November 06, 2002
Wednesday

Oh, and you thought we'd forgotten about Rover, all alone in his room by himself. How could we possibly forget about Rover? Couldn't be done. So now it's time to introduce him to Simba.

Now, we know that Rover is not one of those unfortunate critters, the Dreaded Cat Killers, because he lives with Tuna, the cat in the previous episode. But before you introduce a kitten

Rocky Giovanni Photo by M.C. Kauffman ---

into your house you need to get a gauge of the level of your dog's dislike of cats. As an emergency room vet, I saw a kitten, given as a Christmas present, that was chomped to death by the family dog in front of the entire family. Kids and all. Heavily underlining the bad idea-ness of giving pets as gifts. Pets are a lifelong responsibility, and their place in the family needs to be weighed carefully.

So test your dog's reactivity to cats, and refrain from adding a kitten to your family if he lunges, growls and chases cats up trees. You may just be purchasing his next snack if you proceed. There are certain breed predilections here, although there are always exceptions to the rule. If your dog is a breed that was bred to chase things, or to hunt things, or to kill things, and you want to have a cat, make sure the dog is introduced to cats as a puppy. What he learns as a puppy will shape how he behaves as an adult. But inherited traits have to be overcome in puppyhood, or you're not going to have a cat for long.

But Rover is a loveable playful, Black Labrador. The biggest thing you're worried about is that he almost is. The biggest thing. In the house, that is. He's ninety five pounds and you just know he's going to squish that poor little Simba. But amazingly enough, he won't. He'll get all excited, and he'll play-bow, and he'll dance and twirl, and he'll even mouth her til she'd just covered with dog drool, but that ninety-five pound wonder knows exactly where his feet are, and exactly where his teeth are, but most of all he knows how hard he's munching on something. It's pretty amazing.

But what if Rover's older, not as playful, not as nice. A dog will only draw blood if he meant to - which is why we stress teaching bite-inhibition to puppies - and usually only if he's surprised or cornered. You've removed the element of surprise, and Simba's not large enough to corner him. Although, that's probably going to be the place you see the most signs of aggression in an older dog. He's sleeping peacefully, she wants to play, wakes him up, pesters him til he growls, maybe snaps. But actually connects? Rare. Given time, they'll learn their respective places in the household, and peace will reign again.






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