they feel like they have to fight their way out, b/c Harriet would loose that battle.

Suggestions?

Harriet sounds stressed out. Maybe you could set aside a little more time to play with her. Make sure she has quiet high places to escape the dogs. She probably feels threatened because she knows that she would lose a battle with them.

You might consider katwallks or cat trees.

You don't say how long this has been going on; I don't know if anything has changed at your house that might be causing this or if it's a long-running issue.

Have you tried Feliway? That might help calm her down.

She's too fat to climb right now, so she's a ground dwelling kitty.

She has the room that the dogs rarely (like, once a week) go in. The problems seem to be in the kitchen (food!) or the couch (she likes to lay on it).

She's started doing it really bad the last two weeks, but she's never been above taking a swipe at the dogs (which I initally allowed so the dogs would know not to mess with kitty) but she's gone too far.

Nothing has changed in the house...

I think I'm going to start interupting the behavior and letting her know that it is NOT okay to guard stuff just because she wants it...

Paige