Dr. Spiegel visit

[mikekn]

So Dr. Spiegel, the animal behavior vet, visited yesterday. He asked lots and lots of questions. Met the girls but didn't interact with them too much - enough to met and greet but not much more. We went in with Tyree for a while, more questions and some interaction with Tyree. After which he wrote up the plan of action for the next week or so. All told, he was at the house for a little over an hour.

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Mughi, Gunther, Grimalkin & Tyree 7/5/05:
1. Keep Tyree confined to his room for now. Door closed.
2. Limit your interactions with him to time that the girls are around on the opposite side of the door.
3. 2-3 times daily - routine bonding time on opposite sides of door. Wet meals. You can also randomly include in these times brushing, play,... ok to test catnip especially with Tyree. We want to see that everyone is relaxed at these times.
4. Keep log of any/all hissing/growling/swatting/dilated pupils/pouncing.
5. If all is well with door closed for 2-3 days, then fix door open 1-2".
6. Any questions/problems - call or email.
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Overall there weren't any big surprises or big changes suggested. He said that we had everything set up correctly, but (and this is my interpretation) we moved too fast introducing them, and now we have some unacceptable behavior. We also didn't give them any reason to get along. So, basically what we are doing is going back to the start with a stricter plan. I guess the only thing I was a little surprise at was that he never asked to see how the cats interacted with each other (by maybe opening the door with the gate up or something). I did explain everything we've seen and describe it the best I could, but I guess I expected him to want to see it for himself.

While we were in with Tyree he brought out a laser pointer to try and get him to chase it. Tyree would keep an eye on it, watching where it went, but wouldn't move from his perch. I did get him to play with the cat fishing pole some. He wants to see some play time for Tyree and the girls (same time, but opposite sides of the door) both to get them associating positive stuff with each other, and to burn off energy which could otherwise be used for aggression. He left us the laser pointer, and the younger girls love it. His suggestions there - only bring it out at a set time (so that the cats don't start looking for it all the time), and stop playing while they are still interested (so they don't get board of it).

Some general comments from him: He's not a fan of Feliway/Comfort Zone - doesn't believe it helps much, if at all. Not a fan of clicker training - especially for this sort of problem (which I can see, but I still think it has its uses as a training tool). By spending time with Tyree alone and by letting him roam the house on his own, we were giving him no reason to get along with the others - he could get attention and play without needing to be friends with them. He mentioned drugs that could be given to Tyree to calm him down if we wanted to go that route, but he wasn't pushing them or suggesting them as the first step (which I liked).

We had our first "bonding time" this morning. We put out three plates of canned food outside the room, and one plate in with Tyree. Unfortunately, Tyree had no interest in the food - in spite of an empty bowl. He heard the others outside, and sniffed and dug a little at the carpet, but no other reaction. Mughi ate hers right away and didn't seem to care about being that close to the door. Gunther had to be brought to the food, but did settle in and eat. Grimalkin had no interest in the canned food. I left the remains out in case one or more of them decided to change their mind, but in the future we won't do that.

Still need to see how Tyree reacts to catnip. We already know that Gunther acts like a junkie looking for a fix (and willing to do anything to get it). Hopefully Tyree has a more mellow reaction (not sure it will help if he's mellowing out on one side of the door while Gunther is trying to dig through it - could be quite a buzz kill...)

I'll probably send him an email today to see if he thinks using the dry food by the door would work, at least for the morning feeding. May even tell him about the LJ, in case he's curious about the previous posts.

Comments

[baavgai.livejournal.com]

A cat that doesn't perk up at the red-dot-must-die toy? I've never seen that before. Even our old lady likes to take a swat at the dot. How old is your problem kitty, do you know?

For pointer play, I like to pretend that they think it's some kind of hyper phosphorescent bug. I try to never turn it on or off in line of sight, but rather have it appear from behind the cat in question and disappear "under" things. Cats will often wait a bit, seemingly thinking "sucker has to come out some time."

Darn, now I want to play with the kids. :p

[mikekn]

Oh he perked up a bit, but didn't feel it was worth moving for, and he's only six years old. Mughi would probably chase it too (and she's 16+), but rarely would she get a chance without the other girls trying to join in (something with which she will not put up).

Only the big lure cat fishing pole has ever really gotten him to play - but when he does it's pretty impressive. Huge leaps in the air, with claws everywhere :)

[kandy-elizabet.livejournal.com]

Even "dot" only gets Tasha's mild interest any more, even with the younger two not around. They, of course go crazy.

However, Joe's sister's cat? Didn't even see it. Dang animal couldn't understand what all the people were talking about.

Even knowing where it was coming from, the younger cats go crazy. In fact, if they see the "dot maker" they'll bat at it! Course our girls are totally spoiled ... witness the dragging of "stick" (a stick with leather bits hanging from a string) up the stairs the last couple of nights because they hadn't had any stick time. What fun to get up in the middle of the night and find the leather tassel at the top of the stairs....

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Our departed smarter cat figured out fairly quickly that the red dot was coming from the thing in my hand. After that, she wasn't much interested.

The twins (human) loved chasing the red dot when they were a year old. Hmm, I should bring it out again and see what they do.

[mare-in-flames.livejournal.com]

I hope it works. It's based on positive reinforcement so that is a very good thing. As for the rest of it, I haven't tried this specific task so I really have no idea. It certainly sounds well-reasoned and straightforward.

Clicker training is kinda one of those love or hate things - nobody's really neutral on it for some reason. :) I think the stuff he's suggested will work better for this problem. (But I can still get a dog to sit and lie down in ten minutes with a clicker and a box of cheezits.) :)

[kathy-the-geek.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, I wanted to tell you we're getting a better response on "come here". I realized that what we REALLY want is to be able to pick her up, so we signal completion of the task when we gets right up to us and we put our arm firmly under her chest. Sometimes I pick her up and reward her, sometimes I just give her the reward on the floor, but the key is that we're in a position to pick her up if we need to.

[kathy-the-geek.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the post! I was wondering how it had gone.

I think clicker training is for a _specific_ activity, not a generalized one like "play well with others", so I can see how it wouldn't work well in this case. I also think it might be better for pack animals than solitary animals. Pack animals are more likely to want to play and learn from the get-go.

On the other hand, it works REALLY well for Nellie. Now when she sees the clicker, she gets uber excited.