My Dog's Name
Sea
About My Dog (age, gender, appearance, personality)
8 year old Chinese Shar-pei, blue spayed female, likes to be bossy
My Cat's Name
Lucky
About My Cat (age, gender, appearance, personality)
10 year old domestic short hair neutered tabby male, knows who's boss and it's him
When I first got my dog and cat
Sea (the dog) was there first, from puppyhood, and felt that she was totally in charge, lording it over my older Boston terrier Bowser. Although Bowser's actually in charge - he didn't care enough to argue about it.
We got Lucky (the dog) when Sea was about 3 years old. Lucky was a rescue (we think he was a Katrina rescue) and he was around 5 years old. We think.
How my dog and cat became friends
Lucky arrived and promptly put the dogs in their place with growls, spits and well-placed smacks (no claws). There wasn't an issue of needing to separate them from almost the start; Bowser ignored him for the most part and Sea avoided him. Sea continues to avoid him when he makes it clear she shouldn't be somewhere - but the two of them will cuddle. They snooze together on the couch and sleep with us in bed at night. They actually seem to share some sort of affection most of the time - I think at this point Lucky's swings at Sea are playful (although she doesn't seem to feel that way about it). No blood was ever spilled.
Lessons Learned
- Two animals of different species who both want to be 'alpha' can still get along.
- One of them will be the actual 'alpha' in a relationship - in our case it was the cat.
- But they can be friends.
- They don't have to act territorial, our guys don't fight over who gets where, they don't even tussle over the humans.
- I think routines are important so that each animal feels noticed, we have special cat and dog treats. We spend special time with each animal.
