Moving in with mom and dog

minechaunce

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My cat Chauncey and I recently moved in with my mother-in-law and her mini dachshund, Jack. Neither of the animals have lived with other pets before and my mother-in-law has a small bias against cats so trying to integrate them has been incredibly difficult as i seem to be the only one who understands animals and their territory (i grew up in a multi-pet house and am familiar with cohabitation). Ive put up a baby gate to give Chauncey his own safe space and to keep the dog away from him, his food and litter. My mother-in-law refused to keep the gate closed until i told her that if Jack got into the litter it could seriously hurt him (i use tidy cats crystals) after which she was all for the gate. She has already cornered Chauncey with the dog in Chauncey's safe space so they could "get to know each other quickly" despite everything I've told her.Her son admitted to me that she has no idea how to raise a dog, and that she hadnt even been able to potty train Jack for three years and even now still has problems. I'm at a total loss of what to do in this situation, any help would be greatly appreciated!
 

Columbine

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This is a very difficult situation. I normally recommend that a dog has solid basic obedience training so that it can be relatively easy to teach it to leave the cat alone. Training the dog, not the cat, really is the key.

Would your MIL be open to you or her son training the dog so that the two animals can be taught to cohabit with the minimum amount of stress to all concerned? I can't see any other way if the goal is to have both animals freely roaming the house.

Your only other option is to keep the two permanently separated. I'm assuming that you have very little lattitude in adding cat furniture and shelving to give Chauncey safe vantage points from which to observe Jack. However, if a little 'catification'  is possible, then that could really help.
[article="29682"]Introducing Cats To Dogs  [/article][article="29827"]Caring For Cats And Dogs  [/article]
 
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minechaunce

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I was just thinking of finding some way to install some perches for him earlier actually, i think its a great idea. If i cant spread his space out i can at least spread it up. And i think we've agreed to give our training of the dog a trial run, so he can get the basic commands down at the very least.
 

Columbine

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Fantastic that your MIL is open to some basic training for Jack. Once he has either a solid sit-stay or a very thorough understanding of 'leave it' you can try introductions again. The key is to keep Jack on a lead for the early meetings, until he no longer shows any interest in Chauncey.

A tip for the dog training - clicker training is the easiest and quickest way to achieve results. Just make sure the food reward is something that Jack goes nuts for, and something that he doesn't get at any other time. That by itself will be a huge motivator.

The pics in this thread show what can be achieved with wall furniture etc (though obviously you don't need to go to this extreme if you don't want to).  [thread="297074"]Snick And Jaspers New Cat Wall Furniture​[/thread]  
 
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