My dog is going to kill the cats

[harmony]

And only one uses what works on their dog for their attention (focus), no more then that okay

[BowWowMeow]

Until you can train him to leave the cats alone you absolutely need to keep him tethered to you at all times and keep him crated at least a couple of hours every single day while you are home so that the poor cats can spend time with your family without fearing for their lives.

[angryrainbow]

Wow. You feel bad for smacking your dog when it got your cat? I have 4 dogs and 4 cats, if any of them looked at the cats the wrong way they would be GONE. Nope. Nuh-uh. Not allowing it.

We might be lucky cause we have streetwise cats-- dont run when the dogs approach them and stand their ground.

Get a muzzle on your dog before anything else can happen. Muzzle isn't permanent, only until you can get him trained. Have him on a leash at all times, and have something to redirect him to (bullystick, toy, bone).

Right now he is in a habit of looking for the cats and checking these spots, you need to break this habit. He goes to look for the cats? Grab that leash and make him do puppy push ups (sit down sit down sit down). He isn't listening? I don't know. I'm not into punishment but this isn't something you can mess around with because you're dealing with another animals life. A quick correction with a prong might be enough to grab his focus for a second, and then you'll have to work from there.

Please get a handle on this quickly.

[Shep's_Shepherd]

Originally Posted by Lauri & The Gang

I would look into getting an electronic collar and training on how to use it.

This type of situation is a very good use for those collars.

Agreed. I looked into doing this to, but at the moment my dog is slowly learning to let the cats be, and he doesn't quite have the intensity and bad intentions as the OP's dog.

I suggest finding a new trainer, one that specializes and experienced in e-collar training. Prong and e-collars are nothing more than tools. When used properly, with the right training, they can be very effective. In the same way a hammer isn't the right tool for every job, it seems narrow minded to say that because hammers have been used incorrectly and can cause damage that you'll never use a hammer. IMO, e-collars aren't the right tool for every situation, but if left with the alternative of giving up my dog or having it kill one of the cats, it's definitely a tool I'd consider utilizing before choosing the alternatives. JMO

[RebelGSD]

I had a few fosters that developed a taste for kitties after some time. Luckily we have a trainer who fixes it with the e-collar in no time. All families were very happy with the outcome.

[wolfstraum]

I hope you can break this.....sometimes this behavior is fixable...but sometimes it is not....I have had one dog whose obsession with cats could not be broken...I did not want to constantly physically punish him, and I could not allow the behavior to continue, so he went to a home with no cats....

I have other dogs who are fine with cats...I got a Bengal kitten in December and she is not mine, she decided that Csabre is her best friend...


Good luck...if you cannot break this obsession, do not let anyone make you feel guilty about it....sometimes it just is what it is!

[VanBuren shepherds]

I use an e-collar that gives an audible sound when my dogs go after the neighbors cats.
It distracts them just enough to where their focus is back on me.
If that doesn't work (which it works 99% of the time) the e-collar also has two settings for different intensities.
Making sure the settings are correct are very important. It needs to be set high enough to distract the dog from the heat of the moment, but not high enough to get a jerk reaction out of the dog.
I agree with Michael Ellis. Test the collar on your self before you try it on the dog. Hold it in your hand and press the buttons. After this you should have more respect for the e-collar and not reaching to push the button every-time the dog barks.
When used properly e-collars are one of the best tools available for dog trainers.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App

[counter]

We have 4 cats and 3 dogs. Our husky has high prey drive and has nearly killed 2 of our cats. If he could get to them, he would kill all 4. We have a 2-story house, so the dogs live downstairs with access to the outside, and the cats live upstairs exclusively. So both the dogs and cats have an entire floor to themselves. It's plenty of room. The cat's food and litter boxes are upstairs with them, so they have no reason to EVER come downstairs. They also know that Paw Paw is waiting to eat them, so they're smart enough to stay upstairs. All we have up to separate them are baby gates that the dogs don't knock down or jump over, even though they could if they wanted to. Only by accident has Paw Paw gotten to the cats, and that was because our children accidentally let him upstairs and my wife or I were on him in a heartbeat. We also have a door we can close at the bottom of the stairway landing. Not sure if you have the same option, but no cat or dog can get through a closed, secured door. Haha!

I honestly don't think you can train prey drive out of a dog, but I'm no expert. It seems like a natural instinct that's there for a reason. Not sure if your dog has prey drive like my Paw Paw. He'll catch birds out of the sky. He's fast and intense! I've never seen a dog like him. But we keep him under control, because we love our cats (almost) as much as we love our dogs. Haha!

Good luck. And I'm there with you about idiotic cats. When we had the big wire dog crate still out for overnight sleeping/training for our pup Beowulf, our rescued feral cat somehow was running from the dogs and ran into the crate's open door and got herself trapped inside with all 3 dogs attacking her. They must've gotten 30+ bites on her before I could wrestle them all out and save her. Luckily for her this time, there was not a scratch and she was fine. Whew! I'm definitely a dog lover, and these cats have a soft spot in my heart, but I'd be OK with just dogs and no cats. My wife would disagree, thus a compromise is in place.

[Jag]

Can the cats just live in your mom's room? Can you move out?

[Carriesue]

I'm really sorry, I hope that this can be worked out... It would so not be fair for you to lose two dogs in less then a year.

I don't have any useful advice, Ollie is similar with my cats and small dogs except his seems to be an intense herding drive, no aggression so far.

What I've been doing so far is keeping him on lead... Letting him chase just keeps rewarding the behavior which means he will keep doing it.

Maybe look into a private trainer who could come and observe and give their take? I know how devastating this sort of thing is. My golden has bitten all of my dogs and just recently snapped at one of my cats.

Do you do NILIF with Berlin?