Cats Rule

Cats Rule
Yes, it’s true, at least in my house. Thunder is completely adapted to our new dog, Maggie. He likes to stalk and pounce her, and he is now regularly chasing her with all claws out. He feels comfortable going anywhere in the house and will take naps downstairs, too. If Maggie misbehaves for me—like getting hyper and fidgety when I put her leash on, Thunder will walk up, do a Thunder roar and swat her. Now, when she starts to act up, I just tell her, “Thunder is going to get you.”

Maggie has learned to leave us alone when we play games. She will stay in the other room, and I will periodically give her pieces of cat food. She will even let me chase Thunder around the house or throw cat food for him to chase. I am very amazed.
I have been clicker training Maggie, and Thunder (a clicker savvy cat,) started out by watching us. I wanted Maggie to chase a Frisbee. I started with clicking her when she touched it. After a while, I started asking Thunder to touch it, and I clicked him. I gave Maggie a treat for staying in position with the same click.

Maggie moved up to following it when slid it on the floor. A few times in the beginning, when she got confused, Thunder walked up to it and sniffed it. He got clicked and treated, of course.
We tried the same lesson the next day. Maggie and Thunder started to understand about taking turns. After a bit, Thunder got tired of the game since I was only using dry cat food for treats. I concentrated on Maggie. One time, I slid the Frisbee on the floor towards Thunder, and since the floor is wooden, the Frisbee started spinning. Thunder thought that was so neat. He walked up to it and took his paw and spun it over and over. It was the cutest thing! I clicked Maggie for just sitting still and letting him play. It lasted for 10 minutes until Maggie heard something and started barking.
I’m so happy everything has worked out. No one can imagine how upset I was, in the beginning when they were having problems. Now, not only do they get along, we can even play training games together.