We recently adopetd a St Barnyard mix who is very good in every way except that he seems to want to eat our cat. He’s bad with the equines, also, but at least he’s afraid of them.
Our cat is happily living in the study right now but I would love to learn how to teach the new dog to ignore him.
Thank you!
Your dog may still be learning the ropes at his new home, so a little firm discipline and patience might solve the problem. That said, I once had a similar problem that I solved with a shock collar.
I wanted to raise guineas, and I had two adult dogs that had never been around poultry. I tried everything to get those dogs to leave the guineas alone–I tried introducing the dogs to the guineas while on a leash; I tried tying up the dogs while the guineas were out; I tried confining the dogs while the guineas were out; I tried confining the guineas but the dogs tried to dig into their pen. I tried screaming at the dogs. I tried smacking them. Absolutely nothing worked. They simply waited until they knew I wasn’t looking and then went after the birds. Finally, in desperation, I borrowed a shock collar from a friend. As it happened, the very day I got the shock collar the dogs killed another bird and I caught them with the carcass. I put the shock collar on one of the dogs and every time she even looked at the dead bird I zapped her. The second dog got the same treatment. It was an ugly session, but they finally decided I was the biggest dog and from that day forward they never bothered any other poultry. I even brought in new chickens and the dogs didn’t bother them. Dogs, cats, and poultry all coexisted peacefully free range, and everyone lived happily ever after.
I don’t know what it will take to teach your dog, but if gentle methods are ineffective don’t hesitate to up the pressure. Your dog has to understand that you are the biggest dog, and the sooner the better.
Thanks! We used a shock collar to teach him to come, & it only had to zap him once. Now he doesn’t even need it for that, so I’m not averse to using it for this.
We’ve only had him for 3 weeks as of tomorrow. Before that, he was in a kennel at a rescue, & before that, he was left abandoned, tied up in someone’s yard after they’d moved. So we are extremely pleased with his progress. He’s a happy-go-lucky kind of a guy.
Since the cat is enjoying his library life of privacy, I’ll give them both some more time & then try the collar.
I was told by a really good trainer that I could cure my dog’s puppy aggression (which looks exactly like very strong prey drive) with a shock collar as described above. I am unwilling to do it so no puppy for me but that’s a second testimony for you.
Hi, this is an encouraging story. Can you tell us how long ago this happened and how long everyone has been living happily ever after? Thanks.
This is a scary post.
Disclaimer - I use shock collars every day on my 3 hunting breed dogs. So I am a fan.
That said - using a shock collar to teach a dog to come can be done, but it is probably the worst tool to use. Unless you’re a pro trainer, you should use the shock collar to tell the dog what you don’t want. Not what you do want. Teaching a dog to come is so easily set up for positive reinforcement - it makes no sense to use the collar. Used correctly, the dog would be taught to come using positive reinforcement, and the dog could be trained with a collar for negative reinforcement if a known request was ignored or not complied with quickly enough. As I said - if you’re a pro user, you could use only negative reinforcement. But why would you?
I’m also concerned that you used a shock collar on an adopted dog within 3 weeks of getting him. Most adult dogs take 2 weeks or so to just get their bearings on a new situation. Training is a good thing. Training with a collar - no.
As to the cat - you may never get the dog to ignore the cat. That is one of the downsides to adopting dogs with unknown backgrounds. Something to think about - what will you do?
If you’re going to attempt to train the dog to ignore the cat - you cannot simply zap the dog when it looks at the cat. Train the dog with another command – “leave it” which is useful for things other than ignoring the cat; or to come or stay. And use those commands if the dog is harassing the cat. The collar could be introduced with KNOWN commands as a negative reinforcement (e.g. if you say “leave it” or “come” and the dog doesn’t comply, you can introduce mild shock until the dog complies)
The key is - the dog MUST know what the command means or the shock cannot be used. Or, if you use it - you are being unfair and just punishing the dog for ignorance.
Since you cannot be sure it will work - always give the cat a way of escape, and supervise them closely.
As mentioned by the above poster, I use the commands leave it and/or come if my puppy gets too interested in the cats. One of them sort of tolerates her sniffing her and rubs against her. My cats do have a “dog free space” as does yours, and I think that’s a good idea. For mine they have access to a room with a gate that has a cat door.
Generally if the puppy is in an excited mood or starts getting too playful and/or goes after a cat, a firm “leave it” command will do the trick. Or I tell her to come and shift her focus to something else such as one of her toys.
Puppies and dogs that are new to the household take patience and time. I’d install some training commands sans shock collar and see how far you get. Use rewards and be consistent.
Sswor, my story about the dogs and the poultry happened at least 20 years ago. Both dogs were fairly young at the time (2 and 6 years old) and they both lived into their mid-teens. They never again bothered any of my chickens or guineas, even when we introduced new ones into the flock. After the oldest dog died we took in a stray puppy. We didn’t need a shock collar to teach him to stay away from the birds–just a sharp “No!!” did the trick. In fact I have never again used a shock collar for anything. I only used it that one time because everything else had failed and the dogs had to learn to leave poultry alone. Killing poultry is a capital offense for a farm dog, especially if it goes after the neighbor’s chickens.
I think the shock collar session worked so well because I just happened to catch them right when they killed a bird. There was no doubt in their doggy brains about why they were in trouble.
I agree with the poster that said shock collars are best used to discourage unwanted behavior. OP’s dog may be young and just trying to play, but if it shows real aggression toward the cat that behavior needs to be nipped in the bud, whatever it takes.
A shock collar can be used to teach just about anything. It’s possible to teach a command through negative reinforcement only; essentially every “wrong answer” narrows down the correct options and the dog learns to choose correctly. That’s how we train horses for things we want - by applying pressure and then releasing it. But you have to be really good to do it when you’re not sitting on the animal being trained. I’ve known some people that teach heeling with an e-collar; if the dog is already trained to understand that the stim setting means “wrong answer” - they can work quickly to figure out the right answers.
I have no issue with using a strong correction with a collar - but I think it is unwise to think that it will always work. Or, that just a good hard shock will teach them not to chase/hunt an animal. Much is likely to be breed dependent - prey drive is a trait that many breeders want to increase, not inhibit. You might be able to diminish the chase behavior, but the prey drive isn’t gone. And if you’re not consistent and/or supervising, the dog may kill the cat despite your training.
If you got the dog from a rescue, I’m pretty surprised they would have adopted a dog with strong prey drive to a house where he might not fit. I have 2 dogs with very high prey drive (Standard Poodles) and I can’t, nor would I want to, train it out of them by using shock collars, etc. They have killed a number of birds, squirrels, etc. If I had cats or other domestic animals, I would have made sure it was discussed with my breeder when she was selecting pups for me. I’m not adverse to various training methods and have used a number of them over the years on different dogs (and both my current dogs are highly titled in obedience, agility, rally, etc) but sometimes you can’t go against nature.
I had a BC that would sniff my cats up and down but no attack. Then I taught him to kill snakes.
He killed a cat. I went thru what Jody did in the movie the Yearling. I promised myself I would NEVER leave them alone together, yada yada, yada. But a week later he killed a second cat. I had to have him pts:no:.
I have a very high prey drive dog, and a shock collar (well, “e-collar”) does help quite a bit.
Some background: She came from a home where she had been tied out for 3 years - all she knew was the end of that chain, and she learned how to run the second that chain came loose. Unfortunately that translated to leash work as well - if I dropped the lead or her collar broke or she chewed out of her harness, she was just GONE. Couple that with insane prey drive - she would lock onto to a target and then ignore the rest of the world until she caught whatever it was she was after (chickens, iguanas, goats, guinea pigs… one time a full grown bull).
I installed the concept of “here” on a long line, but as noted above, if she got distracted by a critter there was no way I could get her attention back on me. So I got an e-collar, and I started using it as reinforcement for verbal commands. If she ignored “here” she got a “page” (vibration). If she ignored that, she got a shock. Didn’t take too long for me to get really solid recall from that combination. Even better, if she does lock onto prey, the collar is the equivalent of a nip on the scruff of her neck and it reminds her who is in charge. I can pretty much walk her off leash anywhere now. BUT… I have to be on top of her at all times. She isn’t all the way there as far as ignoring prey (if I get distracted and she sees an iguana, it’s a bloodbath
If she were cat-aggressive - thank goodness she’s not - it would be a different story. I wouldn’t trust her home alone with the kitty.
This is the key part of your response – you have not “dampened” the prey drive, but installed some obedience. That’s about all you can do. Sounds like your girl is smart and the collar has worked well for her.
My fear about people trying to “dampen” prey drive, and especially using an e-collar (which I use daily, so I’m not a hater) - is that they actually believe it changes the dog’s natural instincts regarding prey. It doesn’t.
So while the owner may have more control over the dog, it does not change the fact that they still WANT to chase and kill animals. You have to use caution, even with training. As we say in my breed - it’s very difficult to take the hunt out of the dog. If you don’t like it - it’s the wrong breed for you.
My breed is an upland game breed (birds) but they are very happy to hunt rabbits and other vermin, which mine do regularly outside, because there are more rabbits and moles here than game birds. My kids have wanted various small animals in the past (rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.) There is no way I could keep one safe in my house. Eventually, one of the dogs would kill it because we simply cannot watch them 100% of every day.
I have a beagle pup that wants to chase chickens and she improved a lot with a single session with an e-collar. I use it only for that, but it really made a huge difference when voice commands did not, even though she has really good recall (for a beagle) when there are no chickens involved. I would do the same with cats except my cats put her in her place if she is too rough with them.
Could the cat teach him this lesson? I have two dogs that have killed their share of rabbits and groundhogs. If a barn cat runs, they will chase it. If it doesn’t run, or stands its ground, the dogs tiptoe around it like “oh, excuse me ma’am”. They also were VERY interested when we first got chickens, but one chicken charged them and now they completely ignore the chickens. Dogs are 8 & 14, cats are 10, and these lessons were learned many years ago, with no incidents since.
Do all dogs react the same to a shock collar? When I first moved to my farm I had two dogs. They each experienced hitting the electric fence a couple of times. One dog would run from the shock crying and howling, then learned to not go near the fence strands.
The other one would turn around and bite the fence when it shocked him. Then he’d get shocked again and bite it again and quickly be in a biting frenzy because the fence just wouldn’t learn and it kept shocking him. The first time this happened I had to turn off the fence and take him inside to chill, he was so ramped up. When it happened again I was able to quickly unhook a fence gate to cut off the power to the section he was biting. After that I just took down the lower strand of hot wire so he couldn’t hit it.
If I’d used a shock collar on him to keep him from bothering a cat I’d be concerned it would ramp him up to where if he associated the shock with the cat he would kill it. Luckily he got along well with cats.
I have seven dogs. Currently, three are certified disaster dogs for DHS that i trained and handle myself. Two are retired, and two more are basically farm dogs. To do the work they do a high prey drive is paramount. I have a cat, a bunch of free range poultry and i don’t use shock collars. For me, a dog that is a) bonded to me and b) has a significant degree of training in them will honor me and what belongs to me. My stuff never gets chewed or moved and they do what i ask. They actually are kinda cute in-that they make up their own little ‘rules’ and don’t break them. Eg: i have a little gate to keep them upstairs when people come over. Well…occasionally, i will go upstairs to let them free only to discover that one or two of the buggers have pushed through the gate and are waiting… all happy and waggley, at the top of the stairs. Many little things like that…they follow the rule of the law if not the letter of it. LOL
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