Cat attacking puppy

[Anonymous]

I have a 5 year old cat who spent the first year of his life with my boyfriend's dog. We broke up and I moved in with my parents who had two dogs. They got along fine. I moved into an apartment and a couple of months later I adopted a 12 week old puppy. They seem fine together but then one time when my mom came over- as she was coming in the apartment- the cat attacked the puppy. Then 1 week later, they were sitting at the glass door peacefully, then the cat attacked. Anyone have any experience like this or know a good cat behaviorist?

[Anonymous]

As the puppy gets bigger this will be self limiting if it's a big dog. Is it possible the cat saw something outside that made them feel territorial? Your mother coming in might have done that in a somewhat fraught cat world.

[Anonymous]

How big do you expect the dog to get?

[Anonymous]

How exactly cat attacked the puppy? Any injuries on the pup?
I would just watch for now - it's possible that puppy is doing something that cat doesn't like, puppies are super annoying.
I foster puppies from time to time, and my cat often had to correct undesired behavior - mostly by hissing and smacking with her paws. Looks scary, but totally harmless.

[Anonymous]

The cat hissed and chased the dog around and the dog couldn't get away. It's more than a hiss and batting. The dog will eventually be around 50 pounds.

[Anonymous]

They are animals. They will work it out with one another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cat hissed and chased the dog around and the dog couldn't get away. It's more than a hiss and batting. The dog will eventually be around 50 pounds.

The dog will eventually be able to clap back at the cat; it's for the best that the cat dictate the boundaries for now. It would also be best if there was a human to guide the puppy so the cat didn't have to. Sounds like the cat is training the dog because you aren't. Crate the puppy any time it doesn't have your full attention, and when it's not in the crate, it should be dragging a leash so that it doesn't do zoomies through your house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cat hissed and chased the dog around and the dog couldn't get away. It's more than a hiss and batting. The dog will eventually be around 50 pounds.

Puppies are awful cute but they can definitely annoy their humans, of course they will annoy a grown cat! Cats don’t suffer fools lightly.

Keep an eye on them and remove the puppy when you can see he’s annoying the cat - generally they can work it out but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t result in a scratched puppy eye or nose.

If the dog is going to out weigh and out size the cat when fully grown, it’s a good thing he’s learning to respect her while he’s small. Incidentally when puppies stay with their mothers and siblings the way they learn manners and boundaries is by getting nipped and slapped etc. so this is just how it works with animals your cat is not being untoward.

[Anonymous]

OP here- It doesn't seem like regular training or scolding. It's really aggressive.

[Anonymous]

The car is training the dog.

Once the dog gets a little bigger and the cat sees that he knows how to behave properly, this will stop.

The cat is just doing her part to help raise the dog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cat hissed and chased the dog around and the dog couldn't get away. It's more than a hiss and batting. The dog will eventually be around 50 pounds.

Puppies are awful cute but they can definitely annoy their humans, of course they will annoy a grown cat! Cats don’t suffer fools lightly.

Keep an eye on them and remove the puppy when you can see he’s annoying the cat - generally they can work it out but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t result in a scratched puppy eye or nose.

If the dog is going to out weigh and out size the cat when fully grown, it’s a good thing he’s learning to respect her while he’s small. Incidentally when puppies stay with their mothers and siblings the way they learn manners and boundaries is by getting nipped and slapped etc. so this is just how it works with animals your cat is not being untoward.

Cats do this with their kittens too.

It looks aggressive to us humans, but it is normal child rearing in the animal world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- It doesn't seem like regular training or scolding. It's really aggressive.

Have you ever seen a cat weaning and training its kittens?

It sounds 100% normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- It doesn't seem like regular training or scolding. It's really aggressive.

I think you are trying to put human emotions and morals onto normal animal behavior.

Is the cat regularly drawing blood?

If the answer is no, then the cat is not trying to hurt the dog. She is establishing boundaries with him. It should stop once the dog learns to behave in a way that is acceptable and respectable to the cat.

Angry cats are fierce, and can easy hurt a dog, draw blood, etc if they wish to, even a much bigger dog. If the cat wanted to harm the puppy, she would be hurting the puppy snd you would see the damage.

[Anonymous]

If the cat did not injure your dog (no blood was drawn) that means she was keeping her claws in. This was corrective.

Make sure your cat has time and space away from the puppy (ie: crate the dog). And when this happens, don't intervene unless one of the animals is hurt. Hissing, chasing and swatting are not HARMFUL unless there is blood. They are normal.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t worry too much about it. One of my cats did this and still does even though the dog is fully grown. Now the dog finally got the confidence to growl back, but they’ve never hurt each other and I don’t believe they will. I think it’s mostly about trying to assert dominance. If I think it’s too much I just get between them and shoo the cat away.