Hello all,

It's been a while and it is good to be back.

Due to life circumstances; I was forced to leave my 5-month Rottweiler puppy with my sister. I have now reclaimed him at 14 months. He is very well socialized relative to people and has very basic obedience training; mostly dating back to my original work with him. He is learning fast and is very trainable. I have some hope that as my life resettles, we can return to more advanced training... avalanche S/R maybe?

Anyway, my main problem is that my sister's husband intentionally trained the dog to chase cats. I am having a very difficult time convincing him that cats are not toys. Prong collar corrections merely add agitation (big surprise) and I am not sure what to do next. I currently have a shock collar on him (placed and removed several times a day) and as yet unused. So far, all the incidents have occurred when the collar is not on him, a fact I attribute to Murphy. My plan is to say "NO", then drop the hammer, then repeat until I can get his attention somewhere else.

Any comments? Recall I haven't done much yet so I can still change course.

Teach the dog to chase the brother in law and see how he likes it....just kidding (kinda)
I have a cat killer and it is no fun. It is hard work to keep her off cats that run from her. (or anything that runs from her really) but the e-collar works well. I am lucky in a certain way because I have Maine Coon and Manx cats that are used to the dogs and do not take off. If they do not run, she is tolerant, but this is not to say she won't grab one if they walk by her and she has killed two that entered her kennel space.

That is going to be a hard habit to break. I would utilize the e-collar.
If my Mal is out on my property the collar is on. I do not use any commands, if she chases the cat, she gets fried. Once she redirects off the cat I call her to me and play tug with her. She does not associate me with the collar as she does not turn around and come right back to me (she comes back when I call her), she just breaks and does something else. She is getting way better but I will never, ever trust her around things that run from her.

Carol,

Well, I am glad you generally agree with my course of action. I don't mind if the dog knows I did the deed, though I would prefer that he not associate it with the collar. However, I suspect that he will figure it out in the end. He is smart for a Rott as well as rangy and athletic. Five generations of Schutzhund titles as opposed to five generations of AKC beauty contests will have their affect. Now if he would just stop snoring!

I would like to put the collar on the borther in law and just run out the charge.

I agree.
The one thing I do is let her get close and maybe even touch them before I let her have it, I do not use the collar for anything else except for working on the recall if it is needed. This I do with no cats around.
She is now to the point where she actually considers the chase before she will give in and now a lot of the times, she does not give chase.
I think that she associates the cats (or whatever) with the correction since she now considers things first. She will even look away from the cats while on lead and no collar.
She is also out of PPD/Sport lines and she is a hard bitch.

Huge - get a remote collar and learn how to use it. Problem solved.

Here is the DVD to teach you http://leerburg.com/318.htm

Yes sir,

Already done. Just networking with the peers in hopes of a new wrinkle.

Hugh

Hugh,
I just called and ordered this DVD today as I am questioning my methods a little now.
What I am doing is working, but maybe I see something new that works better.
Can't see any harm in adding to my Library from Leerburg.

Hugh,

Here's a "wrinkle" for you to think about. It was not the best way to train the particular dog, but it might work for yours. Go ahead and get the ecollar DVD anyway - you will not regret it!!

I worked with an APBT that had been trained to chase cats. He was a super hard dog. I am not afraid of giving a harsh correction, but his hardness challenged my ability in giving a hard enough correction. I would have been a happier person to use an ecollar, but the new owner wasn't willing to invest in one.

When I saw the dog, we put "bait" cat who in a crate for safety. The dog was on leash and lunged hard enough to get the leash out of the new owner's hands. He hit the crate so hard that he bloodied his nose badly and bent the side of crate! I have never seen a dog fixated on something so intently before and I don't expect to ever see it again! I had to videotape it - it was so unreal! At the owner's house, the dog lunged toward the room the cats were kept in (just because of the scent - the dog hadn't seen the cats yet.) He could drag the owner's girlfriend down the hall toward the room. When he was crated and heard a cat meow, he would start whining and screaming and not stop for hours.

Anyway, what we ended up doing was working on building a bond between the dog and new owner. Then we taught the "look" command.

Then we began using the cat in the crate as a distraction in the look command. Reward the good, ignore the bad.

Then we started a correction phase. Dog looks at cat. Owner says "look." Dog doesn't look. Owner says "no" and delivers a harsh correction via ecollar or DD collar.

It took about a week to get good enough that the dog could be walked on leash through the owner's house from its crate to the door and pass the three resident cats which were crated for safety.

We eventually taught the dog to automatically look to the handler when it saw a cat. This was a dog that will never be remotely cat-safe, but the aggression was managed to a point where the owner and girlfriend could deal.

The reason we choose this long road (teach appropriate behavior first, then correct the inappropriate behavior) was because the owner had JUST gotten the dog and wanted to bond with the dog etc. The dog had dominance issues too and it would have been more effective to approach it as a pack order thing. Long term results would have been better. (The owner gave up the dog because his girlfriend couldn't deal with his dominance issues. In the name of bonding, the guy refused to address the very simple problem.)

In the end, the dog was PTS by the 3rd owner. Unfortunate. An ecollar and a little groundwork would have saved the dog's life. I would have loved to have gotten my hands on the dog and have it evaluated for sport work; his drives, focus, grip, solid nerves were very nice.

For a dog of my own, I would do like Carol says. No command, just harsh correction for following, chasing or even sniffing the cat. When we had cats, we built a little cat house that is entirely dog proof as a safety precaution - it's a little "mouse hole" in a wall with a wooden box on the other side of the wall. We also crate-trained our cats so they could be confined without stressing them out.

Carol,

I don't think you are far off. Basically, I think you are using the "trash can" method. That is you are associating the correction with the cat (trash can). As I recall, you can also teach that ignoring a "no" command brings down the lightning. When you do this, the dog quickly associates you and your "no" with the correction. Gryph will not leave my side after he gets fried for failing to recall.

The sequence I am following is "Here", if no recall "No Here", if still no recall nick. I then repeat the "No Here" if needed and the nick if needed. I have never had to use more than two nicks to get him recalled; ignorant as he is. If the problem is a cat or whatever, I just say "no" and then fry if he doesn't redirect. I did that for the first time this afternoon and he immediately starting worrying about me more than the cat.

Is that about what you gather?

Hugh

If you are plugging in commands then I would venture to agree with that.
I do not use commands so when I use the collar so I do not worry if she turns and comes back or if she goes off and runs around. The only thing I want her to do when i use the collar is think "Oh shit that sucks, not gonna keep doing that."
So far it is coming along.

Now, I do use the collar on recall with the heir command. I am down to the alert beep and have not had to nick her or beep her for a while now.
I do say heir and if she blows me off she gets a warning beep, if she still blows me off she gets the zap untils she turns and comes towards me which I then release and act like a happy idiot as she is coming and then play tug when she gets there.

If she turns off, then I say Heir and nick her, no beep. And resume my happy dance.