My cat won’t come downstairs because she’s so scared of the dog!
What do you do when when your cat is super stressed by their new doggy housemate? Like so stressed that they don't feel safe enough to do the things they used enjoy?
You can’t just train the dog to leave the cat alone - that’s just one piece of the puzzle.
The general plan:
1) Teach the dog to be more trustworthy (aka behave appropriately in the face of distractions, like when the cat is around).
2) Increase the cat’s confidence by giving them lots of reinforcement for being brave and moving around the space, first when the dog ISN’T around, and working up to when they are in sight.
A real case:
Alicia adopted Maisy (a young mixed breed dog) and at first, she was able to relax around Cleo (the resident cat).
The Before:
After a few weeks, however, Maisy started chasing Cleo whenever she would come downstairs. So Cleo stopped coming downstairs at all (even though she loves being around her mom and visitors).
So Alicia and I brainstormed some ways she could start helping her cat Cleo feel more confident moving around the house again.
The Initial Plan
create a path for Cleo to be able to come downstairs safely (without touching the ground) and teach her to use it
adjust routine to find times to hang out with Cleo and reinforce her for interacting with Alicia downstairs (while Maisy is secured away)
later: work on Maisy’s ability to relax when distracted (i.e. Cleo appears)
Updates from Alicia
“After our conversation, I moved the gate to the bottom of the stairs. Due to the location of the staircase in the house, it wasn't possible to place a cat tree on either side, so I built three steps up to a tall shelf where Cleo can go but Maisy cannot. It has taken some time, but Cleo has learned to use the stairs and will voluntarily go to her new bed frequently… I am hoping we can continue working on Cleo being able to move more freely throughout the house, but the fact that she will hang out downstairs for hours at a time is HUGE progress!”
✅ What worked:
Cleo knows how to go from the stairs to the new wall shelves… and she is choosing to use her new stairs → shelves path to get to her safe napping spot! (even though Maisy still occasionally chases her)
Want to help your cat come downstairs safely and without stress? Here are 2 examples of ways you could create a route for your cat to take from the stairs to their safe zone:
❗️ Important variable(s):
Maisy has been demonstrating increased stranger danger and resource guarding towards people coming in the house (unrelated to our plan regarding sharing space with Cleo), so Alicia has adjusted her training priorities to focus on addressing those issues for now.
Want more details about my suggestions for Maisy and Cleo?
You can listen to my full coaching call with Alicia in this Dog and Cat Chat episode of “It’s Training Cats and Dogs!”
What you'll hear in this episode:
why you need to give your pets safe spaces and teach them how to get there
how to help a cat come down the stairs and up to their elevated safe spaces (without touching the floor)
when you might want to keep an eye out for your new pet's behavior to potentially change towards their housemates
and what does food motivation have to do with all of this?
To listen to the full episode, click here to open it in your podcast player or press play below:
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I think she wants to come downstairs and interact. Like before I got the dog, she was very social. She was always with me, and so that's why I know it's not just that she wants to be upstairs, she wants to be with me, but she can't be or won't let herself be anymore. Yeah.
Hello. You cat and dog people. This is it's training, cats and dogs. I'm Naomi. Rotenberg a certified professional trainer who specializes in helping cats and dogs get along. And this is the show for pet pros and pet parents who want to level up their cat and dog coexistence skills. In each episode, we talk nerdy about how to get your pets or your client's pets, living safer and happier lives together.
You know what sucks. Getting a new dog. And in the first few weeks, they're seeming to really get along with your cat and you're like, sweet. This is awesome. And then all of a sudden, the dog decides that the cat is really fun to chase. And now the cat won't come downstairs. Well, that's what happened to Alicia. And the worst part is that she thought it was all her fault. And we talk all about it in today's episode so let's dive in
Hi Alicia. I am so happy to have you on the podcast and I hope that I can give you some great advice today. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. So tell me a little bit about your pets and your current situation and let's figure out some next action items. So, I adopted my dog Maisie in April of this year, and I've had my cat, Cleo for six years now and she is seven years old. So Maisie is very unknown. She was found in the woods and she's about one or two the vet estimates. So the first month that I had her, everything was like magical and wonderful. And everyone was getting along and there were really no issues. Cat was hanging out, dog was hanging out, no problems.
And I was given advice to treat them together, basically to encourage the interaction and I, I think a couple of things happened. I think after about six weeks, Maisie, the dog started getting more comfortable, and I think she also maybe has some resource guarding things maybe from her previous life. And so she started chasing Cleo. And I think it happened enough times that it basically seems like right now the damage is done and my cat will not voluntarily come downstairs. So right now I have an upstairs and downstairs, and the downstairs is the main living space, and I really only go upstairs to sleep. There's a baby gate at the top of the stairs and the cat, Cleo, she can pass through whenever she wants, but the dog cannot go up. So that's her like safe place. And she really just won't come downstairs anymore. And so I've been trying to be like proactive in bringing her down and setting them up for success, like no treats. Bringing Cleo to a safe spot like up high. And that's actually been going pretty well.
I was actually inspired by one of the podcasts of yours that I listened to with like kind of a similar living situation. Mm-hmm. . But I still am like, there are still moments where I can see Maisie get excited and she'll whine when she sees Cleo and looks like she wants to chase, but Cleo's not running.
So I feel like we're a little bit stuck in that. Cleo's not gonna bring herself downstairs on her own terms. Mm-hmm. And Maisie's getting maybe better...? I don't know, but I'm trying to figure out how to keep reinforcing behavior, but maybe not using treats. Cause that's really all I've found information on, it's always having to do with treats.
Okay. I have a lot of things pinging in my head. Okay. , that I want. I'll ask a few clarifying questions. Number one being how do you bring Cleo downstairs?
Oh, I usually just carry her down cuz she won't really follow me. Like if I try to lure her down or something with a treat or like a toy, she's really not having it. So I just carry her downstairs and it's usually first thing in the morning. And so Maisie will be like either right in front of me or right behind me. And put her in a high spot with a little blanket.
Okay. And then does she just kind of freeze there or does she actually relax? So she likes to follow the sun , so I usually put her in a sunny spot and she'll like maybe keep an eye on Maisie for a minute and then she'll settle in. So like this morning she was there for a few hours after I left her there. So she will settle, settle and seem relaxed.
Okay. Do you ever spot her kind of creeping on what's going on downstairs? Like she's at the top of the stairs watching?
Yes. Yeah, I think she wants to come downstairs and interact. Like before I got the dog, she was very social. She was always with me, and so that's why I know it's not just that she wants to be upstairs, she wants to be with me, but she can't be or won't let herself be anymore.
Yeah. Okay, so I've got some noodle-ies on that end. Um, I'm gonna table that line of questioning for a second and we're gonna switch over. I feel like I'm a lawyer, like cross-examining... This is all just really helpful information so I can kind of conceptualize what's really going on. So going back to the treating them around each other, I'm doing air quotes cuz like that could mean a lot of things. Mm-hmm. . So can you mm-hmm. , describe what you were doing, what the procedure was?
I wasn't really very formal about it. I've never had a dog before, so this is like all very new to me. It took three days for Cleo to get used to having Maisie around and she started coming downstairs again and they were fine. And Maisie used to, whenever she would see Cleo, she would lay down. She was not trying to get after her or anything. And so I was using that as an opportunity. I would pull out treats and then Maisie would be laying down. Cleo would be kind of, weaving at my legs, rubbing on my legs, and I would give them both a treat at the same time. And that actually, it seemed like that worked for like, I wanna say two weeks or something. I guess it was more than that, a couple of weeks. And I wasn't super consistent about it. It wasn't like every single time... Cleo... actually maybe I tried to be. Every time Cleo came downstairs, I'd pull out treats, but also I was like living my life and sometimes she would come down and I wouldn't have time to or something.
But yeah, there was no signs of aggression from Maisie, so that's why it seemed kind of out of nowhere the first time it started happening. And then She started learning that like anytime she saw the cat they were gonna get fed, you know?
Okay. So it started with Cleo came down, Maisie would lay down, and you were like, excellent.
Yes.
So you're treating her while she's laying down?
Yeah. So I was trying to reward that, like calm behavior around each other kind of thing.
Okay. And then you mentioned like when Maisie had been home around six weeks-ish. Yeah. That she started maybe not laying down when she sees Cleo..?
Yeah. And then that was when it started to be like Cleo would poke her little head around the bottom of the stairwell. Mm-hmm. And then Maisie would get up and run after her. And so like Cleo didn't even have a chance. It was like before food even came out that she started getting like, I don't know if it's aggression or play or what, but Cleo's like too old. She's never been huge into playing, so I never really anticipated that she would try to play with the dog.
And they're not of a size to play necessarily together anyway. Okay. So this is really important. Okay. After some switch switched in Maisie. Mm-hmm. . And it used to be that Cleo could come out and weave around your legs and Maisie would just lay there. Yeah. And then all it took was Cleo's head to pop out and Maisie would chase her. Did Maisie look at you before she chased?
No, it was just like straight to her.
Okay. And when she did the initial laying down, I'm gonna see if you can like, think back to what this looked like. Like what did her body language look like? Was she still, was she relaxed? Was her hip popped over?
Yeah, it was usually like, kind of like straight down and her tail would be wagging and it wasn't like a play bow. Cause I've seen her do that too with other dogs. It was just like laying down like, oh, hey, you're here.
Was she staring at Cleo?
No, it was like, it was very calm. Like she was relaxed and she was like interested, like she wanted to go over and sniff her and stuff too. Yeah. So I feel like my big mistake was actually introducing the food because they were super chill and like I have pictures, I've looked back, like I have pictures from her first month. They were both Velcro animals and so they would both follow me into the bathroom and sit, sit there while I was in there. You know? So they were totally fine. And then I feel like I messed everything up.
No, no, no, no. So, okay. The reason I ask all of this is because we don't know Maisie's previous life.
Mm-hmm. And her previous experience with cats. We do know that when animals move into a new situation, the full intensity of their behaviors that they're going to offer is going to be suppressed. Yes. Um, so what you were saying is it seems like she got more confident, right? You see that around the six to 12 week mark often.
Yeah. And so, It's entirely possible that two things might have happened simultaneously. One last question. Were the treats that you were giving Maisie high value, like she was very excited by them or were they just like run of the mill?
Um, well, they were actually cat treats and at the time she was very, very thin. And so since I know they're like higher fat and people I asked were like, since she's so skinny, it's okay to give her some cat treats for right now. So I guess they're a high val - like, I don't know. And the other thing that was confusing to me was that she was not super food motivated either despite being like starving when she was found. She was not very interested in food. Like it's been hard to train her because she's not very food motivated.
She's still not food motivated?
Well, now she is. Yeah, now she is for sure.
Okay. Alright. Okay. Puzzle coming together. Brain exploding! Okay. This is all theoretical. Yeah. Everyone who's listening, this may not be actually the way it goes because I'm just piecing this together. But I think a couple of things happened simultaneously that kind of created the storm of this relatively sudden behavior change. Okay. Number one is that her (her being Maisie) her acute stress levels of going through this move have decreased, and therefore the suppression of her full behavior palette no longer was there. Mm-hmm. So she might have been very interested in Cleo at the beginning, but because she was behaviorally suppressed, she wasn't doing the full mm-hmm. I'm gonna rush at you, cat. If she had all of her stress alleviated, she would immediately get up and go to sniff Cleo. Not fear-based, but just like, I'm excited slash distracted by you. Yeah. Which most cats don't enjoy that mm-hmm. sudden rushing up.
Yeah. And the other thing that I just remembered too, I sort of like forgot this, but one of the reasons that I chose to adopt her was that she was fostered for a month before I got her. By the people who found her in the woods and they have two cats and she mm-hmm. just ignored them. And I saw them interacting, which was like totally fine. But also I think those cats, they have been around dogs and they're used to the barking and everything, and they don't run, they don't care.
Yeah. That definitely is important, the behavior of the cat in response to a dog being inappropriate in terms of social solicitation makes a huge difference. That like initial time when the dog gets pushy, what the cat does in response. Mm-hmm. like lays the foundation for future interactions. Yeah. So if Cleo was like, hells to the No, and she books it yes. Right. Which is seems like is what happened. Yeah. A chase is the game. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Cleo doesn't like the game, but Maisie doesn't care. Right? ? Yeah. So then the question is, what role, if any, did the treats play into this? And I do think that what you said about a lack of food motivation at that time shows that we are probably still a stressed dog.
Right? Stressed animals. Most of the time they undereat. Mm-hmm. And so if she was not food motivated, but then around this same time she started being like, I like food again. Yeah. Right. That's another indica indication. She's starving, right? Mm-hmm. , she was skinny, skinny, skinny. So like the only reason she would not be consuming calories voraciously would most likely high level of chronic stress, right? Yeah.
So when that blanket of stress is dissipating, no cloud of stress dissipates blankets don't dissipate. Anyway, when that's kind of going away, you'll see response to food increasing. Okay. So then was you introducing treats into this, a main part of why the shit hit the fan?
I don't know the answer to that because I think there's a lot of competing factors here. Right. Especially if the treats were relatively high value. She just started valuing treats. Mm-hmm. And you were inadvertently perhaps, kind of reinforcing the excited feelings, . Mm-hmm. Any kind of like the mini behaviors before the getting up and rushing, um, it might have. contributed a little bit. Yeah.
However, I would caution throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Mm-hmm. in saying, and therefore we cannot use treats with Maisie when there is Cleo around, because number one, now that she is food motivated you can do a more strategic use of treats rather than just being like cookies for everyone. Um, You can choose the right value of treats that won't make Maisie super duper excited, but she's still going to be motivated by them. Mm-hmm. . And you can make sure that you are timing the delivery of the treats appropriately to make sure you're not reinforcing behaviors that you're not wanting to see.
Whenever they are on the same level together, I always make sure that Cleo's safe, high up, or Maisie can't get to her, basically, and she won't be motivated to run. And then helping Maisie. Ignore her basically. Yeah. So like just kind of redirecting her. I know if she gets excited, like exactly what you're saying.
Like she'll turn to be like, oh boy, there's the cat. So yeah. All of this is to say there's a lot of things that we could play around with food-wise. Mm-hmm. that I think would still be beneficial for us to try. And if it, for some reason you're like, . This is just not working. Then we have other things we can do, but there's too many confounding variables in the initial transition period.
Mm-hmm. from not eating and not reacting to Cleo. To eating and reacting. Yeah. To Cleo. Yeah. That we can't link those things causally definitively. Okay, let's table that for a second. What are the things that we can do now? One thing that stood out to me was that once the chases started happening, all it took was cleo's little head to poke out.
Mm-hmm. or Maisie, to be like, it's on like donkey. Yes. Let's do it. Right. So Cleo, right now it seems isn. Uncomfortable with being downstairs with Daisy. She's uncomfortable getting downstairs. Yes. To where Maisie is. Yeah, because if she's moving, basically she will not move downstairs and she can't get there either without Maisie seeing her.
right? You plopped her in the middle. She's like, this is where I live now. . Until the dog is sufficiently neutralized. Mm-hmm. , right? Or you bring her back upstairs, right? Yeah. She will take advantage of a calm moment and slip upstairs sometimes. So like where she is, she has a sight. . So I put her on top of my piano, Uhhuh , and she can see Maisie's bed and part of the living room.
And basically if she can't see Maisie, she'll book it back upstairs when she's ready so she can get back up safely. But like I never leave them alone when I know that CLE was downstairs. So the first thing that we always start with, is there any like low hanging fruit that. try to get at before we do setups and use food to reinforce Maisie for appropriate behaviors and reinforce Cleo for appropriate behaviors and all of that fun stuff.
I, I like to think of that. That's phase two. What is stuff that we could do at the beginning to Yeah, set us up for success? So the first thing seems to. For us to try to create a path, an elevated path for Cleo to get downstairs without having to be on the floor. Now, question is, is this possible? stairs are hard.
Yeah. So I'd have to look at your house. Mm-hmm. . And are you a renter, all of that? I'm, I'm not. I, I own my house so I can put something, but I guess the only thing I can think of is to make, like those flat platforms that people can hang on the wall and just make those all down the stairs. . Yeah. So there's different ways to, and I can upload some.
Example pictures to the show notes for everyone to look at as well of like how to tackle cat moving along stairs. There's many different options, but another easy option is instead of having the gate, at the top of the stairs. Mm-hmm. , you have a gate at the bottom of the stairs. Mm-hmm. . And then you have like a cat tree or something right at the bottom of the stairs that she can hop into.
Mm-hmm. from the third or fourth step. Mm-hmm. . And then that can start. your kitty superhighway or whatever you wanna call it. Yeah. So if she could hop relatively directly from being on the stairs to the piano mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. or whatever, it's that way when Maisie isn't around, we'd be able to teach Cleo how to use that.
Route. Yeah. And then when they do have the opportunity to be together, then you would make sure that Maisie is leashed. Or if you're at your desk, she's tethered to the desk. If it's heavy enough or she's behind an X pen or whatever is there's some extra barrier. So that. Cleo decides like, I'm gonna be brave and do this thing, that she's not gonna be immediately punished for that bravery.
Yeah, because Maisie says wee, that's really fun. So that would be my first step that we would think about Doing importantly, I would not want you to lure Cleo down with food. Mm-hmm. , I always say reward bravery. don't coerce. Mm-hmm. , it's like the man in the white van, like, here's your candy. But then like once you're there and you've eaten the candy, like everything's terrible.
Mm-hmm. , right? Um, I need to use a better and less creepy, horrible analogy, but, um, You know, mistakes were made. The allure of the food got you there. And that might work in that moment, but in the future, if you offer her food to come down, she's gonna be like, absolutely not. Trick me once. Mm-hmm. . Well, yeah, that's the thing.
She was. afraid enough, or like she's just not interested enough. I only tried it a couple of times where I was like holding a tree and tried to get her to come down and she just wouldn't do it. So if she made the decision to come downstairs, would I reward her? Yeah, exactly. The only thing I'm wondering about, and I guess I would just have to try it to find out with the gate at the bottom of the stairs, I actually put the gate at the.
Just because Maisie can jump over six feet and I thought having the lower, you know, starting point at the top would at least like eliminate. She's never tried to jump over it. I mean that I know of , but she really is not interested, uh, and hasn't tried. . And so I wonder if she saw Cleo on the stairs and she was at the bottom, and like she could so easily just hop that.
So I don't, I mean, and it would be one of those things like with supervision, I just have to try it and see what happens. Yes. So number one is I wouldn't get rid of the upstairs gate. Mm-hmm. . , I would have the stairs be kind of a buffer zone. Yeah. In between Cleo area up and Maisie area down so that there are two levels.
Mm-hmm. . Right. If Cleo, if she sees Cleo up there and she magically jumps the bottom baby gate, there's still that. Yeah. Barrier. That she, that she respects currently. Yeah. Right. So that would be number one. Also, does Maisie react when she sees Cleo just hanging out at the top of the stairs? No. And if I am upstairs, Cleo has a little basket that she hangs out in that is basically protected.
So she's in there. I'll sometimes let Maisie come up and wander around while I'm doing whatever, putting away my laundry or something. Mm-hmm. and she doesn't mess with her. And again, cuz she's still, and in this like contains space and even if she sees her, she's usually pretty good about that. Um, wait a second.
What was the question? ? The question is if Cleo. Chooses to poke her head. Oh, right. Just like at the top of the landing. Yeah. And Maisie is downstairs. Right. How does Maisie, so she actually is really good. Like she understands that there's the barrier and she can't get to her because a lot of times if I, if Cleo is wandering around, I'll close the gate and Maisie will sit.
On the top step and she'll just kind of lay there waiting for me. And she can see Cleo and I specifically got one with wide enough spaces so that Cleo could go through. So it's like there's clear vision, like she can see it and Cleo doesn't mind walking by her cuz she knows that she's safe. Yeah. And actually, and the one thing Cleo will do, she will come downstairs every now and then when Maisie is in her crate, which is upstairs.
So if Maisie's in her crate. Cleo knows it's safe to come down, so I try to give her the chance to do that for a couple hours in the afternoon every day. But she just doesn't always take me up on it. You know what I mean? It's not that she will necessarily come, but sometimes I will bring her downstairs and when she realizes Coast is clear, she'll hang out.
So this speaks to the difference of safety and security. Both are extremely important. So an animal can feel. Secure while they're not safe, and then be safe, but not feel secure. Mm-hmm. so. is clearly happening here. Is that in those situations when she doesn't come down, even though Maisie's in the crate, she is safe, but she doesn't feel secure.
Mm-hmm. enough to go down. But with that gate, , she is both safe and trusts it enough that she feels secure. Yeah. And animals are so good at this of being like, oh, crate doors closed, heard the bang. Now I can come downstairs. Right? They make the associations for barriers very, very clearly a lot of times.
And so what we can start to do is use those barriers strategically and then fade them so that she continues to feel safe and secure. , even when there are fewer barriers, because Maisie is going to be demonstrating more appropriate behaviors once you teach them to her and reinforce them. So what that means is, again, like the first thing would be creating a path in her environment where she is safe and feels secure, that when Maisie.
Out and about. She can move and Maisie cannot get to. . So that's number one, numero uno, because I don't want you to have to rely on you transporting her and like levitating her to a safe area because then she's stuck. She's in an island of like, I cannot move the way I want to. And that does not actually lead to true bravery.
She's just like, well, this is, this is where I live now until the beast is is gone. But if she is able to practice getting there, safely, then she knows she can leave whenever she wants. She is going to start offering coming down much more often because she has much more control over her safety and security.
Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. ? Yeah. Yeah, I think the gate at the bottom would be really helpful. Yeah, and I have a gate resource that I'll put a link down for everyone so that we can try to find the best. To minimize the chance that Maisie will decide that she's just gonna be a pole vault, but because she already respects the gate at the top, it indicates that she is more likely to respect the gate at the bottom as well.
So I definitely think we should try that. Then the next task will just be to basically train or play with Cleo so that she learns that she. Move. Mm-hmm. on these things, but it's not an, if you build it, they will come. It's a, if you build it, they might come. Mm-hmm. , but most likely you're gonna have to show them Yeah.
That it's safe and they're secure and it's a worthwhile risk for them to mm-hmm. , try this new kitty highway. you have for her. How does this land on you in terms of next steps, feeling manageable, whether you're like, Naomi, this is just not gonna work.
No, no, like that all makes sense. I'm just like, I'm thinking about my setup in my house and, um, the bottom of the stairs is right at the front door, so I'm like, what could, how could I put something. For cle, like where would that go? For her to have like a tower or something to jump to? Okay. Um, I'm not sure.
I originally thought the piano would be her, like normal spot to go. But there's actually, if she went the other way, if I had a tower there, then she would be in the living room. and if she was up high, I wonder if I got one of those really tall towers where basically she could like scoot out the stairs and then just go straight up the tower right there. And the other thing is, so I work from home mm-hmm.
and my studio is the room with the piano. So, that is also kind of a tight space. And I have kids in and out cause I'm teaching and so I guess it just needs to be somewhere else because that room is really like, it has as much in it as it can hold.
Mm-hmm. . Yeah. So I'll have to think on that a little more, but I don't know why I didn't think about oh, she needs a path. I was like, oh, she just needs a place. But the problem is the movement. Getting to and from.
Right. And we will take your routine into account how you use the space as well. So like when you're teaching kids in that room, like where is Maisie? Where do we want Cleo to feel safe? So that we can, yeah. Come up with a general if dog here, cat here, if human here, cat here, dog there, right?
If small human plus big human all of those like situations that tend to happen in your house. , so Macie is usually in her crate when I'm teaching because she's like still really hit or miss with people and like she's just too excited for the, it's the entrance anyway, so we haven't even dealt with that yet.
Yeah. So she's just in the crate and, I'm usually teaching for several hours. And Cleo, like I said, has always been very social and she used to love to come hang out while I was teaching. She was happy to get pets from students and stuff... And I like for her to have the space to leave and not be getting attention from a kid or something, especially if there's like aggressive petting going on .
I was hoping she would learn like, okay, every afternoon Maisie's going in the crate for several hours. And I hoped that she would like take advantage of that. And again, I'll like bring her downstairs and she has this other spot that's not on the piano. Um, it's a little hammock in the window.
Cause like I said, she likes to follow the suns. The morning sun is upstairs afternoon, sun is downstairs. . Yeah. Yeah. And so she'll go and hang out in that little hammock and she'll stay there. Um, pretty much as long. You know, as long as she wants. And, I have a few ideas now just from this and I would definitely be curious to see like what you see, you know, when you've like looked at your space for so long, it's like you can't figure out what to do. But I do have one idea in mind for like right at the bottom of the stairs around the corner, a tower that she could hop up.
I am not an interior designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy. being like, this is where a bed should be
This is where some shelves should be. Yeah. So hopefully we'll figure something out and those hours are probably going to be the time that we start doing some confidence building stuff with Cleo. Yeah. And we know Maisie, she ain't around. So secure? Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Only once Cleo's like, okay, I get this.
This is the way to come downstairs, feel safe, feel secure. Then we can start to say, oh, okay, well now Maisie is going to come out, but she's gonna be on leash or something. Right. We can split the difference between Maisie's free... big chase. And I can only come and I can't move at all. Okay. How are you feeling?
I'm excited just to have like some ideas to go on cuz I just have been feeling like I don't want it to be like this forever. Like I know Cleo isn't living her best life right now and Maisie she's made a lot of improvements in the last little bit, so I'm hoping that we'll just kind of like continue on that.
She's my first dog and I've always had cats, so like I'm much more attuned to cat behavior and how to motivate a cat Yeah. Compared to a dog. And it's like those afternoon hours probably will be the best time too because, That's usually when cleo's like a little more, she typically would be a little more active.
She likes to sleep in the morning and then she'll run around, come in the afternoon. And I usually put Maisie in her crate, at least half an hour before people start coming in because I want her to get in and settle. so that could be like a good time to work with Cleo a little bit. Perfect.
Sounds like we've got a lot of good routine options as well. So, Ooh, I'm excited to, to delve into this and I hope everyone who is listening is also like, I'm on baited breath I'm gonna click into those show notes and see how these things look. I know this is gonna be very helpful for a lot of people, Very much appreciate. 📍 Yeah. Well, thank you. I really appreciate all the advice. No problemo.
If you were listening to this mini coaching session and thought something like Naomi has some great ideas and she seems fun and it would be really cool to work with her. Well, you sound like my kind of human and I would love to do a private coaching program with you. So head over to praiseworthy pets.com/book, to find a time to talk with me about what program would work best for you.
And your current situation with your pets. Head over to the show notes for this episode to see how amazi and Cleo are doing after our coaching call. And grab a copy of my free gait guide, which is an in-depth resource about way more than just baby gates. I talk all things, physical barriers that work specifically for houses, with both cats and dogs and the link to those updates. And that guide is included in the episode description.
And please my wonderful listeners help spread the word about the podcast by leaving a five star review on apple podcasts or wherever you're listening right now. Or tap the share button. In your podcast app to send this episode or any others over to the other cat and dog people in your life. And that's all for this episode you wonderful cat and dog people meet me back here in two weeks for more it's training cats and dogs
