I’ll admit that all three of my dogs have been quite fascinated by cats!
Ok, that’s the understatement of the century. Chasing cats trumped just about everything else until I started to incorporate several particular measures, which brings us to today’s topic of how to stop your canine from chasing cats.
Although it might seem funny and evoke images of Tom & Jerry where the Bulldog chases Tom the cat, it tends to be stressful for cats in real life.
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Stopping your canine from chasing cats essentially boils down to two different approaches.
Preventative methods to stop your canine from chasing cats
1. A dog’s early socialization to cats
2. understanding your dog’s prey drive
3. Train your canine to focus on you instead of the cat
Different options to help resolve the problem of dogs chasing cats
Barriers – crates, gates & leashes
Training & other tools
Adding a new canine to an recognized dog/cat household
Signs of tension in a cat can be:
What to do on a walk when your canine sees a cat he wants to chase
Using an e-collar to stop your canine from chasing the cat
Now we’d like to hear from you!
Stopping your canine from chasing cats essentially boils down to two different approaches.
The first one tackles the problem at its root, before it even occurs. That’s the preventative part. The second one lists a variety of options that resolve the problem once it’s actively happening.
Let’s start with the easy one, the preventative method!
Preventative methods to stop your canine from chasing cats
1. A dog’s early socialization to cats
Yes, cats and dogs can get along!
The easiest way to achieve this serene cohabitation is to introduce your puppy to your kitten early on for proper socialization. That’s the optimal case scenario, but introducing older cats to puppies is also effective.
That’s because dogs are the ones who can ultimately do much more harm to a cat than the other way around, so taking that element out of the equation from the get-go is huge.
I’ve been in a number of households in my capacity as a professional pet sitter where dogs and cats lived together under the same roofing system and got along just fine.
In many cases, the dogs got introduced to the local cat when they were puppies. They learned that cats are a normal part of each day life, and that a cat’s claws are nothing to be messed around with!
That was certainly the case with Bulldog puppy Chester and local cat Sherman. Chester only tried to roughhouse with Sherman a few times. He rapidly learned his lesson after Sherman’s claws put him in his place. They never play together, but they’ve been respectful of one another ever since.
2. understanding your dog’s prey drive
A dog’s prey drive is a normal part of his genetic makeup, but it’s much more active in some dogs than others. The prey drive is what kicks in when a canine sees other animals relocation quickly, especially smaller ones like cats, rabbits or squirrels, and entices them to chase after them.
A canine who’s about to start chasing his prey might do some or all of the following:
Stalk the prey
Keep his eyes fixated on the prey
Crouch down low to the ground
Very slowly relocation closer to the prey
His body will appear stiff best before he starts the chase
Note that some dogs may only want to chase after the cat in play. other dogs may not be trying to hurt the cat originally but in the middle of the excitement the canine could become aggressive. and then there are some dogs that certainly do have the objective to catch and harm the cat.
3. Train your canine to focus on you instead of the cat
Start working with your canine in a low-key environment such as the living room in your home.
Leash your canine if required and use the help of a family member or pal to instruct your canine to focus on you. each time your canine checks in with you, i.e. looks at you rather than at the other human you’ve enlisted to help, reward him with a high-value training treat.
Once your pup has mastered that concept, step up the game by using favorite toys. You can still keep your canine on a leash, then place the toy nearby and ask your canine to look at you rather than at the toy.
You can say a command like “watch me.” Whenever he does just that, reward with a treat. If you’re using a canine training clicker, click it as soon as he looks at you to mark the desired behavior, then treat.Now take it one step even more by tossing the toy a few feet away from your dog, still keeping him on a leash if necessary. As soon as he looks at you rather than at the toy, (click the training clicker and) reward with a treat.
Step it up a notch by tossing the toy across the room and gratifying your canine for checking in with you.
This is a terrific way of teaching your canine impulse control and checking in with you rather than giving in to a game of chase.
Remember to practice daily for the best results, but to keep training sessions short. 3-5 daily training sessions long lasting up to 5 minutes each will go a long way and keep your canine interested in working with you.
Different options to help resolve the problem of dogs chasing cats
If your canine wasn’t correctly socialized to cats as a puppy, you can still curb his enthusiasm for chasing cats by using a few hacks both inside your home as well as outside:
Barriers – crates, gates & leashes
We highly recommend you use crates and gates to create boundaries. Carlson Pet products has several premium options, and they have sent several products to Lindsay and Remy to try at no cost.
Supervise whatsoever times when the canine is not crated (at first)
Keep your new canine leashed in the house at first
Gate off an area of your home with an extra tall baby gate that has a small cat door your canine doesn’t fit through
Create additional cat escape routes such as elevated cat walks on walls using floating shelves
When you can’t supervise, keep your cat in a dedicated, safe cat room that your canine doesn’t have access to
Crate your canine when you’re not home or leave in a separate room.
Have your canine wear a long leash inside your home before transitioning to off-leash
Training & other tools
Teach basic commands to increase impulse control around the cat such as leave it, sit, down and stay
Exercise your canine thoroughly on a daily basis to avoid pent-up energy that he might redirect to a cat chase
Give your canine a high-value, long-lasting and distracting chew such as a bully stick or a filled KONG toy (freezing it makes it last even longer)
Adding a new canine to an recognized dog/cat household
You may already have a cat and a canine who get along just fine. If you’re thinking about adding another canine to your pack who’s no longer in his puppy stage, your local canine might very well be able to instruct your new pup a thing or two about respecting the cat.
That’s because dogs tend to copy the behavior of other dogs they’re around frequently.
However, if your new canine shows overly aggressive behavior to your local cat, have him wear a muzzle while training him to be polite around your cat. You can read much more about how to use a muzzle in that Mutt’s short article how to get your canine used to a muzzle.
Also consider consulting with a professional canine trainer/animal behaviorist for hands-on guidance for very difficult cases.
I’m not a substantial fan of rehoming pets, but finding a cat-free forever home for your identified cat-chasing canine might be the best service for everyone in some cases. Or possibly re-homing your cat.
That’s particularly true if your cat is incredibly stressed out by your new dog’s relentless chasing attempts and you’ve exhausted all options including the help of a professional trainer or behaviorist.
Signs of tension in a cat can be:
Decreased appetite
Eliminating outside the litter box
Hasmenés
Excessive scratching and grooming
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Aggression towards their humans
Also remember that in some cases it does take a couple of months for everyone to get along, and some dogs may always need to be supervised around a cat. See our post, Can dogs and cats get along?
What to do on a walk when your canine sees a cat he wants to chase
Even dogs who live and get along with cats in the home will likely want to chase a stray cat they spot outside.
The many essential piece of guidance I can offer you is to stay calm and collected when you’re out on a walk and your canine sees a cat in motion.
The worst reaction is to yell or yell at your canine combined with pulling on the leash! That will only increase the sense of excitement your canine already feels.
Instead, try using some of the tools I’ve noted below. They’ve helped me master the cat challenge over the years:
Change directions or walk on the other sideof the street.
Carry high-value training treats on you to distract your canine from the cat and reward him for focusing on you instead.
Use a training collar such as a head collar, martingale collar or prong collar to help you appropriate and redirect your dog. Familiarize yourself with how to use each collar correctly prior to using it. Minden kutya különbözik.
Consider adding a backpack to your dog’s walks. It’ll help keep him focused on you and his “work” rather than his prey drive.
Also see our post on introducing your canine to your barn cat
All of my dogs have walked with backpacks on a regular basis. While they didn’t keep them from noticing cats who were in motion, they contributed massively to walking past them in a much more unwinded manner.
That’s because it made them focus on the job of carrying weight. Their training collars helped me redirect them away from any cats we came across, and I used the training treats to reward the pups for staying somewhat calm and paying attention to me.
Using an e-collar to stop your canine from chasing the cat
I do not have experience using an e-collar to avoid a canine from chasing a cat, so Lindsay is adding this info:
Hi, Lindsay here! We are getting a second weimaraner in January! She is 2 years old with a high prey drive (she’s trained for hunting birds) and she has not lived around cats.
My current weim Remy (pictured below) grew up with two cats, so that might help us out a bit. however I am not taking any risks. (See our post: Do weimaraners get along with cats?)
New pup “Raven” will be on a leash whatsoever times at first, and we will be following all of the guidance Barbara noted above, using crates, gates, and working on impulse control, etc. We will take the intro to our cat very lassan.
If I feel it is necessary, I plan to use our e-collar with a remote and will give a hard adjustment if Raven fixates or tries to go after our cat. I’m hoping this won’t be required and that we’ll see success using treats and calm praise for good behavior. However, I’m also reasonable about an adult hunting breed and won’t take any chances. I’ll certainly post an update on how it goes. kívánj szerencsét!
Now we’d like to hear from you!
Most rajtad a sor! Which one of these methods are you going to execute to stop your canine from chasing cats? Do you have any additional advice?
If you have any questions, let us know in the comments!
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Barbara Rivers writes frequently for That Mutt. She is certified in raw canine food nutrition from Dogs naturally magazine and the author of three ebooks about balanced raw canine food. She is a blogger at K9s Over Coffee.