# Mouthing/roughing up our cats quite a bit.



## rtmike (Jul 8, 2009)

Hello.

Our 4 month old male is constantly working our cats' over. The female holds her own as she's only 9 lbs. But she uses her front feet and hisses at him a lot. She's using intimidation more than anything.

It's the male cat I'm worried about. Our GR (R/T) plays pretty rough with him. There's time's the cat's fur is completely wet. He won't hiss or bat R/T with his paws. He's really a laid back car. There's times he'll jump up on R/T but for the most part he really lets RT kick his ass and won't jump up high to get away from him.

I'm worried about the future once RT gets bigger what he may accidentally do. 

We start behavioral classes this week & we'll bring it up. I'm just curious if any of you folks' have been through this.

THANKS IN ADVANCE.


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## New Golden Mom (Dec 17, 2008)

We have two cats who put Rufus in his place back when we first brought him home in February at 8 weeks of age. He's not 8 months old and he tries to play with them but they are pretty adamant about telling him to get lost. Our third cat is small and she has never batted at him or anything so he thinks it's OK to really torment her. He rolls her around on the floor and picks her up and carries her...as she screeches. We have to rescue her and pull him off her or insist he drops her but the silly cat goes back for more all the time. I think they just have a love-hate relationship. We started telling him to be gentle...same word we used when he was going through the shark phase. We have noticed as he gets older he is getting a little more gentle with her.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

My puppy (Slater) does exactly the same thing to my cat (Romeo). I mean, he really mauls Romeo but it seems to be in pretty good fun. Romeo swats back at him, playing but in cat language. The puppy thinks this is great. 
Unless the cat is old and infirm I would trust the cat's instincts. If the dog gets too rough the cat is more than capable of getting away. Be thankful you have cats who are obviously very tolerant of dogs!
FWIW Romeo LOVES dogs...he grooms them, snuggles on them, licks their ears, really it's ridiculous, but a nice little relationship they've got going on!


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

As the years have gone by, and the dogs matured...they are not nearly as interested in pestering the cat...for my older dogs...the intense fascination and need to mouth and 'hold' the cat was a phase - a phase they all went through.

The one thing I would watch for and make every effort to stop is 'chasing' (as in chasing through the house or yard and nothing will distract him)....I would also be on the lookout for (and interrupt) any intense staring that precludes that kind of chase...

In my opinion, it is _critical_ as your cats advocate, to be sure he is healthy and has the physical capability to jump, swat, hiss, run if he has had enough...


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## rtmike (Jul 8, 2009)

Yeah I didn't figure it was much to worry about. Just wanted to run it by you folks'. 

I want to video tape it as you can't help but laugh some times especially when the cats' turn the table on him and start chasing him or when the one stands up on his back legs & lunges towards RT. That's another thing, we have simulated wood floors and it sounds like a freight train coming through the house some times. :bowl:


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## NuttinButGoldens (Jan 10, 2009)

Gilmour is exactly the same with Ronin. Funny thing is, Ronin is the one that instigates it most of the time 

Here's a couple of video's of it. The second one it starts about 2:20 into the movie.

Notice it is RONIN that starts things 

About 9 weeks old:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJC6...user/LarrysNetTube&feature=player_profilepage

6 Months old:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHOh...user/LarrysNetTube&feature=player_profilepage


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

That is one thing that I don't tolerate in my foster puppies (my own dogs don't mess with the cats). I keep a squirt bottle handy and tell them NO KITTY. It doesn't take long before the fosters are bigger than my cats and can really hurt them. So I have a zero tolerance policy with puppies messing with the cats. Of course, my cats are all getting sort of old. The youngest is 7 1/2 and the oldest 13.


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## Olddog (Mar 24, 2009)

Riley is 6 mos old and my cats, Lenny and Squiggy are almost three. Lenny is timid and shy and doesn't like to socialize and he let Riley know right from the start. Riley doesn't mess with him at all. But Squiggy on the other hand is a different story. Riley will play with him so much that the poor cat is soaked with slobber. I try not to let him chase the cat but Squiggy starts it by zooming right past him. I do catch Riley sometimes with the jaws around him, but never have I seen him apply pressure. I try to discourage him from it,,but when Squiggy has enough, he gets to higher ground.


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

We used to have a cat who played HARD with my border collie Ticket. To the point where people were horrified, he'd put his mouth on her and 'maul' her and push her all over the floor, then she'd jump up onto a chair and he'd pounce....

We always made sure there were 'dog free' zones (baby gates, high perches, couches/beds to go behind/under) and she was generally fine. She also would start it, he'd be sound asleep and she'd stalk him, get above where he was and then jump on his head and go flying off with him behind. Or if he was crated, she'd sit on top of the crate, stick her head down so he'd smash into the door, and repeat (till we had to put her in a room to let him sleep, this would be a 2 am game...).

Lana


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## NuttinButGoldens (Jan 10, 2009)

I think it depends on the breed of the cat to a certain extent.

Siamese are particularly hardy, intelligent breeds that do not shy away from attention. More like they demand attention  I think that's why I've never really had a cat problem as all I've ever owned is Siamese.


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## The_Artful_Dodger (Mar 26, 2009)

Dodger loves to lick the cats and sometimes paws at them. Simon, the most laid back cat, will put up with him the longest and will sometimes play by swatting at him and "biting" him (its very slow motion - he just kind of holds on). The funniest was when I woke up in the middle of the night when Dodger started meowing...very confusing...until I realized Simon had been sleeping in the crate with him for hours.


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## rtmike (Jul 8, 2009)

NuttinButGoldens said:


> I think it depends on the breed of the cat to a certain extent.
> 
> Siamese are particularly hardy, intelligent breeds that do not shy away from attention. More like they demand attention  I think that's why I've never really had a cat problem as all I've ever owned is Siamese.



We used to have a Siamese. He absolutely hated the fact we brought a child into the home & would nip & swat at our daughter. It got so bad we eventually gave him to a loving home. That was in '01.

Our two current cats are Bengals. Their disposition is about opposite of each other as mentioned earlier. They're known to like to be up high which they both sometimes do. But the mellow one's not using that tactic. 

I noticed last night the female is really starting to come around. She let Rusty sleep next to her and even cuddled around his paw. A real Kodak moment.

Today was the first day of obedience training. We actually got RT into crate w/o forcing him in. We've started with the clickers.


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