Teaching an adult dog to leave cats alone?

[Miss_J]

Great post Aussie Dog!!

My SO and I acquired his parents six year old lab, that had been ‘trained’ if you can believe it by his original (and I use the term very loosely breeder) to chase down and kill cats. Yes kill. Many names come to mind when I think of this idiot.

We have a cat. And the first time we introduced him to our cat he could barely contain himself. He started howling, barking, lunging on the lead and a stare that was lasered in on poor kitty. My first tip for the dog was to ‘leave it’ in a very firm voice, as well as sit.

Anytime I was outside for the whole summer the dog was on a lead rope attached to my waste, anywhere I went, he went. If we saw the cat I would immediately say to him in a firm voice “leave it” and change what I was doing to get him going in another direction and his mind on the task at hand.

Same thing in the house, he was not allowed to even look at the cat, and he was told to sit and stay in a corner or area away from the cat. And him bieng isolated away from the family had a huge impact on him. He’s quite sensitive and realized soon that kitty meant him getting scolded. That is until he stopped staring and learing at the cat, and all of a sudden he was getting praised and positive reinforcement such as a good boy or a treat!

Next step was to have him sitting down and kitty coming into the room and getting pets near the dog. And then he got pets. This worked great!

Cat is now king of his castle again, I can let them out together at the same door and same time, and there is no running, chasing or that I’m going to get you stare. If dog gets to close to cat such as him wanting a sniff, it’s a slap across the face and a hiss from the cat. And since he doesn’t like bieng scolded or slapped from the cat he stays out of cats personal space.

The cat knows he’s boss again too, because both dogs(shih-tzu) sleep upstairs and in the morning when it’s time to go out, the cat will sit on the bottom stair right in the middle and dare them to cross him. It’s so funny because they will start whimpering to me to move the cat so they can come down!

So it’s not hopeless OP! I had a cat killer that is now respectful of and to our cat. You just have to stay on them until they realize that the cat is trouble for them.

Make sure to update your progress with us

[wendy]

this is a problem I’m not very optimistic about fixing with all dogs. My experience, you can easily teach any dog to not chase a cat when you are present to issue commands to the dog. However, teaching a dog to reliably leave cats alone when you AREN’T there is another story entirely. Some dogs can be socialized to believe cats aren’t prey animals, but some can’t. Make sure your cat has a way to get away.

whatever training technique you choose, avoid one that requires you to issue commands (“leave it”) because if you aren’t there to issue the command, it may not work.
whatever training technique you choose, avoid one that requires you to issue a correction that obviously comes from you (collar yank, verbal no), because if you aren’t there to correct the dog, it may not work.

this http://www.loucastle.com/critter.htm works really well for keeping dogs from chasing cats when out and about, but not 100% sure it works reliably for dogs who are expected to peacefully live with cats.

[Miss_J]

I agree with you Wendy.

While my dog will leave my cat alone, I do not know what he would do if another cat came on the property. I just know that my dog has been reinforced to leave the cat. He doesn’t even like looking at him at this point just in case, or will turn around and go in another direction if he sees the cats coming.

Both animals have been outside together, say in the garden or pasture and both do great, the dog minds the cat.

Oh I just remembered this! I was cleaning the garage a few weeks back, had the door open and I had the cat inside with me visiting, shih-tzu was out side as well as the lab. Two nieghbor dogs come over and one of them go inside the garage. He saw the cat and immediately went for the him. It all happened so fast, I didn’t even have a chance to react, before my lab came flying
in(he saw the dogs and I assume he heard the the commotion inside) and went after the dog that was attacking my poor cat. The nieghbor dog had the cat pinned in the corner. He gave the dog a spanking chased him outside and off the property. As well he stopped at the property line after they were out of it.

He was praised big time! Even the cat came out for pets!

I know that the introduction to my cat to my dog has worked. It was intense for a long time before I had these positive results:). But for us it has worked out well. And I really hope OP has success as well, there have been some great posts on this thread from everyone!

[nemosaki]

Thanks everyone for your great advice. I’m the one who adopted this 4 year old Aussie who has never really been socialized and essentially living in a backyard his whole life.

The cat introduction is proving to be a real problem and is getting worse, not better, as time goes on. I have had the Aussie a month and at first, my very trusting cats who are great with dogs, came down to the baby gate separating everybody and were unconcerned. Then, I had them in the same room with the dog on the leash and the cat ran by, the dog snapped. One of the cats jumped the baby gate unbeknownst to me and the dog cornered him before I intervened. Now I have a crate and the cats won’t even come downstairs at all, let alone anywhere near the dog.

The Aussie locks on and absolutely nothing will distract him. Not leave it, not treats, not a noisy can. I physically roll him over on his side to try to establish dominance that he can’t stare like that. It seems to calm him some, but as soon as I let him up, he locks in, head down and stares. My husband is really concerned about the welfare of the cats.

My Black Lab/Newfoundland mix dog took only about 1-2 weeks to fully incorporate the cats and they sleep together now. I am wondering if it is a lost cause with the Aussie due to his breed and his past experiences (lack of training and lack of socialization).