|
Welcome to the YorkieTalk.com Forums Community - the community for Yorkshire Terriers. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. You will be able to chat with over 35,000 YorkieTalk members, read over 2,000,000 posted discussions, and view more than 15,000 Yorkie photos in the YorkieTalk Photo Gallery after you register. We would love to have you as a member! Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please click here to contact us. |
|
| LinkBack | Thread Tools |
12-25-2017, 09:42 PM | #1 |
YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Lake Geneva, WI
Posts: 2,776
| Future for four females? Let me start by thanking you for your indulgence in this seemingly endless post, but I need help. I don't know what to do anymore. Piper, true to her breed, is obsessed with my 94 yr old mom's wonderful white cat, Alice. We've been living here for a month and in that time have tried separating them; letting them 'have at it'; tried aversion (i.e. letting Piper bark incessantly at Alice when Alice is safely out of reach); have allowed Alice to growl, hiss, scream and throw jabs at Piper. And nothing, but nothing is lessening Piper's drive for Alice or alliviating Alice's fear and loathing of Piper. It should be noted that Alice does not have front claws (she came that way) and Piper is missing many teeth so in that regard, the two are somewhat well-matched. But this is all becoming out-of-hand. Alice hides 23/7 which is bad in that she is a very social, well-loved feline--very sweet and and playful. My mom loves her cat and has been incredibly kind and patient and understanding and has been putting Piper and me first, but I can see that Teddie's (my mom) concern for Alice's mental/emotional well-being is starting to affect her peace of-mind and she's now worried about Alice. Piper has gotten to a point that with food, I can usually shift her absolute single-minded, laser-beam focus off of Alice, but that usually takes several seconds and then I have to make sure Alice has time to hide before 'turning Pipe loose' at which time Piper does a fast, intense search and when unable to find Alice, returns to family room and things settle down--until Piper glimpses or hears Alice moving about. I moved in order to make sure Teddie could remain comfortably and happily in her own home, doing the many things that make her life worthwhile...Alice being chief among those...Teddie is thee most selfless, loving little human you can imagine. She reassures me that she and Alice are okay and they will adjust--that we all will, but I don't see that happenin--not unless we get some direction or someone can provide us with workable training or the like. Mom has seen the sweet/funny side of and adores Piper. So I'll ask again in closing, is there any hope or possibility of making our fierce female foursome functional? Quick aside, as far as Piper is concerned, her new home is Disneyland, Alice is the best plaything everrrr and Piper's new backyard is Yellowstone Nat'l Park. She's oblivious to our angst and remains one happy pooch! |
Welcome Guest! | |
12-26-2017, 01:16 AM | #2 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Canada
Posts: 212
| I would suggest maybe hiring a well qualified professional trainer to help with that situation. If Alice is a social, sweet, playful cat who is now hiding 23/7, then there’s definitely a big problem because it’s starting to affect her from being her normal self. It kinda seems strange to me because when my dogs first met a cat it was like a big deal and going nuts type of thing, but 5 minutes later the excitement and novelty of meeting a cat wore off and everything was fine. And in future meetings with cats they’re totally fine and it’s just kinda like meeting and being around another dog for them. I would imagine that Piper’s intense drive for Alice would subside after them being around each other for such a long period of time. It just kinda seems weird to me that that hasn’t happened. I would hope that, with the help of a trainer, you could develop a training program that will help Piper with Alice. I know that with lots of training dogs can change a great deal. I’ve seen it. A fearful dog can turn into a well-adjusted dog. A loud dog can become a quiet dog. Etc. Etc. It might take a lot of dedication to training and maybe a little while of time, but I think a good training program is probably one of the best approaches to the issue you’re dealing with. An insightful and experienced trainer will probably know why Piper isn’t losing that crazy drive for Alice, and will probably know how best to fix that issue. |
12-26-2017, 03:53 AM | #3 |
YT 3000 Club Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Urbana, IL USA
Posts: 3,648
| We have parts of the house where only the cat is allowed to go: the basement, and a bedroom where we keep her food and litter box and a bed she can sleep on. (We put up small barriers that Bella cannot jump.). That seems to relieve some of the pressure. |
12-26-2017, 06:05 AM | #4 |
Donating YT 3000 Club Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: E.Stroudsburg, Pa.
Posts: 67,915
| Gezzzzz, I wish I could offer you some ideas, my now passed girls loved all animals, cats and ferrets as well. But, Cody has an intense HATRED for cats due to an altercation in my vets office where they have donor cats roaming about, one sneaked up behind Cody and whacked the heck out of Cody's butt, scared Cody cos he never saw it coming. Now he wants to KILL every cat he sees. I do hope one of our fantastic members can offer some tactics.
__________________ Joan, mom to Cody RIP Matese Schnae Kajon Kia forever in my A House Is Not A Home Without A Dog |
12-26-2017, 06:19 AM | #5 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Delaware
Posts: 2,663
| I had a similar situation except it was with two cats. I have Zoey for 10 yrs when I got a kitten. The kitten was too much for Zoey and as the kitten got bigger, he became more aggressive towards Zoey. It had gotten to the point where Zoey would not leave her room (the safe space I set up for her) and she was eating very little. She was afraid to walk around in her own house. She walked very cautiously and very low to the ground always waiting for an attack from the much bigger and more agressive male cat who was neutered. I was never able to stop him from being aggressive with Zoey and eventually had to give the cat to my mom who took care of him until he passed away. At the time I couldn't afford a trainer and I am pretty sure they could of help. I would check into getting a trainer as well. It's obvious that giving one away isn't a option but if a trainer can get Piper to leave kitty alone, it would be worth the money. I wish that I could of keep Julius but my mother who was also a cat lover took excellent care of him and he lived a life of leisure until he passed away shortly after my mother did. Within one month (after she was sure Julius was gone), Zoey returned to normal and was back to her old grouchy self. And then I got my first rescue yorkie. Fortunately for me, Brandi had no interest in Zoey. They only time when they got into "arguments" was if they both wanted my attention at the same time which was very rare. Other than that, they had this nice comfortable tolerance towards each other. They weren't bonded or best friends but at least they weren't always fighting. |
12-26-2017, 08:02 AM | #6 |
YT 3000 Club Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Urbana, IL USA
Posts: 3,648
| I forgot to mention that we also keep Bella in a crate on the nightstand at night, so the cat has complete run of the house at night and sleeps on the bed with us sometimes. During the day when they are both in the same room, there is an uneasy truce. The cat has her own special place on the back of the couch in front of the window, or she crawls under the blankets of the bed upstairs during the day, and Bella spends most of her time with us. Only rarely will the cat take a swipe at Bella, or Bella will chase the cat out of the room. The cat is much bigger than Bella and could clean Bella's clock if she wanted to, so the cat is very tolerant. Bella will often go up to the cat to sniff her, and the cat rolls her eyes and looks like she's thinking, "You're such a child." If I don't see the cat for a while, I will look for her so I can spend some quality time alone with her and pet her so she knows she's not forgotten. I think that's the best we can expect. I hope you are able to work out some kind of truce between your two animals. Last edited by pstinard; 12-26-2017 at 08:04 AM. |
12-26-2017, 04:05 PM | #7 |
YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Lake Geneva, WI
Posts: 2,776
| You're all so generous and wise and helpful. Having just moved here, I don't know from trainers, but will seriously look into that option. Alice has places to get away from Piper and Piper sleeps in my room, so feline has run of the place during that time. I don't know why Pipe is so fixated on the cat, other than Pipe wants what she cannot get, loves to chase anything quicker than she, and when Alice growls, hisses and swipes at Piper, that's like ringing the OH IT'S ON bell for Pipe. I'm completely grateful and humbled by your caring, thoughtful, and understanding responses. Truly. |
Bookmarks |
|
|
Thread Tools | |
| |
|
|
SHOP NOW: Amazon :: eBay :: Buy.com :: Newegg :: PetStore :: Petco :: PetSmart