Kitty's and Doodles....

[Eryn]

Hello! I'm new to doodle kisses and I'm a proud new doodle owner! :) We just brought Sully home with us approx. 1 month ago. He is 1 year old, 65 lb goldendoodle and we absolutely love him! However, we do have one major issue with him. We also have a cat and unfortunately Sully is completely rude to her! Every time he sees the cat he barks and chases and goes ballistic to the point where she needs to hide from him. And he is completely obsessed with trying to find her. In order to keep the peace and to allow our poor cat an opportunity to come out of hiding, we have had to divide the house into "Sully zone" and "Sully free" zone. From all the signs we've seen, I don't feel that he wants to hurt the cat. They have had a couple of face to face greetings and it was alot of hissing and barking until we pulled Sully away so the cat could run. Within the month that we've had Sully, I am trying to make it so that he sees the cat atleast a couple of times a day, and I try to reward calm behavior around the cat.... but most of the time he goes into a frenzy! Any advice on how I should tackle this issue? Thanks in advance! :)

[Eryn]

These pictures are so so sweet! Thank you for taking the time to post them. They will be my inspiration when I'm getting discouraged by Sully's bad manners towards my cat! :) And I'm doing the towel thing now as well! :)

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Hopefully, it will help "calm" the situation.  Age helps as well!  Keep us posted....better yet, I expect a pic of the two cuddling! ;)

Remember, time and patience is key!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

This reminds me of my childhood golden, Ivan, who was senior also when we got the kitten.  They were the best of friends and we have photos of them like this :) Happy memories, thanks for sharing.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

These two...were the very best of friends from the day Jax ( the cat) entered our household. It was so funny/ cute to watch, because Jax is a Munchkin cat( shorty legs) and Dylan was a huge boy. For some reason they bonded right off. When Dylan passed, Jax was lost and wandered around the house howling. He still does sometimes. :(

[Robin and Libby Louise]

I don't know why but these pictures made me tear up!  Beautiful!

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Nooooooooo! I'm sorry! They were meant to show that a loving bond can be created between cat and dog.

[Robin and Libby Louise]

In a good way!!!!!  No worries!  They are just so sweet!

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Thank you!

[Marni and Hanna]

LOVE these pics !  so cute !!  I swear there is nothing that pulls at my heartstrings more than an old gray-faced dog!!  : )

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Oh me too!  My husband found a book(basically a picture book) this morning in the bookstore on Aging Dogs.  Had a picture of a beautiful old Golden....such a sweet, sweet face.  But it just brought forth so many emotions on Dylan....I could barely look at it. 

[Sally S Miles]

We have two cats and I was a foster to cats for years - it is imperative that the cat have not one, but several places to escape to.  Gate off areas (I love a gate that has pass through for kitty) and provide high up spots as well as dark corners. The cat will set the rules - period.

I have a sixteen month old Doodle who adores the cats and is total buddies with one of them, the other cat says No thanks to dog slobber.   One cat will cuddle, wash, tease, and snooze next to the dogs as well as get in line at dinner time - the other will hiss if they look at her wrong, but happily sleep on their bed.  Slowly the day will come when you can span the fence and pet both at the same time - it also helps if feeding times are in close proximity - location not so much, but timing. Cats will accept pack order, to a degree, as long as they never fall to the bottom.

The towel idea is a good one, I can assure you that the cat is sniffing every step the dog takes during the day and vice versa.   Every time the dog charges the cat, it's a step backward until the cat gets to have free route - there needs to be a physical boundary, such as x-pen or gate that allows them to get nose to nose, toe to toe - ever so slowly.   A stressed out cat can do some damage to a dogs face, so the course of a month still warrants monitoring and supervision.   The cat has no clue yet whether this big monster will clobber or cuddle - the dog hasn't figured it out yet either.    A month is really a very short time.  Our unsociable cat will now huddle within feet of the dividing line, but never cross and the dogs have agreed she is off limits.  She is now tolerating another pup in the house.  She has a wicked temper.  The other one is a mellow gal who never fusses, but holds court from royal perch. 

In short, the zones are the best way to go and as unsightly as they may be, I've never had a dog or cat that could not manage to live together.   Some are just picker about conditions than others.

[Eryn]

Thank you all for your messages and words of encouragement!

Just to give you a run down of the set up we have now. When we are home, Sully has access to living room, kitchen, dining room, and TV room. He is crated at night and when we are not home. Our cat  has access to the whole house, but the hallway and all the bedrooms are "Sully Free". There is a doorway separating both parts of the house that we tried to separate with a baby gate but that doesn't work for sully- 65lbs of puppy energy...He rammed right through it! So we Installed a half door that is raised at the bottom to allow the cat to go under. After 2 types of latches ( sully figured out how to open the first latch!!) this set up seems to be working.  The cat is safe and has lots of places to hide, but can also get as close to sully as she dares. And sully can see her (if the cat decides to hang out in the hallway) but not get access to her.

Our cat has claws and when they did have their face to face contact, I was kind of hoping that she  would give him a good swat to the snout to put him in his place, but that didn't seem to work. 

I'm hoping that with time, things will get better. I will continue to reward and encourage calm behavior. Last night they had a stare down between their 2 sections and sully didn't go into his crazy mode at all.  I'm starting to read his signs better and decided to break up the greeting before he escalated and that let us end on a positive note. The cat is also getting more bold and I'm hoping that with time, she starts to stand her ground more and not run away because that seems to excite sully more.
I will continue to work on this and think positive! Thanks again for all your advice! It's very appreciated!! :)