My kitten crawling up my legs

[flinch4me]

sadly i can't kick them out of my room (as suggested earlier about keeping them from rubbing my face) lol XD that is where they are living now... we have a dog and they are quite new to the whole idea of a dog in the house...as is the dog with cats...any suggestions as to making them not hiss and spit at a dog that just is curious and wants to love someone would be greatly accepted... the only one who really gets at it is the red head Pangur... I think she has had a horrible experience with a dog but the dog isn't any bigger then her really and it is something of an issue... 

 

[calico2222]

When it comes to the dog, it will just take time. I don't know of any kitten that doesn't have that reaction to any animal it hasn't seen before. My very first cat I brought home as a tiny kitten. I had an indoor bunny at the time. The rabbit was confined when we were gone but had the free run of the house when we were home. The first time Jasper saw Bunny it was as if he saw the devil incarnate! He hissed, spit, arched his back, did the little side step hopping with his tail 3 times it's normal size (pretty impressive for a kitten about 8 wks old...he looked like an overgrown bottle brush 

 ). Here, I was worried about the cat attacking the rabbit, and the cat is afraid of it's prey! After a few weeks though, Jasper just thought of Bunny as a weird looking cat that walked funny and they were the best of friends. They actually would curl up on the couch and groom each other. 

I think your kitties will be just fine with the dog once they get used to each other. Keeping them separated right now is a good thing because they will get used to each other's smell which will make actually living together much easier. 

 

[rafm]

Integrating cats and dogs just takes a little patience and work on your part. I will preface all of this saying I have had cats and dogs for many years and have run the gamut of reactions from both species.

This may sound mean or 'unfair' to you but you have to allow the cat to be higher in the heirarchy than the dogs. No matter the size of the dog, it has to understand kitty is first. That doesn't mean kitty can beat up on the dog at will, but rather they both understand they have a place and that place is consistently reinforced.

First thing, you MUST obedience train the dog. This isn't a suggestion, it is a must. Even if your dog is small, it is not cute or OK for it to be untrained. In obedience, your dog will learn to focus on you and gain some very important commands that will help integrate it with the cats. My absolute favorite command is 'leave it'. My 18 pound dog can be looking at anything....cat, cat treat, trash on sidewalk and I can calmly tell her to 'leave it' and she turns away from it and moves on. This is a super important command as you will use it alot when the dog is interacting with the cats.

You must never, ever, never allow the puppy to chase the cat while it is learning about the cats. This is an instinct for them so you have to watch carefully and when you see the signs the dog is getting ready to chase,issue the 'leave it' command and positively distract the dog with a toy or game.

If the dog and cat nose each other and the cat hits or spits, don't allow the dog to bite at or lunge at kitty. Tell the kitty no and redirect the dog. However, if the dog is jumping on the cat, barking and generally acting a fool, he needs to be popped by the cat, it's the cats way of teaching him how to behave and there is nothing wrong with it. Just redirect the dog away from the cat with a toy or game.

Eventually they may start to play together. You may see the kitty initiating chase and if you do, that's ok. The difference between play chase and pack behavior chase is very evident. We have one cat that loves to chase with our little dog and I never correct the dog when the cat is 'finished' but the dog doesn't understand. I always tell Riley that he started it so he should know what he's getting. Lol

Above all, allow the animals to feel each other out but never allow the dog to scare or chase the cat.

Oh, and we always feed the cats first, dogs second. And the dogs aren't allowed in my lap, that is reserved for cats. The dogs lay next to me, but not on me. Just another heirarchy thing.

 

[flinch4me]

When it comes to Sophie (the dog) she is fairly well trained. The "Stay" command often times works when I tell her to keep out of the cats room (Which is also my room).

So she knows some commands but she can be independent sometimes. I might even reinforce her this way. By telling her to "stay" when the cats are around. She will stay in the same spot she normally is in and keep to herself but she won't be sitting during this command. 

Also she knows if you have a rolled up news paper in hand that she needs to back off. (And no we didn't teach her that she learned it on her own) If she miss behaved we often times give her a light tap on the rump for bad behavior. It doesn't hurt the dog at all but she avoids doing what she did as well as avoids the newspapaer.

My concern mostly is the last time we brought the kitten over here the kitten sat on my step dad's lap while he had the newspaper in hand just in case the dog did something. The dog didn't like the kitten cause the kitten was taking up her spot on my step dad's lap. The kitten's fur was standing on end and sometimes she'd spit but when my step dad was protecting her she seemed actually kind of calm. The dog still didn't seem to understand that the cat was afraid and she leaned forward to sniff the cat gently. In fact she was a very good dog for doing so and not getting mad at the cat or even biting the cat for the matter. Only to get a good wack across the face from the cat. The dog lunged a little but didn't bite at the kitten and began barking in a tone that sounded like "WHAT THE HECK I DIDN"T DO ANYTHING!!!?" and dave yelled at her. I kind of feel sorry for Sophie cause she really didn't do anything bad but I am not sure how the cats will feel about such things now that they are living with us. 

Although thank you for your in put on the matter  

 

[rafm]

By pairing the cat with an aversive item (newspaper), you are training the dog to fear the cat like the newspaper. Don't punish the dog because she gets popped and is barking, redirect her to something positive like playing fetch or squeaking her favorite squeaky toy, something good, not aversive. If the kitty is in a lap that she is used to having, make room next to the person, don't punish her for wanting the lap.

And, give them some room to work out their differences. I'll give you another example. We have 5 cats, 3 of which couldn't care less about a new dog. They have literally NO reaction to it and do a great job of teaching the dog how to behave around cats. However, when we brought Abby home, she was TERRIFIED of cats. She would run and hide from them and our sweet kitties just couldn't understand. It wasn't even a week before Abby was nosing those 3 and getting used to them.

However, our other cat is a bully. Simon has to establish his dominance with every animal in our home. He is definitely the top animal. So, the first night we brought Abby home we figured out real fast that Simon had to go up for a day or two so they could both get used to the new sounds and smells. When we introduced them, we had to keep a very close eye on them and as we suspected, Simon pushed her around and established where he was in the pack, at the top. We only interfered if Abby got too upset and if Simon got too aggressive. We simply redirected both animals and didn't make a big deal out of it. As they both got more comfortable they started setting their own relationship. Abby will submit to Simon on most occasions, but, every once in a while Simon gets in a bad mood and looks to take it out on someone and when he chooses Abby, Abby will fight back and we let it go. If Simon approaches her out of the blue and starts popping her and Abby bares her teeth and lunges (she has never bitten, can't say the same for Simon) and it scares Simon off. It's actually pretty funny cause Simon will move about 3 feet away, turn his back to Abby and lay down with the most annoyed look on his face.

The main thing to remember is to not associate the cat with aversive items. When there is a positive interaction you can treat reward both animals. Always attempt to use positive reinforcement and redirection.

 

[flinch4me]

What Sophie is really dealing with is the fact that we hold the cats...she has a major problem with us holding things other then her. She Flips out whenever I hold one of the kittens in my arms but she also would flip out if my mom was holding a baby in her arms so this is a really bad habbit for her. This in turn scares the kittens....They've been doing really well...pangur (The bully I've been calling her) has seemed to show an interest in batting at Sophie from under the door when they are in different rooms. Nutter although scared and arches when seeing sophie doesn't hiss or spit she just wants to run and hide. But I am worried about letting pangur and sophie see eachother again for the fact I think Pangur would try to beat up sophie. 

 

[flinch4me]

Also I think one of them is getting kind of Violent... A couple times I have to put her away so she calms herself down... She has been even getting on the other ones nerves and sometimes while supposedly play fighting the other will hiss at her for getting too violent... I put them apart and looked at the one who had been too violent and she even had some fur in her mouth from the other one who had hissed at her while playing cause she was getting too violent...I put her away into the crate for being a bad kitten but if this happens again I am not sure how to handle it...I think the violent one is just being a big bully...or maybe having short persons syndrome cause the one who hissed is bigger then her