Protect your pet with insurance. Cover accidents, illnesses, and more. Compare Plans with Petplace

Why teach your dog to relax around your cat

  • Improves Overall Well-Being

    Teaching your dog to relax helps reduce stress and anxiety, promoting a calm state of mind

  • Promotes Positive Cohabitation

    Teaching your dog to relax around cats leads to a calmer household environment

  • Reduces Unwanted Chasing

    Teaching your dogs to relax can help them stop chasing or following cats when they move around the house, leading to overall reduced stress

Getting started

Engaging in structured relaxation exercises can help strengthen your dog's relaxation skills and make it easier for them to recover from heightened states of excitement or anxiety, particularly around the family cat, which can relate to prey behavior.

Setting up

You will need a mat for your dog and potentially a baby gate or exercise pen to create space between your dog and cat. Your cat should be able to move around freely while your dog is restricted from moving towards them. This restriction can be achieved by using a leash or by placing your dog behind a baby gate or exercise pen.

If your dog is overly excited by your cat and unable to calm down, you will need to use the baby gate or exercise pen to create distance between your dog and cat. Consider keeping your dog on a leash to maintain the space and set up the mat as far as needed for your dog to be under threshold.

Follow these steps when teaching your dog to relax

• Set-up your dog’s mat and ask for a "Down"

• The moment your dog lies down on the mat, say 'Yes' and reward them with a treat

• Continue providing your dog treats for up to one minute

• With time and practice, your dog will start offering more relaxed behaviors, such as putting their head down on the mat

• In addition to teaching your dog to relax in the presence of your cat, this exercise helps build good associations towards your cat because your dog is receiving delicious treats when in the company of your cat

Pro tips

• As your dog becomes more relaxed on the mat, you can gradually increase the time between treats

• When your dog appears very relaxed in the presence of your cat and exhibits loose and relaxed body language, with their tail in a neutral position or gently wagging, and their ears are natural and relaxed, you can introduce work-to-eat toys like Fun feeder, KONG classic toy or Toppl as a replacement for individual treats

• If possible, either by you, a friend, or a family member, toss treats to your cat throughout this process to help them also develop good associations with your dog


Handouts

• School for the Dogs Relaxation Protocol

Lessons

• Down

• Introducing dogs and cats

Products we love

• Lamb lung dog treats. Dogs love these and they're perfect because they're very small.

• Treat pouch. A pouch is a great place to hold your treats during a training session

• Classic Kong Toy

• Toppl work to eat toy

• Pet gate