Hi everyone! I'm Chey. I have, at present, three dogs - a Boxer-Dane (8ish), and two German Shepherd puppies (1 year, 4 months), a cat, six rats (long story, wasn't part of the plan), and a fish. The cat is the newest addition to the family, and we're having a little trouble. The puppies grew up for the first ~four months of their life with a cat (my former housemate's cat Soup), so I was expecting this to go a little smoother than it is.
I got Harley, the cat, on March 8 of this year. Her owner could no longer keep her and asked if I could take her. Me, being me, immediately agreed. Harley is great - she's got a bit of separation anxiety and doesn't like being alone, but took to the dogs fairly well. Their initial introductions went really well - she would just chill on the desk in 'her' room (the back bedroom), while I sat on the floor with the dogs (one at a time). It didn't take long at all for her to be willing to come down and sniff them, and we're currently at the stage of her being allowed to wander the house supervised with the dogs loose - except for Seashell.
Seashell is one of the two German Shepherds, and, arguably, the more anxious one. Her sister, Salem, is fine - she occasionally follows Harley around, gives her a few kisses, and that's the end of that. Seashell, on the other hand, is always on leash next to me because she gets way too excited. I don't think she wants to hurt Harley - she's had chances where Harley got close and they were nose to nose - but she's still very anxious. She doesn't like when she can't see Harley, or when she makes any sudden moves, like jumping onto a shelf.
What can I do to make this easier on Seashell? I'm honestly beginning to wonder if it's an anxiety issue. She did the same thing for a little while with the rats but ignores them now. I just hate having her on leash all the time. Praising her and giving her treats when Harley is around hasn't seemed to help much. There's a lot of barking, crying, and whining involved, and Seashell only really calms down when Harley lays down and takes a nap out of her reach.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/gjiw1z/introducing_new_pets/
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