Our new dog is so terrified of cats that she won’t step over them to go into the kitchen to get her dinner. She sits in the dining room and waits until I walk over, pick up the elderly declawed cat and move him out of her way. She won’t come into the same room as us if she sees a cat. None of our current cats are dog aggressive, they pretty much ignore the dogs, so I can’t blame them for this problem.
We are already attached to new dog, so returning her to the rescue group isn’t an option and I’m at my wit’s end because I know nothing about treating dog phobias. This has to really suck for her because there are cats all over the house and I feel terrible about it.
I like to read during my lunch break. I’ve spent many a lunch hour camped out in my Jeep due to folks who don’t understand that my department goes to lunch from 12 to 1. (Also, to stay away from asshats who think it’s acceptable to sit in my shared office space and eat a reheated fried fish sandwich.)
Does she have a food that she goes ape over? (Or a toy, but food is usually better). What I would do is find some super unbelievably yummy treat (and I’m talking steak, liver, stinky cat food, deli meat, bacon) that she really lights up for, and she ONLY gets it when she can see a cat.
Start out with a sleeping cat across the room, and all she has to do is look in that general direction. If you’re interested in clicker training, this is the perfect sort of situation for it. Even without a clicker, you can mark the good behavior with a happy “yes!” and give her a nibble. Slowly, slowly start decreasing either the distance from the cat or the time exposed, not both at once. And it works best if SHE is the one to take a micro-step in the cat direction, or look at the cat and not back away, better yet reach her nose out in that direction.
It’s a slow process so don’t force it. Essentially the less of a deal you make about the cats, (other than good things come when cats are around) the faster she’ll get over it. Oddly enough, trying to comfort and coo, and “awww, it’s ok!” with hugs and pats when she’s actively worried or scared backfires, it’s showing her that worry is the RIGHT response, not the wrong one.
So be as matter-of fact as you can, give cat-only super treats, and wait it out. She’ll learn, especially if the cats aren’t doing anything to increase her fear.
Hah! I’ll have to keep that strategy in mind. I mean, it started well, some nice chit-chat, but it just all went downhill.
I am doing well otherwise, thank you.
Oof, I wish. It’s sort of an open-plan office for a largish non-profit; there’s one breakroom for the whole office. Being carless, my only other choice would be to sit outside, and being that it’s summer in Australia and I don’t do well with heat…nope.
I do tend to bury my nose in a book/Kindle as soon as I’m officially on break, because for me break time is pretty much the exact opposite of friendly chitchat time. Break time is me time and I don’t really want to talk to anyone, and certainly not someone with very…er…stereotypically Australian views on immigration even as it pertains to the US.
I do like Australia a lot, but the level of casual racism here can be truly shocking. This is at the main office for a large nonprofit that works exclusively in Aboriginal and 3rd world communities, so I’d sort of assumed most people wouldn’t be racist cunts. Most of them aren’t. Some, apparently, assume I’m profoundly concerned about immigration into America by “those types.”
I did tell her that, I don’t know, but I lived in NM for six years, where A) I met an awful lot of really decent, hard-working immigrants who are Just Like Us, and B) we’re all immigrants, and I know at least one Pueblo guy who doesn’t hesitate to to point that out.
Aww, sorry to hear that. I’m a musician and I love going to concerts, and I know the pain of trying to get tickets to a concert that turns out to be sold out.
It’s just been a really long time since I’ve been excited about a current musician. And I had sort of framed it as a gesture of good faith that my life is going to be okay, and that I can start living it again.
Which, you know, nothing precludes me from still doing that, concert or no, it just kinda took the wind out of my sails a bit.
Thank you so much, that does make a whole lot of sense. Especially the bolded part. That’s probably one of the main reasons she is so afraid is because I would hold her and try to comfort her. As it happens, she goes nuts over the freeze dried chicken treats I give the cats. (I have NO idea why they like it, I tasted it and it tastes like the bits of chicken in dry soup.) I’ll start treating her with some of those. I’ll also treat her “sister” who isn’t afraid of cats and will happily curl up next to them. Maybe that will help new dog to see that cats mean treats for everyone.
She’s really a very nice dog, very well trained and easy to deal with as long as she doesn’t see a cat. That’s when she turns into a quivering, tail tucked between her legs, whimpering scared dog. I do love her so of course I wanted to comfort her. I’ll bet your way is better.
My mini-rant of the day is that I accomplished much today, but didn’t get to do much fun stuff! Yeah, that’s really minor, I know. Fun shall be had tomorrow.
I was supposed to participate in a gift exchange for my theatre group. I thought I’d signed up for it online. But it turns out, I didn’t do it right, and my signup didn’t “take” due to me not being able to properly figure out the website, so I inadvertently missed the deadline. So now I probably won’t be able to participate! Fuck me.*
*umm, “fuck me” is a general expression of exasperation, not an order.
I bought these really cute Christmas cards yesterday to send out before thinking about the fact that if I send it to one bit of the extended family I need to send them to all of them, so even if I lump adult cousins without their own families in with their parents, that’s still a dozen right there.
Which will cost me over $30 in international postage!
Sadly, that didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. As soon as the cats smelled the freeze dried chicken (how do they do that, there is no smell to me) they all came running which scared new dog into peeing and then hiding under the stairs.
I’ll find something else just for her that the cats don’t like. Both dogs like carrots. She doesn’t go nuts for them, but maybe that will work. I now know that I can’t give her anything that the cats will want, it took half an hour to convince her to come out from under the stairs.
I’m not wanting her to be best buds with the cats. I just don’t want her to think that they will wake up out of a dead sleep and go all nuts on her. Buttercup, who is also a retired greyhound is just fine with the cats, I sure don’t understand why Westley is so terrified of them.
That’s…possibly a very good idea that I should check on pricing for. It’s like $2.50 for any letter-sized piece to the US, so it adds up even if I limit it to pretty much heads of households I’m related to and very close friends who have not received birthday or wedding or graduation gifts from me in the past six months.
The cards are super cute, too; they’ve got a scarf-wearing koala on them. I don’t know why the koala is wearing a scarf as it’s pretty toasty in Australia this time of year and even in winter koalas generally seem pretty content to go au naturel, but hey, it’s Australia. Nothing fully makes sense here.
The breakup re-happened, and stuck for good this time. I don’t want or need sympathy – this was most definitely not the guy for me, that’s for sure as shit.
As much hell as my parents gave me about him, I’m actually not in any hurry to tell them we’re through. They really showed their true colors* over him. Bah.
I don’t know what R.O.U.S. means, but maybe I’ll bring home some of those sticky name cards that we use for conferences and write CAT on them and stick them on the cats. Westley probably can’t read, but the cats will stay busy trying to get the stickers off while I give Westley treats.
Yeah, well…I’m sorry it didn’t work out. It still sucks to have been that close to someone and then learn that their true colors just don’t align with yours.
Speaking of true colors, I have a Cluthlu fish on the back of my car. My new minion and I were walking out to our cars and he saw it and started to lecture me about how it was blasphemy to openly display something like that.
Dude, I’m your boss. I can fire you anytime I want to. I don’t really care that you are a bible thumping Southern Baptist so long as you don’t thump your bible at work and just do your job. Your God created HP Lovecraft and cultists like me, just like he created gay people. How can you say that God’s creations are wrong, if She is always right?
I might have to rethink our relationship, as in maybe I need spend my days with someone more open minded. And that just sucks, I hate the interview process.
