How to Help Your Pets Move Forward After an Incident
What do you do when your cat and dog have had a fight? How do you help everyone feel safe again?
During a private office hours session, I spoke with two members of The Cat and Dog Coexistence Club, Em and Lindsey, about the aftermath of a recent incident between their cat, Fenton, and their dog, Bambi.
Em and Lindsey went out for a few minutes and returned home to their pets no longer separated (and a very stressed Bambi).
If you'd like to listen to the episode, click play below:
Here’s an excerpt of our conversation (edited for clarity) and some steps to follow if your pets ever have a negative interaction:
The Incident
So, what happened when you guys came home?
We left the apartment to grab coffee and kept Bambi in the bedroom with the door closed and with a baby gate on the same door. So, theoretically, we had two layers of management, but the door somehow opened, and the cat jumped the gate.
Once we got home, Fenton suddenly jumped out of the bedroom. We immediately went to see how Bambi was doing and found her curled up underneath a nightstand. She’d put herself in a place where she couldn’t get ambushed from behind. She’d had an accident and was shaking and whimpering a little.
So we picked her up, cleaned her off, and she was still shaking and crying for a while. After a few minutes, she calmed down and was happy to see that we were home.
We noticed some scratches on her belly a few hours later, but Fenton had no defensive wounds.
How is Bambi now?
One thing we’ve noticed is during our routine where Fenton’s playing find-it, we would feed her treats in her bed behind the closed door. It had gotten to the point where we didn’t even need to give her treats. She’d just go to sleep while he was playing in the background.
But after what happened, she’ll sit up and look when she hears him moving around. She’s just not as settled and just watches the door like she’s expecting a cat to fly over the gate.
What to Do After a Cat vs. Dog Fight
If you’re ever in a similar situation as Em and Lindsey, what can you do? Let’s break it down into three main steps.
Step 1: Decompress
After something like this, the very first thing to do is get your pets to separate, secure spaces, and help everyone decompress.
Provide each animal with calming enrichment activities like chews, food puzzles, catnip, or access to a comfy bed or heating pad.
Make sure each animal has at least one place to hide out when they are stressed.
Work on some easy, fun training exercises to re-build their confidence. Reinforce each animal when they choose to stay away from the boundary between them.
Make sure to take some time for yourself, so you can process what happened and de-stress.
Step 2: Fortify Management
In Bambi and Fenton’s case, we don’t know exactly what happened during the fight or what triggered it.
What we do know for sure is that unfortunately, both their layers of management failed simultaneously. The door opened, and the gate wasn’t tall enough to prevent Fenton from jumping over it.
Pets are really clued-in to whether the other animal is securely away or not. So, your pet has to trust that boundary will hold. The first thing we want to do is help a dog like Bambi feel more comfortable, and to do this, we need to set up or reinforce those boundaries. If she doesn’t trust that boundary, she’s going to remain anxious.
If your management fails, come up with a plan to re-fortify the boundary or change up your setup completely. I suggested that Em and Lindsey make their gate “jump-proof” and secure the door using baby-proofing supplies.
Step 3: Training and Enrichment
After the fight, Fenton was still approaching Bambi’s door, which was making Em and Lindsey anxious, since he is not allowed in there.
If you have a similar no-go area in your home, there are some activities you can do.
Practice whiplash turns, where you reinforce your pet for moving away from something quickly. Whenever they move towards the “forbidden” area, call them and reinforce them away from the boundary. This builds their muscle memory of moving away from a particular area.
Making a space completely forbidden usually makes your pet want to go there more! If it’s safe, find opportunities for your “shut out” pet to explore the area on their own.
Once they found the scratches on Bambi’s belly, Em and Lindsey made sure to trim Fenton’s claws.
Keep up with your pets’ regular nail maintenance, using high-value food rewards to make it a positive enrichment and bonding activity. Also, encourage your cat to do their own claw maintenance. Provide multiple different types of scratching posts (and reward the cat when they use them).
Be Patient
Things might not return to normal right after an incident like this. You might be angry at your pets or have feelings of guilt. Don’t put pressure on yourself or your pets to get right back to where you were.
It’ll take some time to get both pets settled and for you to work through your own emotions. Try some new enrichment activities with each of your pets to rebuild your bond and help your cats and dogs feel safe. Reinforcing your management setup will help make you feel more confident that everyone’s safe and secure, and ready to hop back into the integration process.
Have your cat and dog ever fought? What did you do to help them (and yourself) recover? Tell me in the comments!