I'm Dr. Clayton Greenway with
healthcareforpets.com and we're answering
some questions.
Here's a question that I got, "Is it
possible to train eight-year-old dog not
to hate cats and go after them?"
I love this question first of all. Isn't
that natural dogs are supposed to hate
cats and vice-versa?
Actually there's lots of dogs and cats that
get along just fine and there's a couple
things that I think about when I read
this question. The first thing is when
you introduce them together you really
want to take the time doing a couple
things. Giving them their own space,
letting them run around in their own
space, and then switching the spaces on
them so that they get to smell each
other before you actually visually and
physically introduce them.
You can also use anti-anxiety
supplements and things like that
can calm them down before that
introduction is done. But now for this
question, this has already happened and
this dog and cat obviously hate each
other so the first thing I would say is
it's very important to give the cat a
place to get away to. So climbing trees
stuff like that to get up and away from
the dog would be good. It probably would
cut down on some of that animosity you
could look at using those anti-anxiety
supplements. I think there's a little
more that has to happen with the
training of the dog. Dogs are very
treat motivated so what we would do is use a
behavioral strategy called
counter-conditioning
and desensitization and
what you do is with counter-conditioning
and whenever the dog sees the cat it
wants to get excited and chase the cat
so you've got to change that emotion and
so what you want to do is when the dog
gets exposed to the cat you want to give
the dog a treat. So every time the dog
gets a treat its happy, so it's happy to
see the cat rather than excited and
wants to kill it.
The other thing is, is desensitization.
You can separate them for some time and
then try to reintroduce them slowly. Give
them small amounts of time together so
they can get used to it
all the while using those anti-anxiety
supplements and if this is a recent
behavior change, keep in mind that as
pets get older there are medical things
that can cause them to be stressed and
maybe not have as harmonious a life with
another pet in the house. So it's always
good to see your veterinarian about that.
Thanks for coming to the website healthcareforpets.com
where we're
dedicated to your pet's health and keep
these questions coming.