How to Train a Cat & Dog to Like Each Other Without Attacking

Video Transcript

"We are here today with Little Bit and Blake who is waiting outside. We are going to demonstrate how you introduce a cat and a dog so that they can live in harmony together in the same house. Basically what we do is we start with sitting up the home so that the cat can feel really comfortable, whether or not you are introducing the cat to the dog's home dog to the cat's home. The cat should have access to its litter box without having to worry about the dog and that usually means setting up more than one litter box, having the litter box in a location where the cat can access it but the dog can't, whether that means it is elevated or in a room with a special cat door, or that sort of thing. So what we are trying to do is get them comfortable with each other. They usually don't have territorial issues with each other but the most important thing is that you get the dog to recognize the cat as part of his pack. The way that I like to start that is by having the dog wait outside while the cat enjoys a good love in with a person that the dog recognizes as part of the pack so that the dog is waiting outside, the cat is having love with this person and the dog is observing this and noted that the cat is accepted as part of the pack. We are out here exercising the dog. The idea is to let him burn off all that excess energy before bringing him in to introduce him to the cat so we are going to burn off some of that lab energy. Before actually introducing the two you also want to feed them both. Most animals are a lot more docile and relaxed when they are digesting so just before initiating the introduction you want to take care and you want to do that, you want to feed the dog and the cat. You want to lift the cat's food so that the cat can access its food without having to worry about the dog stealing it. We have now brought Blake into the house and as you can see he is on a leash which is very important. This is actually not a muzzle, this is a gentle leader. This is just a way for a girl with carpal tunnel to handle a big dog. Blake is here totally disinterested in the cat. Disinterest is one of the best things that we can possibly ask for. So see everybody is doing really well. I have given Little Bit a treat and she is up there where she is safe and now I am going to give Blake a treat. Yea, you're being so good. The idea is to help them associate positive things with each other's presence. You certainly don't want to ever leave your dog alone in the house with your cat without the cat having safe places for it to get to where it can be protected from the dog until you are really absolutely certain about the dog's behavior because the dog can kill your cat and even though the cat is armed with some pretty good weapons, in the end the cat is going to lose the fight. So you want to make sure that you can really trust the dog around the cat before you're ready to just take him off the leader. There you go. What you are doing with the treats is you are keeping the focus off the animal on the food."