dog terrified of cat

[FanOne]

My boyfriends dog is terrified of my cat and the cat knows it!!!

Lila is a very sweet and timid 5 year old yellow lab. Every person or animal that has come in contact with Lila has fallen in love with her – except one of my two cats.
I have two four year olds I rescued from the local shelter when they were 12 weeks old. Buddeez and Palz are sister and brother and are affectionate, people loving cats. They have never met a dog until Lila.

Buddeez was initially scared of Lila but now just keeps distance between them. Lila has had good experiences with other cats and initially wanted to play but quickly became scared of both cats. Palz’s personality immediately changed whenever Lila was/is around – I think he becomes jealous and possessive of both Buddeez and myself. Lila has spent nights at my place and I have even had Lila spend weekends with me and the animals have basically ignored one another. I noticed some tuffs of fur after leaving them home alone together one day last April/May and Lila began to avoid/hide from Palz. The animals had no contact all summer and Palz’s behavior has escalated since we have been exposing them to one another since September.

Palz escalating behavior consists of ‘herding’ Lila, even when she is lying down (similar to a dog herding sheep.) He crouches up to Lila and hisses horribly and then chases her into a corner when Lila tries to run away. I have always rescued Lila before seeing if the cat would physically attack her. Sunday night (the night I returned from vacation) was our worst experience ever. Lila was sleeping in her dog bed along side our bed and we awoke to Palz hissing and approaching her. When Lila ran away Palz chased her into the other room. I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t grabbed the cat and locked him in another room. Lila was so scared she pooped on the bedroom floor and then hyperventilated and shook all night long. (Poor thing!)

I feel as if one bark from Lila would put the cat in his place. Any advice to help Lila stand up for herself?
(I am also asking for help within the cat behavior section to control Palz.)

[white tiger]

yes make him/her stand thier' ground. trust me it worked with my basset hound.:D

[white tiger]

i just noticed the dog was a female sorry about that. my dogs a female too. her name is boo.:D

[lizbud]

Originally posted by white tiger
yes make him/her stand thier' ground. trust me it worked with my basset hound.:D


Terrible advice. It sounds like the cat is the one with the problem. I'd keep this cat away from the poor dog. As you said
the dog has no problems with any other animals. If this dog is
pushed to act more aggressive & responds out of fear, you might
get more than you bargained for.

[white tiger]

well i guess your right.

[carrie]

How about a compromise? I agree that forcing the dog to stand her ground could be a disaster but it would be useful if the cat is forced to realise that the dog is not such an easy target and for the dog to realise that there are other options to running away.
You could try keeping the dog on a long line in the house and keeping her pretty near to you. Get a water pistol and be vigilant...as soon as the cat starts to approach in attack mode allow the dog to move a short distance away but not to run away. At the same time shoot the cat with water - get as much water on the cat as possible the first time - a lesson learned well the first time is much better than a hundred lessons where the message isn't clear. Try to keep your movement to a minimum and not to look directly at either animal. Don't make any noise at all or make a fuss of either animal after each incident. The dog will learn that it can cope with the cat and become more confident and the cat will learn that the dog is better left alone.

[FanOne]

Thanks Carrie. I do agree that I need to be more conscious of my reaction.