How long are they left alone without the opportunity to eliminate? that is one important criteria to consider. Nanny cam to determine whether separation anxiety is involved. Veterinary checkup to make sure nothing medical is going on.
I’ve had a kitten for almost 2 months and have adopted a friends older cat. My kitten tries to be friendly but the adult cat hisses and tries to attack. I have put them in separate rooms with the doors between them slightly open and each has their own food, water and litter box. Should they get along better over time? I feel sorry for the older cat because she seems stressed out and won’t leave her hiding spot, even though the kitten is being friendly.
Comments
I have a 3 1/2 year old Coonhound that I just can’t seem to completely housebreak. He knows that if he goes outside he gets praised and a treat. As long as we are home, as a general rule (he has a few times), he won’t go in the house. However, if we leave, he always craps and pees in our basement. We had him go stay with a trainer and he was really good there. He was great the first week we had him home, now he’s back at it. I’ve cleaned the area he goes in with an enzyme cleaner, ammonia, vinegar, and even put cayenne pepper down as I read it was supposed to keep him from going there. I’m not sure if it’s just really bad separation anxiety or what the deal is. I try keeping him distracted with something when I leave but that doesn’t seem to be working any more. Now, he even has my other dog, a 3 1/2 year old Chorkie, reverting and she’s been going in the house even though she has been housebroke for years. I really hate to have to take him back to the shelter because of this, but it has been 3 months and I can’t seem to break him. ANY SUGGESTIONS OR HELP AT ALL?!? (We have to be able to leave him alone for 8 hours because sometimes our work schedules over lap) Also kenneling is not an option with him as he severely hurts himself and even the vet and trainer said he will never be able to be kenneled.
Comments
-
Anonymous I would find another trainer and block access to the basement.
-
Melissa Rumph I have been through 3 trainers already. He does really well for them, is good for the 1st week, then back to the same issue. I have no way of blocking the basement off as the last time I tried that, he tore down the door which led to him tearing down half the wall so we had to tear it out. Right now he is only left by himself for maybe 1 hour, however, I would like to be able to leave him for 8 and have no problems, which should be doable. The vet said everything was fine with him and he’s healthy. I just don’t know why he always does this. It’s within the first 10 minutes of him noticing no one is around.
-
Melissa Rumph Okay. Do you have any tips or suggestions on how yo work on the anxiety?
How do I stop my dog from pooping in his crate and trying to escape? He has extreme separation anxiety, which we are working with him on hopefully getting him over. We have to keep him in a crate when we are gone or he destroys the house. He hates being in his crate, and is constantly trying to get out and hurting himself and pooping in his crate and getting it all over him. How do I stop this? He is 3 years old.
My dog won’t listen!
She is normally very chill and hasn’t done anything in a long time to get herself in trouble, but right now she is in the bedroom (make shift kennel bc I didn’t think she needed one anymore) because she won’t listen! Her and my other dog got in to it bad and I separated them and asked them each to lay down and she sat but would not my down and just completely ignored me. after a few minutes I let her out, brought her back in to the living room and asked her to lay down again and she continued to ignore me. I don’t know what to do.
Comments
-history, my ex husband and I got her at 7 weeks old. He already had a lab (approx 8 months old). We separated and I was able to keep my girl, he kept the boy. She has had 2 litters. The first, 11 puppies all healthy- the second, all passed away. (The litters were in no way planned) Not directly after the second litter but within a year she started getting severe ear infections. She was fixed and treated for yeast infections for the ears- she never full relief. After a couple rounds of antibiotics my vet recommended getting blood work done as well as allergy testing. Turns out she is allergic to 21 different things and is in the early stages of kidney failure.
I am taking complete care if her medical issues and spend a good amount of time with her. We go on morning walks, I come home at lunch and take her out, we go on evening walks, and she sleeps in my bed with me.
She is the sweetest pup I’ve ever known, but she is overly clingy. At first it was cute but now anytime I move, she moves. I walk into a different room, she follows. I go to use the bathroom and she sits at my feet. Literally, if she could, she would crawl inside me. Again, I love my pup, I’m just concerned this is not healthy.
Any advice??
I have 2 dogs and 3 cats. One dog is an American Bulldog mix and the other is a chihuahua rat terrier mix. I’m trying to house train them to behave around the cats, but it’s not going so well with my elderly cat. The 2 young female cats just run upstairs or up the cat tree if they want to avoid the dogs, but my elderly cat can’t really do that, and he just simply moves maybe 5 steps away in the same room, pretty much feeling trapped. When the dogs approach, first he just shuts down, and if the dogs come close, he hisses and bats at the dogs.
Right now there is a cheap baby gate separating his territory (the dining room and kitchen) from the dog room (the living room) but I’d like to make more areas available to him, since he seems to see all other areas as “not his territory.” If taken to any other room, he kicks the person holding him and escapes. (He can’t jump over the baby gate.)
What should I do in this situation? Is there any hope for getting him to be less uneasy around the other animals?
Comments
-
Annie Yang-Shaffer While it’s true that I shouldn’t physically carry him places to see if he likes being in those areas, the point is, if maybe he could see upstairs as a safe place, he would actually have somewhere to run to when he feels threatened by the dogs. I’ve heard that having “cat safe spaces” should help when trying to get cats and dogs used to each other. He definitely does mind a lot when they are in the same room, and I do find him to be afraid. I guess it’s your call though, since I am much newer to cats, so what do I know.
-
Annie Yang-Shaffer Well you see, I’d like to allow the dogs to come and go through the house. Right now, they only are allowed in their crates and in the living room under strict supervision, but always having to do that is very draining. I’d like to have them wander around the house one day just like the humans and cats in my house. But I can’t really do that because the cat-dog relations are an issue… However, if Loki would see upstairs as a safe place to be, maybe he could try hanging out up there. But he doesn’t want to. My question is, how can I make more spaces inviting for him, as an elderly declawed cat? He doesn’t seem to be able to go the cat tree because lack of claws.
I have 3 cats, 2 dogs and a small house with no mud room, basement, hallways, separating doors, or dog or cat proof room. Yes, I know it wasn’t very good planning on my part. I am married and my husband goes to work, while I stay home.
I am a novice dog owner and even more novice at keeping cats as well. My bull breed mix is 80-100 pounds and is almost 2, and my rat terrier chihuahua mix is 9 months. Two of the cats are almost 2, and the senior one is 12.
I need help because it is icy and snowing with snow on the ground, and my dogs can no longer stay outside and wait for me to get to them. They’re unhappy inside their crates, and my eventual goal is to have them roam around the house with no issues with peeing or pooping, no issues of running around everywhere, and no issues of them bothering the cats because my husband doesn’t like it.
I can successfully keep them reasonably calm in the living room while I’m there, and I can get a glass of water or something from the kitchen if I tell them to stay. But issues of them just loose without me looking at both of them is that they will get into things and chew or eat them (stuffed pillows or other stuffed things, garbage, etc), eat cat poop, pee, or jump on the mattresses, which my husband doesn’t like.
The winter is much worse than last year, and keeping track of 5 pets is just so much. If they dogs and cats would get along somehow, I think that would help a lot. I just don’t know what to do concerning the litterbox, because my bull breed mix is very adamant about eating stuff from there unless I change it constantly. So when I let him out of his crate, I do change it, but I can’t trust him to roam around while I’m busy with something, or away. The little dog has issues with escaping her crate and peeing, and bothering the cats.
Comments
-
Carissa Knight Time, they will learn to coexist with each other.
They may not be best friend but they will be able to be in the same room ect and tolerant each other. -
Chris Warnock We had 3 cats and then got a dog. Get a pet gate that also has a small door in the bigger gate. Approx $60 at pet smart. Use a strap or something to hold the small door open. Depending on the size of your dog if it can fit through the small door get a bungee cord and use it to make the small door smallerUse the gate to give the cats a totally separate space to “escape” from the dog. We did this and put the litter boxes in that room, and also used that room to feed them. It will take a while for the peace and harmony your hoping for. if your cat has claws I can’t help there ours do not, but I will tell you that your sweet little cat will probably make sounds that seem to be coming from the depths of hell towards the dog ours did. Our dog learned to back down from the cats so we didn’t worry about aggression towards the cats. Good luck and remember to pay equal attention to all of them to prevent jealousy.
We live next door to another dog and she hasn’t been spayed because we own 2 female indoor dogs and they’re rarely outside unattended. She’s also very lean by nature so it’s possible I wouldn’t have noticed but her nipples are a bit saggy and there’s a hard layer in her stomach I recognize (I’ve helped other people’s dogs have puppies) but she also just came out of her heat cycle and I know it’s a possibility. But where we live, we will be kicked out immediately if we have our 2 dogs and a litter of puppies and I don’t want to lose my dog but I know she can’t be separated from the puppies and I have no idea what to do. There is no one who would take her in the meantime, as I live away from my family and just moved to a new area. I have no idea what to do.
Comments
-
Anonymous you can get an emergency spay done.
-
Ryahhna McDowell Where do you live? Try contacting local rescues to take her and the puppies in until they are weaned. If you do that type up a contract, have it notarized, and have the rescue owners sign it. The contract should state that as soon as the pups are weaned your dog will be released back into your care.
Is good to keep your dogs separated when your not home so there’s no mishaps
Comments
-
Mandy Souther I have 4 dogs and I keep them separated when not at home. It hasn’t changed the way they act towards each other when I am home. Pets in some ways are like people and like time to themselves. In my experience my pets don’t seem to mind having a little alone time. And it does prevent the more aggressive ones from bullying the others when I can’t supervise.
I just got a newborn puppy that was separated from his mother. I don’t know how many weeks he is but he’s pretty tiny. I’m so anxious since I don’t know how to care for him. I’m feeding him puppy formula. How often should I feed him? How should I clean him? I’m also trying not to hold him as much. Please provide me with details on how I should care for him.
Comments
-
Melissa Thoreson Get some milk replacer at a pet store and get a baby bottle and feed him as much as he’ll twice a day no more than that and make sure to keep him warm so he doesn’t get to cold and die
-
Erika Medina Thank you. I just saw how he threw up a little milk. I last fed him about 2 hours ago. Is this something I should worry about?
Just like with anything else, the will take time. Giving them each their own space is a great start. A perch and a play tree might be a good idea to look into for both cats. The older cat may just need more time to adjust. Best of luck and congrats on your new cats!