Cat Chasing - Help!!

[AliO2017]

I have a 4-year-old border collie called Wraith. Most of the time, he is a very calm, well behaved and loving boy who gets on with other dogs and people, but when he sees a cat he turns into an entirely different dog! If he is off lead, he will rush after the cat baying at it, but will come back when called firmly. If the cat stands its ground, he rushes up to it and then doesn't do anything, it's almost like he pretends he was just running over to sniff at something nearby. I think this started from when he was a puppy. We would visit a friend who had two dogs and a cat who was not bothered by dogs but, because he was a very bouncy puppy, she would scoop up the cat and take him to a different room, so I think that Wraith saw the cat as something that he needed to chase. This is very worrying because if he is off lead and chases a cat, and I can't get him to come back, I am really worried he will chase it on to a road and they could both get hit.

The other problem he has is that he shouts at his class mates at agility whilst they are having their turn on the equipment, it makes for a very tiring time at classes! His Uncle was exactly the same, but I really want to calm him down in class, as I never get to watch the other dogs because I am always trying to stop him from getting so stressed. We have tried everything to stop him from taking him away from the class between goes, distracting him with toys and treats and trying to teach him tricks but nothing works. At the moment, I can get him to calm down a bit if his head is covered with a blanket but it is not really satisfactory and when we go to our dog club's open day, I can't go anywhere near the agility ring as he goes bananas

If anyone has any advice, or can suggest anything that I can do, I would be eternally grateful }

Al

[emmabeth]

Cats - hes a border collie, he chases because things move and cats MOVE. He doesn't chase when the cat stops moving.... becuse its stopped moving!

We have bred collies to SERIOUSLY want things to move so they can be chased, we have selected for this for thousands of years, and what we now have is a dog so sensitive to movement that it can go seriously wrong!

Give him a job that involves chasing the right stuff - a selection of those large exercise/gym balls can provide useful things to herd in the garden, and then work in impulse control games relevant to chasing stuff so that in the end YOU have control over whether he chases or not.

Shouting at agility.... is something a huge amount of dogs at agility do.. because its SO very exciting and so VERY stressful.

YOu can't train in the agility environment because it is too stressful, its not that he won#t listen to you.... its actually that he CAN'T compute what you are asking and comply with you.

Take a crate and crate him, use a fabric crate, spray it with Adaptil, and put it in a quiet corner so he has somwhere to chill out between rounds.

Teach impulse control (again). Look at Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt.

Consider not doing agility - are you doing it for his needs or your own - it is possible that the high stress of agility is not good for him and could be contributory to other behaviour issues (because that stress takes around 48 hours to drop and anything else you do in that time that is stressful pushes those stress hormones back up again, with the potential outcome that his stress levels NEVER drop to anormal level!).

[DianeLDL]

I agree with what Emmabeth said about the breed as a border collie.

We have a different problem as to cats. When we adopted Sandy, a chihuahua, we were told that he had been in a home with a cat, and he must the the only animal in the home, now.

When we adopted him, he was a year old, and we don't know how much time he had been in the house with the cat, but the fact they kept the cat and gave him up, I'm sure affected him. When we first began feeding him kibble, he acted like a cat by throwing his kibble in the air and pouncing on it. It was very strange. He only does it occasionally, 6 years later.

But, he hates cats. In Maine, our neighbors across the small road, let their cat run wild in the neighborhood. Sandy is always on leash, but it doesn't stop him from trying to let to the cat. One evening, he saw the cat sitting in the middle of the road, then take his time to saunter lazily towards his house. That nigh, OH took Sandy out to potty and what did he do? He went and had a bug pooh right at the spot where they cat had been sitting the day prior.

I think that with chihuahuas being territorial, he was letting the cat know it's his area (although really a public road).
But, Sandy has reacted even more crazy when he sees a cat on TV than when he sees another dog (although he is still quite reactive to any animal on TV, and he even knows which commercials have animals. One ad has dogs driving cars. )

I agree as to the stress with the agility. I had thought since Sandy is so athletic and always running and jumping, he could do the course, but he gets so distrated and reacts when he sees other dogs around, we knew not even to try it. I think Sandy has doggie ADHD if there is such a thing. Even going out to potty, he can forget what he is out there to do.

So, I agree that you need to ask yourself why you are putting your dog into agility traing. If it's for you, then maybe it might not be right for your dog. If your dog is so stressed, I don't think he would be able to perform well, either.

One suggestion, depending on where you live, might be to find a ranch where Wraith can actually do border collie work. Our here in the Southwestern USA, that has been the suggestion for several with border collies. Otherwise, I like Emmabeth's suggestions. Doing what he was bred to do will give him more satisfaction and may even help relieve his stress.

Diane

[Caesg]

Give him a job that involves chasing the right stuff - a selection of those large exercise/gym balls can provide useful things to herd in the garden, and then work in impulse control games relevant to chasing stuff so that in the end YOU have control over whether he chases or not.

There's an abandoned tennis court (no net) behind a boss and girls club a couple miles away. I will keep an eye out for these at the thrift/charity shops. Or perhaps a beach ball would work just to see if Tuxedo likes it? Hrm. Thanks for the idea!