hello

we have recently bought a 4 year old female boxer (roxy) but already had a 8 week old kitten in the house roxy lived with a 6 week old kitten when we went to veiw her so we thought shed get along with ours fine

we started off first having them on diffrent sides of the door so roxy could explore the house smell that the kitten had been around the house and smell that the kitten was on the other side of the door. at first she was curious that there was a kitten at the door but after a day she didnt seem botherd so we too the kitten thro to show roxy who was on a lead she was curious and had a sniff we did this a few times a day but she was still ears uprite curious so we bought a crate to put the kitten in and put her in the same room asroxy again she was curious had a sniff a few times then after aday she just lay facing the crate with the kitten so we took the kitten out and put her onto the floor to show roxy again the kitten went straight under roxy and sat between her legs. but roxy became what looked protective of the kitten (hunched over the kitten) and would not move untill the kitten came out from her why did she do this?

so we have gone back to having the kitten in a crate in the same room a few times a day its been 4 days of doing this so far and she again dosnt seem interested in the kitten will have a sniff then go back to lying around. are we taking the rite steps to introducing them also was it a bad thing that roxy became stiff when the kitten went under her?

also does anyone have any other suggestions?

any help would be great!


sorry very long post

We have that similar situation only it's a 15 month old BC and a tiny kitten "rescued" from foxes, who took her litter mates.

The kitten has been initially in a cage crate, large enough to climb up box and play a little inside.

The dog has been rewarded for turning away, or going down, whenever he saw or investigated the kitten. After a few days, the scents were familiar to each other, now the kitten is supervised and can lie in someones arms, without the dog paying heed or fixating on her; she's part of the scenary now. (He's a fast learner though).
So long as the kitten doesn't act like prey she should be safe from being chased now. Supervision's needed to avoid the kitten playfully pestering though and getting into trouble that way.

The dog does snaffle the kitten's food given the opportunity, which will be a likely trouble trigger in future. I recommend looking at tripod's page to Living like cats and dogs | Pet Central's Pawsitive Dawgs Blog!. I know my sister found decent advice by searching on net, though I haven't seen exactly what sites her info came from.

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For eager & reliable recall, be fun for the dog to come back to! Then often send them off right away to do what they wanted!
DT&B - Glossary of acronyms & jargon terms.
Encouraging good behaviours, whilst consistently avoiding practise of bad alternatives leads to extinction of the bad. So if dog sits 6/10 times it doesn't sit 4/10 times, encouraging with the right rewards (positively-reinforcing) enough for 9/10 times means it now fails to sit only 1/10 times, sit 10/10 means...

thank you for your reply

my partner and i were going to try introducing them to each other again when he comes home from work. roxy is good when going into the kitchen were we keep kitten and her things and wont bother touching kittens food has attempted before but now wont she is more interested in the kittens toys. but we tell her no as she needs to learn they are the kittens toys not for her.


shall have a look at the link you posted thank you again

ok little update. i have taken cat into same room in crate roxy looked up at me carrying her in but hasnt gone over to look at kitten even tho she is meiowing alot so im guessing good sign?

so have giving roxy a treat for staying in her bed.

The dog can't understand "kitten's toys" if they're on ground unused, then they're "available". So seperate like we've done and keep the kittens toys out of dog's way. There's a thread explaining how dogs see "property" dogs and object-posssession AKA resource-guarding or RG

Saying "No!" or telling the dog off, is what you want to avoid, if the dog is meant to like the kitten!

__________________
For eager & reliable recall, be fun for the dog to come back to! Then often send them off right away to do what they wanted!
DT&B - Glossary of acronyms & jargon terms.
Encouraging good behaviours, whilst consistently avoiding practise of bad alternatives leads to extinction of the bad. So if dog sits 6/10 times it doesn't sit 4/10 times, encouraging with the right rewards (positively-reinforcing) enough for 9/10 times means it now fails to sit only 1/10 times, sit 10/10 means...

No harm in it. You want her to notice the kitten and reward inactivity even more though!
If seeing Kitten means dog looks to earn a treat off Mum, it's not a bad start.

__________________
For eager & reliable recall, be fun for the dog to come back to! Then often send them off right away to do what they wanted!
DT&B - Glossary of acronyms & jargon terms.
Encouraging good behaviours, whilst consistently avoiding practise of bad alternatives leads to extinction of the bad. So if dog sits 6/10 times it doesn't sit 4/10 times, encouraging with the right rewards (positively-reinforcing) enough for 9/10 times means it now fails to sit only 1/10 times, sit 10/10 means...

the kitten and dogs toys are seperated dogs sitting room kittens are in kitchen i dont tell her off for going near the toys but its the same with daughters toys i have to tell her to leave them otherwise she will think its ok to take claim over the toys. she more sniffs them now then trys to take them thro.

we were rewarding her for looking at kitten but as its gone on shes not been so interested in the kitten will give it a sniff or a glance then carries on what shes doing

ive never had this problem before with previous dogs and cats so its really got me stumped!