wagsalot Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 (edited) Shoot me for being smug--I'm usually so well behaved on DOL--but aren't we meant to have our dogs under control? A vet's waiting room has the potential for all kinds of novel situtations, distractions, noises etc. What do you all do when you meet a cat when you're walking your dogs? A love the resident cats at the vets. The problem for me at least, is not that my dog wasn't under control when the cat was pacing backwards and forwards in front of him, but that it was stressing him out as he couldn't play. Unlike the cat, Riley was not allowed to run around the waiting room. I just think it causes a totally unneccessary stressful situation for the dogs. In the 9 years I've walked Riley I've never once had a cat approach us. There may be one sat in a driveway, but never has one approached. I'd hate to think what would happen when someone not so sensible goes in with their cat agressive dog, on lead but not under control, or off lead even. Edited January 19, 2010 by wagsalot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruthless Posted January 19, 2010 Author Share Posted January 19, 2010 He's 19kgs! I can barely lift him on his own let alone inside a crate up a set of stairs! Is Chopper really only 19kg??? He looks so much bigger than that in his photos. Justice is 23kg and I always imagined him to be a lot smaller than Chopper . Shows pictures can be deceiving huh?? Maybe 20-21kgs on a bad day Here's a pic of him with a human to give an idea of his size. I always thought Justice was Angel's size [16kgs]! They currently have 2 cats, at least 7 dogs (a very spoilt and slightly aggressive young Pug, a Bull Terrier x, whippets, swf's and working dogs) and a kangaroo in reception. Occasionally there will be a lamb too. Yup, you win Shoot me for being smug--I'm usually so well behaved on DOL--but aren't we meant to have our dogs under control? A vet's waiting room has the potential for all kinds of novel situtations, distractions, noises etc. What do you all do when you meet a cat when you're walking your dogs? A love the resident cats at the vets. I don't really get what you're trying to say Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 (edited) Yup I hate it too. I think it's one of the most irresponsible ideas every. And the cat ALWAYS wanders up to the dog that will do it the most damage. Try holding a huge German Shepherd, trying to pay the bill by eftpos with the other hand and then resident puss decides to play russian roulette by dangling off the counter in front of the dogs face. I had control but it the dog was internally going bonkers 'Oh the cat's OK with dogs' 'yeeeeaahhh but my dog will turn it into confetti if it gets within 2 inches of his face' and then you get that stupid stare back from them and 'oh, that's not good' if you want a resident cat build a bloody run for it or keep it in a big crate, sheesh I don't really get what you're trying to say that a resident cat roaming the surgery shouldnt be an issue for your dog if you have it under control Edited January 19, 2010 by Nekhbet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monah Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 I've only been to one vet with a resident cat, a brown burmese She is gorgeous. they have an extremely large waiting room and the counter is way over the other side several metres away. She is generally out the back, but also sits on the counter sometimes. The vet LOVES her to bits, she goes home at night. He is a specialist so only has appointments he knows about etc. I like it and have never seen any trouble there and asked the manager about it and they've never had an issue. My vets have kitten adoptions, so there is always a large cage of kitties behind the counter. Dogs cannot get to them although as we are friends mine pop behind the counter to say hello. I loathe anyone who brings in a cat not in a crate, really stupid! Not just because of other animals but traffic etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisovar Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 The cats do seem to know when it isn't safe and make themselves scarse very quickly. I myself have a 40 kg cat lover (read Yum Yum) and I have him at heel and focused on me at all times, and we have no issues. The fools with out of control dogs often off lead and loose cats that just wander in to the waiting room for their appointment concern me more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebs Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 Shoot me for being smug--I'm usually so well behaved on DOL--but aren't we meant to have our dogs under control? A vet's waiting room has the potential for all kinds of novel situtations, distractions, noises etc. What do you all do when you meet a cat when you're walking your dogs? A love the resident cats at the vets. Totally different. When I take my dogs to the vet, there is usually a reason, Last time I took Atlas he had ripped 3 nails off, he was in pain, normally he would put up with a cat, but had one came near him then, he would have had a go at it. When out walking, my dogs are healthy and not stressed, at the vets they can be very sick or sore and not in the mood to put up with a cat smooching all over them. A few years ago I was at the vet, Atlas wasnt well (cant remember what) and this lady came in, her 4 year old holding the lead of a Lab puppy, Puppy dragged her over to me and Atlas, I had my hands full and couldnt pick him up, It could have been very very bad had the vet nurse not come and grabbed the dog off this girl (mum thought it was cute... not so much when I told her my dog isnt good with other dogs and was very sick and grumpy..) At a vet EVERY animal should be under control, not just our own, but the vets animals that live there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greytmate Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 (edited) The problem for me at least, is not that my dog wasn't under control when the cat was pacing backwards and forwards in front of him, but that it was stressing him out as he couldn't play. Unlike the cat, Riley was not allowed to run around the waiting room. I just think it causes a totally unneccessary stressful situation for the dogs If the motivation for the dog to approach the cat is 'to play' (I will assume you understand your own dog's communication signals), then this is a simple problem solved with basic obedience training. It is unreasonable to allow a dog 'to play' with anything or anyone it wants. Any stress would be reduced if the dog was able to understand and obey your commands to leave the cat and lie down. Do you give your dog food off your plate because he demands to eat it and not being able to may cause him stress? Or do you teach him that you are the leader and in control of all resources? Use the next opportunity with the cat to exercise control over your dog and ignore (or correct) any undesirable behaviour in your dog. Reward the dog for appropriate behaviour. If you feel that training would best start with some distance between your dog and the cat, create the distance yourself. If vet staff see you being pursued by their cat around the room I am sure they would be happy to remove the cat at your request. Edited January 20, 2010 by Greytmate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagsalot Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 (edited) If you read my post, he wanted to play, but he couldn't, because he wasn't allowed. Riley was sat at my feet watching the cat. Therefore I was never being unreasonable in letting my dog play with anything it wants. There won't be a next opportunity as we changed vets a long time ago. (not for the cat reason, other reasons - but it was a relief that my current vet doesn't have a cat!). Edited January 20, 2010 by wagsalot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FHRP Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 (edited) My local vet has a resident cat that if it's in reception is sitting in his basket on top of the counter 99% of the time (I think I can recall one occasion when he may have been down). Although I can control my dogs fine around the cat, I personally do not like it. The vet is a place to take dogs for injuries, illness, vaccinations. It is not a training club where obedience is trained around tempting distractions, that's not why you visit the vet! There are plenty of dogs who are not exposed to cats at other times, and do not like them! If a dog has issues with cats, having a cat under it's nose at a vet clinic when the dog may not be feeling 100% is not the way to encourage good relations, but most likely the opposite!! Personally if I had a cat reactive dog like you describe ruthless I would be leaving the dog in the car or outside with someone and asking for the cat to be removed or contained before bringing the dog into reception, or asking to go into the clinic another way avoiding the cat. It's just not fair to have your dog get worked up while waiting to see a vet because of other unrestrained aminals IMO. All dogs must be on leads and all cats in a cage when going to our vet... except the resident cat!! As I said, my dogs don't have a problem with the cat, but the cockatiels in the cage grabs my gundogs attention pretty quick. I usually get a nice point which I have to drag them off on the way past Seeing as there's an avian specialist at my vet I can understand them having brids around, but is it fair on either the birds that are constantly lunged at or the dogs/cats that have to cope with them so close?? Edited January 20, 2010 by FHRP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Age Outlaw Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 (edited) My dogs have never had a problem with the cat at my vets; I think the cat in question may have a problem though...they had to put those little rubber claw cover thingies on it, I believe because it had a go at scratching a dog. I would certainly be super unimpressed if a vet surgery cat damaged one of my dogs. Overall, I don't have any particular problem with it, but by the same token I don't think having a cat roaming any vet's waiting room at will is the cleverest idea in the world...too many potential problems (as already detailed in this thread). ETA And I think that any vet that has a loose cat should have a sign on the front door warning of the fact, especially for people who are new to the practice and aren't aware of it. Edited January 20, 2010 by New Age Outlaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poochmad Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Henschke is always on the lookout for cats when we go walking in the early morning and acts like a complete maniac. One day we had to go to the vet and were shocked when a cat was on the reception desk and he didn't even blink! Not sure whether it was becauase it wasn't moving like they do in the morning (i.e. running) or whether he's learnt to behave like that in the morning and really, doesn't give two hoots about them!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirawee Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 One thing has come up on this thread that I have to query... Are dogs allowed off lead into vet surgeries in other states? In WA it is a big no-no and I have not seen an offlead dog in a vet clinic in many many years, and I have gone to quite a few different clinics depending on the issue. All have large signs saying dogs must be on lead or in crates and cats must be in crates. I have to admit it has been a long time since I have seen a patient cat brought in not in a crate as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Dragon Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Our vet used to have a cat that would sit in the reception area, trying to scoop fish out of the fishtank to eat!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebs Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 One thing has come up on this thread that I have to query...Are dogs allowed off lead into vet surgeries in other states? In WA it is a big no-no and I have not seen an offlead dog in a vet clinic in many many years, and I have gone to quite a few different clinics depending on the issue. All have large signs saying dogs must be on lead or in crates and cats must be in crates. I have to admit it has been a long time since I have seen a patient cat brought in not in a crate as well I had kaos at the vet once, a Lady walked in with a lead in her hand, i saw the lead and picked Kaos up and moved from where I was, she made a comment on picking up her cat for me... I looked at her, and sure enough, her cat was walking into the vets on a lead! Kaos was only in for a vaccination as was the cat, so the two of them had a sniff and a play ;) I have seen many cats come in with no cages, cant believe some people are so dumb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MolassesLass Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 (edited) Are dogs allowed off lead into vet surgeries in other states? All the vet surgeries I've been to in Qld expect dogs on lead and cats in cages. I've seen maybe 1 or 2 baby puppies being held instead of on-lead and I've seen some "leads" that have been pretty dodgy but otherwise dogs are always on-lead. Edited January 20, 2010 by molasseslass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruthless Posted January 20, 2010 Author Share Posted January 20, 2010 They're supposed to be, but I've often seen dogs off lead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casowner Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Taking an animal to a clinic is normally pretty stressful and I fully understand why people would be upset seeing Clinic cats, you would think that the Vets would see this, but it is quite common. As Jake is so big, dominant and not happy around many strangers I pay the extra for a call out fee for the vet to come to my house - if possible, if not we organise to go through the back door to avoid the waiting room I have my 2 Kookaburras, galah, rainbow lorikeet and galah cross corella in the store but we have signs up telling people that pets are welcome but please keep them under control as there are birds loose. We generally put them away as soon as we see dogs come into the store and the only issue we ever had was with a guy that let his BMD in the shop with no lead or collar and he made a beeline for them. Luckily a staff member caught him but the owner thought it was amusing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss B Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Are dogs allowed off lead into vet surgeries in other states? Our clinic has signs up requesting that all dogs are on lead and cats are in cages. We do get the odd client here and there who come in with an off-lead dog, we have some spare slip leads at reception for this reason. We had an older dog brought in off-lead one day, the owner let it roam around the waiting room despite the fact that the dog was incontinent and was clearly dribbling wee everywhere!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CavsRcute Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 My girl doesn't have a problem with the resident cat but she HATES the bunnies that they have up on the desk for rehoming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zayda_asher Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 One thing has come up on this thread that I have to query...Are dogs allowed off lead into vet surgeries in other states? In WA it is a big no-no and I have not seen an offlead dog in a vet clinic in many many years, and I have gone to quite a few different clinics depending on the issue. All have large signs saying dogs must be on lead or in crates and cats must be in crates. I have to admit it has been a long time since I have seen a patient cat brought in not in a crate as well I see dogs off lead at the vets and cats out of crates in WA... drives me nuts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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