Chester.jpgMy girlfriend and I recently got a Bengal kitten 6 days ago. He is 13 weeks old. My gf has a 7 year old male boxer (fixed). She has had him 4-5 years now. Chester, the boxer, is making me extremely nervous. He is showing signs of aggression.

We just moved in together into a 1br condo about two months ago. We crate the dog when we are away at work -- we both work office hours. Chester, the dog, will get anxious if he is not crated during the day I guess.

We have created a safe room in our bedroom for the kitten. He likes to play on top of the bed. When we let Chester in the room (while closely supervising him) he watches the cat intensely and salivates. In the last week he has lunged and chomped at the kitten on the bed. Chester's behavior doesn't seem to be changing. Rajah, the 13 week old kitten seems to be settling in and becoming more playful and comfortable in our home. He doesn't seem to faded too much by the dog. He does prefer to stay on the bed and hasn't showed any interest in leaving the room on his own.

If we close the door on the dog Chester, he wines a little bit sometimes. He is used to having all the attention I think. We've tried to have them both sleep in the same room. I've set up a bed on my bedside table and blocked off my side of the bed to the far wall creating a small area where the dog can't get without jumping over a chest. This is where I put the litter box, food and a scratching post.

Does anyone have any advice to mellow the dog out? Has anyone else been in this same situation? I think that when the cat is bigger he will stand up to the dog to teach it a lesson. But for now, I don't think the kitten really understand he's a threat. And the dog see him the same way as he sees a squirrel -- he instinctively wants to chase it.

PLEASE HELP!!

Oh dear. New sibling has arrived in the household. It's similar to bring a new baby in the house and the older brother or sister gets jealous and doesn't like the new baby. Doesn't happen in ALL households, but it does happen. You're right that your kitten is tiny and he will grow over the next year and seem bigger to your doggie. I think the best thing you can do is for you and your girlfriend to interact with them at the same time in the same room. One takes the dog, one takes the cat. You can use toys. Hold the animals, pet them, allow them to move about on the floor, just keep an eye on them. The more they are together, I think the better things will get. But, supervision is the key for the next few months. You don't want to dog to hurt the kitty and you don't want your kitty jumping on the dogs back and riding him down the street (I had a cat do that once). The main thing is for you and your gf to not be stressed out -- pets sense the stress, so you need to exude the confidence that things will work out with them. I think you're doing the right things, but attention is what both of them need -- just like children! I'm sure your dog understands simple commands like "no," "come here," "good boy." So make sure you use them on him so he understands. Your baby kitty is too young to know much of anything and he's probably fearless. Who knows, eventually, you may be able to walk the dog and cat at the same time! Just stop freaking out .... this isn't going to change overnight, so work with them daily and I'm sure you'll post again that things are just fine between them.

Thank you for your response Sherry!
I am taking your advice and am going to work on not stressing too much. It really has been stressful in the house and between my girlfriend and I. I didn't really think about the effect that has on the pets. And I agree that it's going to take time.

So, we tried something that I read online a couple places that is supposed to get the pets acquainted safely. I bought a small dog crate and put it right next to Chester's crate which is in the main living room. We put both pets in their cage for the night. At first Chester (dog) barked once, which is rare, and stared intensely at Rajah (cat). Rajah was freaked out! Because 1, I think he didn't like being caged, and two he has not really been out of our bedroom on his own since we got him one week ago. And 3, he's probably freaked out by the dog.

He struggled and tried to find a way out and meowed and meowed for a little over an hour straight! Chester after about 10 minutes of staring at him lost interest and seemed annoyed as we both were too. After about an hour both pets were resting with eyes closed. A little later we took them out separately to go to the bathroom. Rajah explored the living room a little bit and continued to meow.

We put them back in their cages and Chester seemed fairly uninterested which is a good sign I think. Rajah continued to meow for a bit, then we left them both in their crates for the night. We could hear Rajah meowing for a bit after we went to our bedroom for the nigh, but he stopped eventually.

This morning we let Rajah out of the cage to explore some more on his own. I played with him for an hour or so while Chester was in his crate. Without any attention Rajah continually seems to meow because I think he's still very uncomfortable in his new surroundings. He's so small, he even has trouble jumping up on to the couch!

Next we took Chester out and put Rajah back into his cage. We fed them both. Chester sniffed around and was a little weird and didn't eat his food right away, but think he is starting to understand that Rajah is part of the family.

Rajah took breaks from eating to cry some more. We gave some attention to the Chester. After Rajah spent a little more time in his crate we put him back into the bedroom where we'll let him spend the day behind closed doors. He has stopped meowing and is sleeping where he has been for the last week.

Because the kitten has been confined to our bedroom he has been waking us by walking on us and scratching and bitting wanting to play at about 3:30 every morning. So, we desperately needed a change.

We plan to repeat this a few more days hopefully with less meowing. We will continue to try give them both attention at the same time in the same room closely supervised. But the thing is, is that Chester has so intensely been staring at the kitten and really to lunge at the kitten that it is hard to even get him to look away for a treat.

Meanwhile at least we can get some sleep now. I think this is a good first step in a long road towards a great friendship. Fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted.

Oh boy, PLEASE dont put your kitten in a crate the emphasis needs to be placed on Chester for the time being. Dogs and cats are very different, I believe crate training to be a very useful tool for dogs, but not cats. Cats dont find comfort in being closed off in a "den" like dogs do, not with the door closed anyway. I would start off by letting them be. Keep the kitten in his safe room and let him get confident in his new surroundings before bringing Chester back in. Once Rajah (love his name btw) has settled into his safe room then you can bring chester in ON LEASH, I cant stress that enough, Boxers are a powerful breed and one quick snip could be the end for little Rajah. If Chester is giving Rajah too much attention, a quick tap of the leash should redirect his attention on to you. Pull the leash to the side and not up, pulling it up will likely give the opposite reaction and make him go for it. The whole goal here is to redirect Chester's attention to YOU! You have to have control of him 100% of the time until you trust him completely. Kittens are going to be kittens and there is nothing you can do about that, you have to train your dog first. After you have repeated the process for a week or so Chester should start to look at you for direction, when he looks at you praise him for having his attention on you and not the kitten. For the first several weeks the two of them should not be together without him on a leash. If your GF is who Chester turns to for reassurance she should be the one to work with Chester while you are playing, giving attention to the cat. If he gets that glazed over, super focused look in his eyes he has escalated to much and if he cant be redirected at that time he should be rmoved from the situation. It will take time, but once you have figured out his "triggers" you will know wben he needs correction and when he is just being curious. Once he redirects his focus with just the leash you can begin adding in the " leave it" command, soon enough he will respond to the "leave it" command without the pull of the leash. Again praise praise PRAISE Chester for following your command and redirecting his attention.

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That totally makes sense to me. But it seems like the only solution for the time being.

Chester was a rescue dog and my girlfriend is the 3rd or 4th owner. She got him when he was 3 I think. He is 7 now and although my girlfriend has trained him and taken him to obedience school, he doesn't always listen. I've seen him playing with other dogs and he is very submissive and mellow. But sometimes he approaches other dogs very quickly which seems threatening. I feel he's very gentle with people and dogs, but instinctively wants to chase small fast critters like squirrels and would probably kill them if he could catch one. My girlfriend disagrees and thinks that he would never even hurt a squirrel. I totally disagree. This is very frustrating for me!

So, the main issue with your advice, and the cause of my stress is that my girlfriend thinks Chester won't hurt Rajah. And, I disagree. So, we've brought Chester without a leash into our room (Rajah's safe room) every day since we've got him. Rajah plays on our bed which is raised up to about to Chester's eye level. Chester watches intently as we keep a close eye. We tell him "sit" and "stay" which he knows but doesn't alway obey. Chester has lunged up on the bed, where he knows he is not allowed, and chomped at the cat. We've both witnessed this 3 times, but somehow my girlfriend STILL doesn't think that Chester would hurt the kitten.

My girlfriend tried to let Chester sleep on her side of the bed on the floor while Rajah slept on my bedside table. Chester would get up and sneak over to my side and stalk the kitten. We ended up putting Chester in his crate in the living room because he wouldn't "stay" when we told him. He usually whynes if he is locked out of the bedroom with the door closed when we're in there.

I think the cat's frisky and quick moving play is a trigger for Chester to chase, just like squirrels. This trigger will turn off any ability of his to listen to commands in my experience. He has trouble obeying commands as is.

The other thing that is driving us both crazy is that Rajah's safe room is also our room. He wakes us up in the morning around 3:30 by scratching and biting us. He also does this when we go to bed at night and I end up staying up until 11 or midnight playing with him until he will go to sleep. So, I haven't been getting enough sleep. Alternatively Rajah started meowing when my girlfriend got up to go to the bathroom at about 5:30. So, I took him out and played with him for a while then put him back in the room where I plan to keep him during the day.

I just don't know if this will ever work out

If your dog is prey-driven, you will probably always need to supervise closely while the two of them are together.

We have a Samoyed (definitely not prey-driven). When our cat plays with her, he tries to get her going by picking at her until she gets up and looks like she is going to chase him. If this happens, it never lasts long, so we do not fear for Quasar's safety. On the other hand, we don't let Quasar socialize with many dogs, even on a leash.

With your dog, I would certainly be nervous. I think bkilgore has given you good advice, both regarding how to handle your dog on leash and not to crate your kitten.

Good luck!

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~ Kyenta

The dog is so mature now and not used to live around cats, I fear that training him to like the kitten just won't succeed . He might eventually be trained to listen to your commands when you are there but I would not trust leaving them together unsupervised.
What made you think it was a good idea to bring a kitten to a mature dog?

I don't know why I thought it would work. My girlfriend knew that I wanted a cat and encouraged me to get one. She almost got one as a present, but we made the decision to get one together.

I've never had a dog in the family. My girlfriend and I talked about it and she was very confident that Chester would be ok with a cat. She said Chester had been around cats before. She thought that the two would be good together by now and she thinks that they would if we let them interact more freely. I feel like if the cat was bigger/ older that he could stand up for himself. But now the poor little guy can barely jump up on the couch.

We've contacted the breeder with advice but haven't heard back. I'm thinking it might be best if we returned him at this point or tried to find a new home for him before h gets too old to go to a good home.

I hate to say this but I agree!!! If your girlfriend is not willing to do the extra work, it will never work! I don't think it was something that is your fault, her fault, or either pets! To make thinngs work between a prey driven dog and a small animals is going to take a HUGE commitment on your part. I honestly do think it could work, you would just have to give it time and be on Chesters every move. Do you know why he has been rehomed so many times?

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I would suggest returning your kitten. If the only remedy to solve the dog vs cat thing is to keep the cat caged, then he needs to go to a much better home. It seems to me like you guys made an impulsive decision without thinking this through, and haven't provided a reasonable environment for your cat, and for whatever reason are just not able or willing to put in the effort to make this work. Keeping a bengal in a cage in your home is awful, especially right next to an aggressive dog.

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The little monsters 3

Some dogs have such a high prey drive that it's always going to be a problem. Some dogs will lose interest over time, or the cat learns to not "run" from the dog so the dog doesn't give chase. Both of our Danes will playfully chase the cats if they run (it's a half hearted chase because they are so large, but there is no snapping or trying to bite), but if they walk around the dogs don't bother them.

We keep baby gates across the bedroom doorways raised up off the floor enough for the cats to go under but not the dogs. This way the cats can get away to someplace safe if they feel like they need to. Our dogs have never tried to push past the gates.

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Dallas, TX USA
Diesel - snow Bengal born 09/01/2013 adopted Feb 2014
Tuck, Chloe, Buddy, Lewis & Tia - rescue kitties
Clyde, Bleu & Coal - Great Danes