"Suja" wrote in message
...

Question on the flip side. How do you make cats that aren't used to
living
with dogs get used to them?

Slow and steady. And don't expect miracles. Some cats will become
acclimated fairly quickly, while others may take months or even years.
There are a few who will never get into the dog liking habit, but most
of them will at the very least get used to resident dogs enough to
coexist peacefully with them.

And then there are individuals who take a personal like or dislike to
other individuals. Pandora disliked Elliott until the day he died,
though they mostly coexisted peacefully because he respected her
boundaries, but she's always liked Harriet. Rory adored Elliott, and
would follow him around like a baby duckling, playing with him and
sleeping with him.

Anything different from previous advice? I'm
assuming so, since you can't exactly 'train' cats the way you would
dogs.
Speaking of which - why can't we recondition cats the same way we do
dogs?

You can, though. I acclimated all my cats to the hair dryer, to the
point that they would come running for pets whenever I turned it on.
I've taught cats to fetch. It takes a little longer and a little more
effort, but most cats *are* trainable and conditionable.

Scary dog appears, cats get something good. Eventually, scary dog is
not so
scary.

Exactly. Something good can be attention or stinky treats, same with
dogs. You just have to figure out what motivates the cat. And make
sure that the dog is cat safe and trained *first*. If one of the two is
under control and obviously not a threat, it makes the job easier.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)