My female GSP is now 16 weeks old and is doing pretty good over all.I have a very real concern and I do not know how to handle it.We have a mature outside cat which the GSP was fine with when she met the cat at eight weeks.Now,my GSP is extremely playful with the cat which borders on the line of pure aggressive behavior.My female GSP tries to squeeze the cats neck almost to were I question if the cat can breath and she also likes to drag the cat around by her neck.She does not act like this to any dogs and I'm really stumped on what to do.My correction methods have been the good old phooey while I grabbing the back of the dogs neck.This does not seem to work for this command.It's almost like the GSP is in another world.When I stopped her this evening I really thought that she could of broke the cats neck as it was one of her toys.I naturally was very concerned and I grabbed her pretty hard and pushed her to the ground.I don't no if I actually took a few steps back with that display of correction but,it sure got her attention.My dog is very stable and has never bit or snarled at anything.She is well adjusted other than her cat endeavors.Her blood lines are 100% German.Does anyone have any advice that might help me train my dog so she leaves the cat alone?

This happened to me as well. I ended up having to sell my cat. It was cruel and horrible what my GSD would do to her, yet she would just let him do it. We needed a cat to help with the field mice and ended up trying once more when our male was older. The cat also would not do a single thing to stay clear of the dog who would carry the cat by its head from place to place. The cat would scream, I would tell the dog to stop....but the dog did what it wanted to do and it made me sick, so gone was the cat.

well i agree with tammy unless you can keep them separeted all of the time, it may never end. for instance my young gsd plays rough with my male cat, he tolerates it, they are buddies but the playing is very rough, head in mouth sort of thing. so anyway, i let them play a litte bit, next thing i know my cat has a huge abscess on side of his face, he is a house cat in the winter and he has gotten many abscesses before from many cat fights, anyhow to make a long story short it was from the dog, she had bruised his face so severely that it hemeridged and cause an abscess, so i have got to keep them separeted most of the time now, it is not easy, just something you may want to consider than again where as you pup is still young there is hope yet that with consistancy you might be able to work through it.

You can end it. But you wont like how.--I do not use FORCE on young dogs for anything but aggression. This is aggression. If you use force at this age for tracking, he may loose drive for tracking. If you use force for obed. He may loose drive for obed. If you use force to stop aggression he may loose drive. What do you want here? Put on a prong collar and give a correction that makes him think he just arrived in hell. Acouple of times and he WILL leave the cat alone.
Or get rid of one of them or get a dead cat. Your choice.

Good luck
Ron

She is in "another world"...it's called drive. Prey drive is a dogs drive to chase and kill prey. Remember she is a dog.
You may be able to control it but what do you want to do with the dog....training, sport, etc
If it is a pet hen fine. I dont think I would go overboard to punish a 16 week old pup for satisfying a drive if you want to use him for sport or protection.

Patrick I agree completly. Then the cat should go or it will die. Im not saying t correct. Just that those are the alternatives
Ron

I'd sugest that you take a look at this post.

http://www.leerburg.com/ubb//ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=000028#000001

Make sure that if you have to cut and paste this link, that you grab all of it.

If this link doesn’t work, do a search for the word “crittering” under the member number 131.

This protocol, using an Ecollar in an usual way, has stopped many dogs from chasing cats and other game. It will probably also stop your dog from "worrying" the cat.

Well, here I go again. If I had a Working Line pup that didn't try to catch a cat running away, I give the dog away and Protection Train the cat!!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Showline Dog, might do something different. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

This is as old as TIME. Dog see's Cat. Cat runs away. Dog give's chase and catch's CAT.

I've done everything in my power at our home to keep cat's out of the dog's yard and kennel.

Joe, if your pup has high prey drive, the cat will become a victem of what the pup was bred for.
Sometimes the cat enters where they don't belong. Like in my Akita's outdoor kennel, inside our garage, under my pick up truck. It goes on and on. I GIVE UP TRYING TO PROTECT THE NEIGHBORS CATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My two older dogs will not chase a cat unless it runs. They will also visit with cats outside of their YARD. Under my supervision only, of course!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Joe, I hope you can get your pup to accept the cat, just remember a dog is a dog first before anything else.

TRY EVERY METHOD YOU CAN TO HAVE THE TWO LIVE TOGETHER, SUCCESS WILL VARY.
BEST OF LUCK TO YOU AND YOUR CAT!

Without being able to see this happening, I can only guess. BUT, I for one don't think it's aggression. I agree it's more about drive. When my Whippet was very young he used to carry our kitten around by the head (!). She didn't mind at all oddly enough and actually seemed to like it. We always wished that she would have defended herself actually, instead of seemingly not caring. The dog just stopped the behavior on his own within a couple of months. It made me wonder however, what would have happened if the kitten hated dogs and had fought back. Would he have stopped the behavior even earlier? Just a thought.

Thank's everyone for your valuable input to my problem.Lou,I think I will give your method a shot.I am a newbie to this stuff so,when your talking about an "e-collar",that's an electric collar,right?Also,is there any brand that you would recommend?