Cat chasing & kid knocking down

[spiritsmom]

Nyxie is 15 months old and has been raised with the two cats we have since she was a puppy. She has always had that chase instinct for them but it has gotten really bad lately and now the last few days has just been insane. She spent last week at my mom's house while we were on vacation and she has no cats so she had a cat free week. She was getting worse about chasing them before she went to my mom's but now since she came back home this past weekend she has been nuts and not controllable at all. She is still not hurting the cats beyond mouthing them alot. They do growl at her and smack her - with claws and she pays no attention to that. Now she is mowing down the kids if they happen to be in her chase path. She trampled Connor completely today and he has welts on his face from her nails I assume. She is actually knocking the kids over if they are standing and then she runs them over. If they are sitting she still will just trample over top of them - she doesn't think to go around the kids in either instance, she is just so focused on the cats. She knows the command "leave it" but she won't listen when in chase mode. I've sprayed her with water, thrown stuff near her and done anything to try to distract her from the cats. Short of keeping her on a 6 foot leash attached to me I don't know what to do.

I can deal with the cat chasing for the most part since she is not actually hurting the cats, but I am NOT happy with the way she is running over the kids instead of just going around them. And in each time I have seen her run over them there has been plenty of room to go around them, she just chooses to go over or through the kids. So how do you train that out of a dog? Connor is too young (18 mos) to really do anything, but Bianca is very involved in the care of our dogs. She helps with feeding and training and giving out treats. She's 4 yrs old and Nyxie does listen to her - she will sit or down or come or whatever Bianca tells her to do. But once Nyxie is in cat chasing mode it's like the kids are just obstacles to get through any which way and now she is actually hurting them. So now I am going to have to keep the kids on one side of the house and Nyxie on the other using baby gates to keep them apart until I can get this figured out. It was a major annoyance before, but now with Connor getting injured I need to find a way to fix this.

[codmaster]

Sounds like a typical teenage puppy to me!

[amaris]

is this why they suggest that pups under a certain age don't go to families with small children?

[KZoppa]

Originally Posted by amaris

is this why they suggest that pups under a certain age don't go to families with small children?

yes because the majority of people who have young children dont really consider the training and rule enforcement necessary to maintain peace.

OP, it sounds to me like you need to go back to tethering her. She needs to earn the priviledge to go where she wants. Shasta will knock the kids over in excitement but she doesnt plow through them like she used to. I had to spend a couple weeks with her tethered to me at 1.5 yrs so i was able to correct her each and every time she started being obnoxious in the house or around the kids in her bouncy uncontrollable attitude sometimes. It helped because i was able to enforce being calm around the kids as well as being able to discourage focus on the cats when she was in a mood. She doesnt have a prey drive really. She just has an obnoxious streak to drive everyone to crazy land.

Have her drag a leash around and when you see her start to go, quickly step on the leash. She'll stop herself, probably pretty hard. You've got to remind her that she HAS to listen and behave, especially in the house and that bowling over the kids is completely unacceptable and pack leader is NOT happy about it. Possibly consult with a trainer.

[spiritsmom]

I'll go back to that again - she's been tether free since she was 6 months old. She'll run into me too when I happen to be in her path but at least with me she just body slams me and moves on - I don't fall over! She just doesn't think to go around, she just wants to go through and doesn't realize she could hurt someone that way.

[BlackthornGSD]

Definitely teen-age confidence (and brattiness) coming to the fore. Feel free to call if you want to talk about some training/problem-solving ideas.

[Samba]

Yes, typical. I can remember Hogan's kid shenanigans at that age. My now grown boys could tell a few stories of the young dog stages too. Perhaps Christine can give some good pointers.