Subject:  Sensitizing your Pit to cats |
Author:
Sonja
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Date Posted: 12:32:59 06/28/04 Mon
I know this might be a bit controversial, but I see so many ads for Pits and Am Staffs that say, "No cats" in their bios, I wanted to share my experience.
I adopted a male Am Staff, appx. 5 yrs. old last year. He hated cats! Every time he saw one, he'd stiffen up and only the tip of his tail would wag, like it was a metal spring or something! He pulled SO hard on the leash, if you weren't ready, he'd yank you to the ground. So, I did two things....
First, to get his attention, I HAD to "bonk" him, usually on the head. Nothing would break that concentration he had towards getting ahold of a cat! I didn't hurt him, but I did use a magazine and bonk him only until it broke his concentration. I never hit him hard enough to knock his head to the ground or anything, just hard enough to break that extreme concentration he had going on. Then I scolded him and told him, "NO!" It didn't take long for me to be able to just say, "Do you want to get BONKED?!?" and he'd be able to break his concentration immediately.
Now, he was ready to meet the cats. The cats hated this part, but... :-) I held the cats while sitting on the couch and letting him stand right there watching me, I'd stroke them gently and say in my softest voice, "Kitty gooood, kitty good girl" I'd let him sniff them as long as he wanted to. If he went to put his mouth on them, I'd tell him "NO!" in a firm voice and ask him if he wanted to get bonked. I only had to do that a couple of times. He still chased the one cat who would run from him (they were both always in the house) for about a month, but I'd scold him every time he chased her and tell him, "Don't you chase that kitty!" So, he stopped chasing her and she stopped running and they get along fine now.
Now in addition to this Am Staff's favorite thing in life being baby humans (toddlers), his second favorite thing is baby kittens. We brought a feral litter in from outside and he adopted them. He thinks he's their daddy and "chews their fleas" (that little knawing thing that Pits do when they really love someone or something). His "kitty babies" are a year old now, and everytime one of them gets in the house, he gets them so slobbery we can't even stand to touch them, they're so wet! That wild cat had kittens again about a month ago and I brought the two I could catch into the house. They didn't like him. He didn't understand it. He'd try to lick them and they'd hiss at him. He'd sit back and whine! He just couldn't understand kitties that didn't love him!
So, it is possible to acclimate your adult Pit to cats. I don't know for sure if this will work on all dogs, but I've never seen a dog hate cats as much as this one did when I first got him.
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