Predicament Involving Three Cats and a Dog

[Animal Freak]

That's interesting. I don't really like the idea of medicating her, but the treats could work. They each get two treats after brushing so it would pretty much fit into the schedule. I think would like to try it. If they work then we can use them for when we bathe them too.

 

[shenny]

I can understand why you wouldn't want to medicate but perhaps while there's a settling in period it could help. The two of them are trying to sort out dominance and they might have to agree to disagree but the more familiar they become with each other the more they should settle down. They must have worked out by now that they are not going to harm each other so fear shouldn't come into the equation. I'd definitely give the medication a try, you've got nothing to lose at the moment.

 

[Animal Freak]

I understand that, but I'd rather try the chews first before the actually medication. Especially since it would great to have those when we bathe the other two. I wouldn't be putting her on medication everytime we did that. Plus we've already spent fifty dollars on the Feliway diffuser. If I can avoid the extra thirty dollars, that would be great.

 

[Animal Freak]

Update!

So I just thought I'd update everyone. Ember is still swatting and hissing/spitting, but it's getting much easier to predict when it's happening. The randomness of it is pretty much gone and there's always a reason. It seems to happen the most when Stella is running through the house while we play fetch. It also sometimes happens when Ember gets uncomfortable because Stella gets a bit too close and has a tendency to set her very intense gaze on the cat. Otherwise, things are peaceful. Ember has really taken to the computer chair lately. I think she likes it because it's off the floor and where she can see what's going on. It's easy to watch where Stella is and what she's doing from that spot. She's a lot more relaxed being in the same room with Stella and has been walking around her more. She even jumped over her to get out of the room. There has been a couple of times that Ember would be laying on the computer chair while I'm playing fetch with Stella and Ember would reach down and slap her on her way by. It doesn't seem aggressive at all though. She's very calm and relaxed. There's no tension and it seems like she's actually trying to play. She's been coming out more too and has been laying on my lap on and off all day. She tried to break my laptop twice. So all in all things seem to be getting better.

We have not gotten the Composure treats as I was hoping to find them at a pet store so we don't have to pay extra for shipping and handling, but we haven't been to a pet store. We still would like to try them to help her though. She gets very tense and jumpy at times. For some reason, she went after Ash when he hissed at Stella. This is the second time Ash has shown aggression towards Stella and Ember attacked him. Afterwards, she's very tense and alert. I lock her up in my room for a few minutes to calm down and then she's fine. It's as if it never happened and they're all friends again. If anyone has any suggestions to further progress more, I'm willing to hear it and would love to know if there's anything I could do to enforce some sort of friendship between the two, but things do seem to be settling down on their own.

 

[animallover9]

I have a similar-ish situation with my 3 cats and 1 dog, I have found that having a place for the cats to get away from the dog helps a lot. I have a giant cat tree in my living room my dog cant get to but all three cats hve a place they can also be away from each other. We also have our bedroom blocked off with a baby gate from the dog but the cats can still jump over to have some piece and quite time without being stressed out from the dog  being around. 

They might never be friends but they might tolerate each other more. My female and youngest male cats hated each other and still don't like each other (well she doesn't like him) but they are nice to each other and rarely have fights anymore but they did kind of just work it out on there own. Time might be all you need for the two to work it out but having there own spaces can also help. 

 

[Animal Freak]

Unfortunately, we have a small house so we can't offer much. I don't have anything blocking my room off, but Stella doesn't spend much time in there and that's where Ember tends to go. We also have two cat stands though the top piece of the tallest one broke. In the end, it's up to them where they go and they don't seem interested in leaving the room. Ember often comes out of my room to see what's going on and she also likes to come lay on my lap. It does seem like they're working things out though.

 

[Animal Freak]

Update!

So things to be going well. I took Stella to my dad's last week since we didn't have my aunt to watch her during the day. At first my dad didn't want me to bring her, but everyone feel in love with her. She didn't get along with the pit bull though. Tried to bite his face off. I was a little nervous bringing her back thinking that Ember might not be happy, but she seems unfazed. We've had fewer incidents between the two and Stella shows little too no fear of the cat. Ember is walking around her much more often rather than looking for another escape. She doesn't go after Stella when I'm playing with the dog anymore either. Instead she just watches like it's the most exciting, sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat movie. She also likes to lay the computer chair and slap at Stella as she runs by in an almost playful manner. So it seems like things are going well and it actually might work out after all.

However, I've been noticing more aggression aimed towards Ash. It seems random though I don't normally see what causes it, but she'll go after Ash and bush her tail out. He goes running and normally ends up by the dining table. She goes under it and starts growling at him. So that means I have to try to get in between them and try to get her out from under the table so I can grab her without pushing her towards Ash. I put her up in my room for a few minutes and everything is fine. They're friends again after a few sniffs. Anyone know why this is happening and what I should do about it? We never had issues with it until recently. I'm guessing it had to do with stress with having the dog, but she's been doing so much better with Stella.