Make sure the cat has safe places to hide and escape to.
And give your pup WAY more exercise and play. When my dogs are full of energy and bored, my cat has to watch out too. But when I wear them out and/or make ME more fun to play with, the cat is safe.
You could also start teaching the pup "Leave It" and keep working on it until he leaves the cat alone.
How I teach it is I have a good treat, such as cheese, hotdog, whatever you use as a treat will work, but I find I have really motivated dogs with cheese. Anyways, place a piece of the cheese on the floor. Say "Leave It". Naturally the puppy will want to get the cheese because he doesn't know the command yet. So, cover up the cheese with your hand until the puppy completely ignores the treat. Once he has, treat him with a piece of cheese from your other hand. Repeat until you have achieved the desired behavior.
Great info, how do you replace the cheese for the cat. Would you crate the cat and have the dog ignore it there first, then out of the crate next?
newGSDowner,
I broke my Aussie as a very young pup from chasing the cat when the cat ran using a choke collar correction and food rewards for Leave It. Took several months on lead in the house. She learned to never chase the cats in or out of the house. Great ranch dog till she died at 14.5yrs.
If you would also want to start the 'leave it' training (good in many circumstances...) there's a great video on how to teach it AND you can also start your clicker training.
but remember that if YOU are the most fun to play with in the house, the pup will start leaving the cat alone and bringing a toy to YOU to play when they are bored. But if you are busy and not paying attention it will be back to the cat!
And outdoor exercise and socialization!!!!!!! A tired pup is a good pup and asleep in a ball in the corner. If you puppy is go go go in the house all the time. That means you didn't do enough outdoor exercise and socialization. They 'show' us if we are giving them what they need by their behavior, so we just need to pay attention.
how old is your pup? is your pup going after the cat with aggression or is it play? i've had cats, birds, chickens, turtles (in a pool in the yard), children and they work it out. just think on a farm there's all kinds of animals around and they get along just fine. when i would bring a puppy home we kept a close eye on him. my puppy always wanted to play with the other animals. the cats didn't like it in the beginning but over time they worked it out. i had a large parrot that walked around the floor or it would fly to my kids swing set and sit on the bars. we had an outdoor swing set put inside for playtime any rainy days. i say keep a close watch on the puppy. keep him leashed and crated. walk him around the cats on the leash so you can correct him if neccessary. my neighbors brought in a 1 yr. old female Shep and she just wanted to play with the cat but the cat wasn't having it. it took them a month to work it out. their Shep was loose all of the time. they crated her when they went out. there were cats in our puppy class so that helped with our dog getting along with cats. their going to work it out and be best buds. good luck.
Well, first of all, I want to say this for anyone coming here to learn if they are in a similar problem: Socialize the puppy and cat from Day 1. We made the mistake of keeping Apollo away from the cat and that is why we had to work with him leaving the cat alone via "Leave It"
Zeus on the other hand doesn't bother the cats because we didn't keep them seperate, they sniff each other and that's the end of that.
When you are teaching Leave it, I would not switch to the cat until the puppy/dog responds to the Leave it 100% (or very close to) of the time to the command when using treats, or household objects. After that point, then yes, have the cat crated, and let the puppy sniff, then tell him to leave it. Work on this until you see the desired behavior, and then work on it with the cat in the same room as the pup. This will take some time, and quite a few repititions, so patience is key.
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