Hello Board member
My GSD (2) likes to chase cats and I didn't stop him. For some reason I let him doing it and thought it will develop also prey drive. I know it was wrong because this prey drive is only intensive with cats. I started protection work with him not long time ago and realized that he shows not much interest for the tug or sleve. At home he plays tug of war with me but he has problems to play it with the helper.
I'd like now to stop this cat chasing and read some articles about it. My dog is very sensitive for correction with the prong collar and won't forgive me easy. So I thought about an e-collar.
I found now two articles about it and got confused about the use.
In the article 'Introducing dogs into a home with cat' a person has problems her dog killing cats and the advice was:
Take the dog out on a long line in an area where there are cats. Watch the dog closely. The instant the dog goes for a cat, shock it.
It's not necessary to say anything, if fact it's better not to. The dog must learn on it's own that cats are no longer fun to chase. We do not want the dog to think that you are a part of this process. If it thinks that then it may think that can get away with chasing a cat when you are not present. Whereas if you do this work without saying a word, it does not matter if you are there or not.This would solve my problem I thougt but then I found another article and I am confused now.
In the article 'What can I do about my aggrssive dog' it says about "aggression" to other animals: Some trainer make the mistake in saying that the handler should remain quiet when trying to modify a behavioral problem. These people are wrong. This is a pack drive issue and the dog must understand that the correction comes from the pack leader.
If this is better for the dog I have no problem to correct him with the prong collar instead of an e-collar.
Did I misunderstand anything. Are aggression and prey drive different things and therefore different to handle? Which correction would be the better? I would appreciate your input.

null

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My dog is my dearest

Man says it's a sin

He was loyal in the storm

But man not even in the wind

There are two issues here. The first is the cat chasing the second id the lack of prey drive for the work.

It is 100 times easier to do correct dog training from the beginning than it is to go back and fix problems. You created this problem by allowing the dog to learn to chase cats.

Using an electrci collar will solve this problem. It should have no effect on the dogs prey drive in protection training. It is important to make sure the dog wears the collar for a long time before you use it with the cats. You do not want him to learn to only "NOT CHASE CATS" when the collar is on. If you do this properly you ar eonly going to have to do this a few times - although you may have to remind him every now and then.

The issue of the dog not biting the sack with the helper is a "LACK OF DRIVE ISSUE". This has nothing to do with cats. It either has to do with weak genetics or training that is not correct. If you want to learn to build drive get the video I just released with Berhnard Flinsk (Building DRIVE FOCUS AND GRIP - with Berhnhard FLinks http://leerburg.com/101e.htm ) or get The First Steps of Bite Training http://leerburg.com/101b.htm

Good luck

I encourage my dog to chase cats since we have stray cats enter our property line.He is successful in chasing cats out of our property. He is a 6 year old Malinois trained as a protection dog. Now here is my problem. Last night he was chasing a cat when the cat turned around and faced him, growled at him and went into a fighting stance. My dog stopped and looked confused. After a few seconds the cat decided to turn around again and flee. My dog did not resume his chase. Is this a training issue or my dog lost his nerves?

I can't comment on the training issue, but, FWIW, I think it's REALLY stupid to allow or encourage a dog to chase cats. Yes, most of the time the cat is the loser. However, I have seen the results when the cat decides to fight, and it's not pretty. It only takes one swipe of a claw and you have a one-eyed dog. And don't even think about the consequences if the cat gets into its ideal fighting position: teeth and front claws clamped in the dog's forehead or ear and hind claws raking down the face. Frankenstein's monster had less stitches in him!

A dead cat isn't much consolation for a ruined dog.

Cats can also transmit rabies and cat scratch disease to dogs.

I can't believe this thread. Allowing your dog to chase cats is sicker than pitting two dogs together <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> (and I can't stand cats.)

Whoa! 3 mad faces! I don't think I've seen that yet!LOL <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Really though, I don't see the great benefit of having a dog chasing cats. What happens when your dog is so cat crazy that he runs out into the street after one? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I'm short on good decoys too, but come on!!!

Mackie,

To answer your question....

The dog was operating on pure prey drive on a familiar prey. The prey did something unexpected and broke the prey behavior and concentration on the prey. Once the dog broke off the prey behavior it had no reason to continue.

I would not treat this as a training issue, the dog has no experience with this prey fighting him so he didn't know what to do about it. With experience in man work, I doubt this won't be a problem.

When I was 15 I had a red queensland heeler named clancy. I too used to get a purile perverse thrill seeing her chase cats. Since then life has knocked that sort of stuff out of me. Anyway one time I put her onto a cat kitty ran and then turned around to fight clancy paused a moment and kitty flicked out a right jab and opened clancys eye right up and this jelly sort of stuff came out of her eye. Off to the vet and hundreds of dollars latter the eye was fixed with some vision loss and pain to the dog. If you've got a cat problem trap them alive in a box trap and gas em with the car exhaust. Keep you dog out of it.