Integrating Adult Yorkie With Adult Cat Hi,
My girlfriend owns a 4 year old male yorkie, and I have a 9 year old female cat. The cat is very friendly, the yorkie not so much. The dog is aggressive to people and animals it does not know, and not terribly well house-trained. It has almost been killed on a few occasions when it tried to bite dogs much bigger than itself. Currently my girlfriend and I live together with my cat, while her dog is at her parents' house, where is has ruined parts of their carpeting. We tried very briefly (just a couple days) to keep the two pets together, but opted to take the dog to her parents house since they are very dog friendly and it was the easiest option. However, we are buying a new home, and would like to bring the dog there also. Is there any kind of program we should follow to integrate our pets? The cat has never been a problem, she is friendly and has seldom had a potty accident in the 9 years I have had her. However, she is not a fan of other animals, though she is only aggressive if directly threatened. She is very prissy, and seems disgusted by them, and just wants them to leave her alone. However, the yorkie is pretty badly behaved at times, and tried to nip the cat a couple times. The yorkie also attacks children that it does not know. My cat has sharp claws, and we would like to try to avoid injury to either of them. Do you have any suggestions as to how we should go about this? The dog has to learn to respect the cat and know that she can hurt him if he goes after her.
Thanks so much! |