Dogs and cats really can be the best of friends! But sometimes when you bring a new cat into your home, even if your dogs already live peacefully with cats, the new cat is so exciting and… she runs when they play chase her, how fun! Well, fun from the dog’s point of view, but certainly not for the new scared cat. Why do cat-friendly dogs suddenly give chase to a new cat? There are many reasons, but more important than understanding the why, is understanding the how! How you can stop the chasing, and help the new cat adjust and fit happily into your home. Below are some tips I’ve used myself, as I have cared for dogs that would, if given the chance, chase new cats. Cats that were shy or scared of them were especially appealing! I’ve had other adopters and fosters tell me these tips really helped too. These are not a substitute for working with a professional pet trainer or behaviorist, but you can safely try these tips – while you keep your dog leashed or crated, and are working with a trainer – to see if they can help you too.
I wrote the tips below for a shy cat named “Twist.” She was adopted by a family with both big and small dogs. The dogs were living with other cats without a problem, but wanted to chase Twist.
*** Note: These tips are for AFTER your dogs have been properly introduced to the new cat. Read our 6 steps for cat to dog introduction here. Any dog, even if they are only “play” chasing, should be leashed or crated when the cat is out, until they no longer chase. Even play chase can turn deadly in a second, and a cat can blind a dog with one good swat. Also, please separate pets when you’re not home. Sadly we know of cats who were killed by dogs even years after living together, when something unexpected triggered a chase.
- Create a Safe Room or Safe Zone for Twist, where the dogs can’t go at all, but where she can get in/out of and see the dogs. Big enough for her food dishes, bed, and a litter box, so she can eat, sleep and take care of business. Perhaps use a baby gate to make one room just for her, or use tall dog playpen gates in one room, with cat trees on both sides so she can get in and out but the dogs can’t.
- Set up “highways” – literally, high paths that only Twist can take so she feels safe moving around. Wall mounted shelves with non-slip mats attached securely or work great for this, and/or using existing furniture (shelving, desks, counters) with the paths marked and kept clear by the non-slip pads.
- A cat-only escape route in every room including hallways, so Twist can get into a safe space to escape if she’s frightened. The places and routes can be a tall cat tree, tall table or bookshelf with a chair next to it, or a closet door wedged open with doorstops on both sides of the door just wide enough for her to enter.
- If she’s most scared of the big dogs, pull furniture away from the walls so she can slip behind. She’ll know the big dogs can’t chase her there.
- Crate the dogs and feed her near by.
- When humans are in the same room supervising, tether (tying) the dogs to something immobile, like a heavy couch, and bring Twist into the room – either in a crate or by playing with her, to let her spend time in the same room with the dogs to get used to them.
- Water spray bottles in every room. Calmly give one or two sprays in dog’s direction as soon as they even think about chasing the cat. Only works if dog’s don’t like the spray.
- Time outs for dogs right after they lunge or try to chase. (Not an angry punishment, just a disappointed shunning.)
- Immediate verbal praise for dogs that ignore or sit and don’t move as cat passes, reinforce with treat reward. (Use verbal cue “leave it” and reward if they do.)
- Practice dog’s obedience commands (sit, stay, etc) with rewards in same area as cat.
- Avoid feeling or expressing anger when dogs are near cat. Anger is a high-energy emotion. If you yell or otherwise get angry, you are actually “joining in” and adding to the high-energy adrenaline of the chase.
- You can use a noise deterrent if that interrupts the dog’s chase intent. Such as a firm verbal “Leave it!” or shaking a can of pennies. Not as a punishment, just an an interruption.
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By pet chemistry, we don’t mean the science that deals with the composition and properties of substances and various elementary forms of matter! When we’re talking about match making you and your home with a new pet, the kind of chemistry we’re talking about is “the interaction of one personality with another” and some of the “sympathetic understanding” type of chemistry. Figuring out how your personality interacts with a potential new pet, and how that pet’s personality will mesh with the other pets and people in your home, can sometimes feel like scientific experiment with all its complexities! There are some elemental guidelines you can use to help you make the most of your meet and greets with potential adoptees. These can help you be more likely to pick the pet that makes those little hearts and cherubs dance happily around your heads for the rest of your lives.
Many cats have only bad associations with that horrible plastic and metal torture device humans call a cat carrier. “You capture me, put me in a noisy moving terrifying car, then we end up at the vet! And you want me to go back in there?” Trying to get an unwilling cat into a cat carrier sometimes feels like you need to be a reverse houdini, or perhaps wear full body armor. While owned cats, if they’re lucky, may only have to get into a carrier once a year for their annual vet checkup, fostered cats very often have to endure the carrier and car trip torture once a week! Of course, it’s worth it for them to find a home. But amazingly even once-a-year cats can have a surprisingly good memory when the cat carrier comes out of storage – hey, where did the cat go? Telling him it’s for his own good won’t likely convince him (see illustrative photo above, of our foster cat George). So what can you do to get a carrier-phobic cat safely and as happily as possible into a cat carrier? Below is our technique after getting dozens of kittens and cats into carriers. These are not reconditioning or training tips, like leaving the carrier out, feeding your cat in the carrier, etc, which though effective, take time. These are how to get a cat into a carrier quickly, reducing the anxiety and potential injury for both humans and felines.
We’re doing our happy dance over here as it’s time for another wonderful adopter sharing the story of how Adopt-a-Pet.com helped them find a pet to adopt! We’d love to hear from you too, please send your adopted pet’s photo to info@cms.adoptapet.com and tell us how Adopt-a-Pet.com find the pet you adopted! And now, I’ll turn the blog over to Mary C, who writes: “Dear Laurie, I decided to Rescue as opposed to buying. I wanted an older dog that didn’t need to be housebroken, liked cats and was small. Sex was not a consideration. My last dog passed almost 2 years ago and I really missed him. Attached is a photo of the best dog we could have adopted. It was love at first sight when we meet. I brought along a pink ruffled coat for her and they had no problem putting it on here. We bonded immediately and she will not let me out of her sight. She was exactly as described in the item…friendly, likes cats, and VERY housebroken. Taryn did let me know what her diet was and that she was accustomed to sleeping in a crate.
The thought of losing your dog is of course not a fun thing to consider, but the digital age has brought us more tools to help in the event it does happen. One of the sites we applaud to help with reuniting you with a lost dog is 
Adopt-a-Pet.com’s partnership with 
Shelter pets are going to get a lot of love at the Great American Pooch Smooch & Kitty Kiss even in St. Louis this year on February 10th! What a great way to show how many lovable pets are in animal shelters. Adopt-a-Pet.com is hosting the event in conjunction with Stray Rescue of St. Louis and Five Acres Animal Shelter. Celebrity athletes David Backes and Barret Jackman of the St. Louis Blues, their wives Kelly Backes and Jenny Jackman, Mayor Francis Slay, and other notables, along with Adopt-a-Pet.com representatives, will be making sure every single adoptable pet in two shelters is kissed in a marathon display of interspecies affection.
Deciding what size of dog is best for you can be a complex decision. But a little investigation and thought can go a long way in helping you make the right choice! We’re here today to help you with some questions to ask yourself, and to dispel the most common myth about what size of dog will be happy and a good fit for your home. ~ ~ When I was an adoptions counselor at an animal shelter, potential adopters would often tell me, “I’m looking for a small dog.” Much more rarely would someone say, “I’m looking for a big dog.” Talking to shelter and rescue staff and rescue volunteers at many other adoption agencies, I learned there too, bigger dogs were much harder to adopt out. Size, of course, is only one factor that an enlightened adopter considers when looking at pets to adopt. Here are some questions to ask yourself about your future dog’s size.