When the dog is scared of the cat. Current Situation....

Tough for her. I've been using a water bottle to squirt her when she gets too close to the door. Until we can get the pet door that only unlocks if they got the chip/tag she has to steer clear, otherwise she will slip out in a heartbeat. I don't want her outside unsupervised and when we would allow her out with us it only created a monster that became relentless at getting out - so much so that Lila became afraid of her. Most likely my fault for the tone I would use to reprimand (okay, yell) at ZsaZsa for getting out or blocking the door or bopping Lila when she came in from outside.

For the last couple of months we've been keeping ZsaZsa upstairs in her own little room during the day while the dogs have free roam of the house. Why? Because it's too hard to constantly watch ZsaZsa to ensure she doesn't go out the dog door yet leave it open so that the dogs /can/ come and go and they please. Lila never learned to tell us or indicate that she needs to use the bathroom and to this day she will still go in the house sometimes.

Once the dogs have eaten dinner and settled in for the evening I open the door and ZsaZsa can come out. Sometimes she prefers being in her room. She sleeps up there at night even with the whole house to herself. We've got a camera in the room to see how she does and she's very content. I try and go up there every couple of hours to play with her and love on her. The TV is on all day on You Tube playing videos of birds and such for cats. The has her 7 foot cat condo and a bird feeder outside the window.

It's not the most ideal situation and some days I miss her, but the vet/behaviorist is coming in a couple weeks and I pray to the spirits that she will have some good training advice. They lived well together for nearly a year. Wth happened, I don't know.