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Comment by Alyssa & Chris W. on July 23, 2010 at 8:08am

Wow, thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm going to try these. I would hate to move her litter box though because right now its in the half bathroom downstairs in our house and the rest of the downstairs is open except bathrooms and the kitchen. I could put it upstairs in our room, but I don't want to keep it up there because Murphy sleeps up there with us at night while Stella has the entire downstairs all to herself and our rooms are small and I am afraid having her things in there might make things difficult to navigate, but its a really good idea and I may give it a try. I also really like the squirt bottle idea and I may try that first. Murphy only listens when he wants to and it can be frustrating so this may help for keeping him away from Stella and listening in general. Hopefully he doesn't find some kind of loop hole and figure out how he can break the rules. These dogs are just too stinkin' smart. I have tried luring him with treats and making noises to distract him too and he did exactly what you said yours did. So, Thanks so much for the ideas. I'm going to attempt them. Wish me luck!

Comment by Elizabeth, Hermione and Luna on July 22, 2010 at 9:42pm

yep. ditto the baby gate. Abby also does the "up and over." learned very quickly that she was more agile.

Comment by Beth on July 22, 2010 at 9:39pm

I agree the key is that kitty needs a dog-free zone where she can go and the dog cannot. This space should have a litterbox at one end and her food at the other, so she can stay all day if she likes. Baby gates are perfect because a cat can usually get through or over them and the dog can't.

I know it's very difficult, but you really should teach Murphy to come off the cat on command. My girl Maddie was fine with our ancient kitty, but when we got the new kitten and she realized cats can actually run, she became obsessed. Here's what I did:

1) First I tried luring her off the cat with treats. This sort of worked, but what I found was that she'd come off the cat, distractedly swallow the treat and go right off after the cat while still chewing.

2) I tried making a loud noise to distract her, but this proved upsetting for my other Corgi, Jack. So that was out.

3) Reluctantly, I resorted to using a water bottle to spritz her in the face. Luckily, I only needed to do this twice. Here's what I did. When Maddie would focus in on the cat, I would call her name once in a cheery voice, fairly loudly. If she looked at me, I'd say "good girl!!!!" very enthusiastically and we'd run for the treat jar. If she did NOT look at me, she got sprayed two or three times in the face, in rapid succession. She'd look up, blinking, and then I'd say "Goood girrllll!!!" and run to the treat jar. After just a couple times, it got to the point that she never ignored me when I'd call her name.

I mixed this in with "body blocking" her up the hall if she'd chase the cat. What this means is you shuffle rapidly forward into the dog's space and the dog should back up. She would back up, trying to see around me to the cat, and the second she'd give and start to turn her head away from the cat, I'd say "Goood girllll" and (you'll see the pattern here) run for the treats.

Because my kitten likes to play with the dogs, I allow the dog to play with the cat if the cat initiates it, but even then I have the right to call the dog off at any time. Over a couple weeks of consistently calling her off the cat and rewarding her, she would reach the point where sometimes she would look at me instead of the cat, or just look away from the cat, without my asking. Whenever she would ignore the cat voluntarily, again I would praise and take her for the treats.

It take time and lots of work, but if the dog is trying to play and not attack, you can be successful in redirecting the behavior. Good luck!

Comment by Elizabeth, Hermione and Luna on July 22, 2010 at 9:04pm

We had some similar problems when we got our corgi pups but we worked it out and I can offer a couple of thoughts.
Our situation was a little different: we had two big, old lab mixes when we got our kitties- so as far as our kitties were concerned, dogs were big, sleepy rugs that never bothered anybody. So they got used to the idea of "dog" but only like that. Then we lost our old sweethearts in January. and we got two balls of corgi energy.

Our cats were all "THOSE AREN'T DOGS! DOGS LAY AROUND AND SLEEP!" poor Abby cat in particular went nuts with our Hermione pup all up in her face.

Our vet said that the key with cats is _space_. Cats have to have a safe space where they can get away from the dogs. We let Abby have our daughter's room as a "dog free zone". No dogs allowed. If they bugged her, she could retreat there. We put an extra litter box in there, and after we did that, she didn't come out for a soild week. (In fact, our daughter had a big box in there and Abby was in the box, in the room for basically a week). But she was happy. she was safe. And now she isn't _friends_ with the dogs, but she's not neurotic either. She shares the house with them and is happy enough on top of the couches and stuff in the same room.

long post. hope it's helpful.

Comment by Lynne Cerny on July 22, 2010 at 7:44pm

They can get along..not alone!

Comment by Lynne Cerny on July 22, 2010 at 7:43pm

I think that they can get alone. It just takes work. My Bucher was horrible to my cats, but my husband encouraged it! Bo is now 8 but when he comes to work with me he has totally calmed down. We have 2 rescue cats that live at work and the youngest one is a big chicken. Bucher chased him to his room with a cat door, Sam batted him with the door and now he won't chase them or really even look in the cats in the eye! I will have Bo & Sally by my desk and Max and Sam on the desk right next to mine just watching. I love it! The dogs needs to know that it isn’t okay to chase the cats!