I am looking for help in teaching my sons dog not to chase cats, anyone have some success with this?
Thanks Tonya
Dog Chasing Cat
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Re: Dog Chasing Cat
Hi Tonya
First off - my hat's off to you, and a big Thank You on all your efforts to help animals !!
As for chasing cats - I think we had tremendous success. Not only our 8 lbs Himalayan girl can coexist with and freely walk around our 91 lb Ridgeback boy, with no fear.. It seems that she has the ability to even put him in a "sit" with complete focus on her sometimes, while she is doing her things.
The problem is - I can't really describe what we did to get to this point... She is 2 years old, and he is 1, and until lately she'd been extremely fearful and he wanted to chase her every time he saw her. We didn't force any interaction between them, but we ensured that she always has a way to escape - through strategically positioned tall doggie barriers with cat doors. Slowly but surely her fear of the monster turned into curiosity, she started venturing into his territory more and more, and then probably figured out that despite his size and chasing he is just a harmless kid, who can be manipulated by a stronger will... I don't know how, but she got the upper hand!
Here is a link to a thread on "chasing cats" topic -> viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13806
And here is my pair, just to show that it is indeed possible to have peace and love between a hound and a cat.
With that said - our barriers remain in place (and will remain in place forever), and their interactions are supervised.. With cats and dogs you just can never be 100% sure.
Good luck!
First off - my hat's off to you, and a big Thank You on all your efforts to help animals !!
As for chasing cats - I think we had tremendous success. Not only our 8 lbs Himalayan girl can coexist with and freely walk around our 91 lb Ridgeback boy, with no fear.. It seems that she has the ability to even put him in a "sit" with complete focus on her sometimes, while she is doing her things.
The problem is - I can't really describe what we did to get to this point... She is 2 years old, and he is 1, and until lately she'd been extremely fearful and he wanted to chase her every time he saw her. We didn't force any interaction between them, but we ensured that she always has a way to escape - through strategically positioned tall doggie barriers with cat doors. Slowly but surely her fear of the monster turned into curiosity, she started venturing into his territory more and more, and then probably figured out that despite his size and chasing he is just a harmless kid, who can be manipulated by a stronger will... I don't know how, but she got the upper hand!
Here is a link to a thread on "chasing cats" topic -> viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13806
And here is my pair, just to show that it is indeed possible to have peace and love between a hound and a cat.
With that said - our barriers remain in place (and will remain in place forever), and their interactions are supervised.. With cats and dogs you just can never be 100% sure.
Good luck!
Re: Dog Chasing Cat
I've had less success with my two, but that's because my cat has decided he's not at all interested in Jasper and just wants to keep out of his way. Jasper being a lurcher doesn't help, either, but I think they'd be OK by now if he'd had more 'controlled training opportunities'.
My advice would be:
1. Never, ever, ever, let the dog chase the cat. In practice, easier said than done, even if you start with a dog who hasn't already had opportunities! So just limit it as much as feasibly possible.
2. Make sure the cat has somewhere to escape to - other side of a stairgate, or a high place.
3. Reward and praise the dog whenever he's calm and well behaved in the cat's presence.
4. Make sure your dog understands 'wait', or similar. If you can throw a ball but tell him to wait and not chase after it till you release him, it should in theory work when the cat walks past....
My advice would be:
1. Never, ever, ever, let the dog chase the cat. In practice, easier said than done, even if you start with a dog who hasn't already had opportunities! So just limit it as much as feasibly possible.
2. Make sure the cat has somewhere to escape to - other side of a stairgate, or a high place.
3. Reward and praise the dog whenever he's calm and well behaved in the cat's presence.
4. Make sure your dog understands 'wait', or similar. If you can throw a ball but tell him to wait and not chase after it till you release him, it should in theory work when the cat walks past....
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Re: Dog Chasing Cat
It would probably help if you could tell us the age and breed of the dog; some breeds, like certain hunting breeds, may never be safe around cats, while some dogs simply grow out of it...
Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
