I just got a 1 yr old male gsd that I hope to train as a dual purpose dog. He is not that agressive with large animals but is very agressive toward my wife's cat and other small animals. I know its a good thing to have prey drive but how do I bring it under control in regards to cats? I am using a choke chain to apply correction to stop his behavior when it happens but how can I stop it for good? The cat is terrified and the wife is pissed.

thanks

ken

On the Leerburg main site, there is a nice article on introducing a dog & cat.

http://www.leerburg.com/dog-cat.htm

If that doesn't work, you may want to do a search on this forum for Lou Castle's posts on crittering using an e-collar.

Ken I have a 71/2 year old Patrol dog. Best dog I've ever had. He has a strong personality and all he asks of the two house cats is that they bow down and show him the proper respect I.E run away and be afraid. 1 cat does this well and the other cat wants to hiss and square off. I can't let the natural order of things sort themselves out here as the cat would die so I keep them apart. Its not worth it to me jumping all over the best dog I've ever had in my life in order to let a cat who is kind of a jerk anyway continue to be a jerk. (Its my 3 year old daughters cat so it stays) So I keep them apart..dog can run the house and when he is in the kitty stays in the laundry room. To me its not worth jerking on my dog or ecollaring him etc. Plus even after all of that could I ever really relax and trust them alone unsupervised anyway.... NO in my opinion so why bother. Derek

Ken,
If you'll use the "search" function, you'll see that we've talked about this problem several times.
It's a toughie, and I know from experience ( five dogs, four cats, all indoors ) and ultimately, the only way to be 100% sure is to keep them seperated. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the help guys, thats a lot of good info.

Ken

Latest development on doggy vs kitty.

I was doing good getting my new GSD and cat to accept or at least tolerate each other, but I noticed that it was getting harder to work my dog into prey drive so i thought i might have screwed up somehow and ruined his drive by the constant corrections when he went after the cat. He doesnt go after the cat in a mean way but its more like the cat is a new playtoy for the dog that he likes to shake around. Anyway we thought that they were getting along nicely until a couple days ago. My awesome patient wife had a training session with the dog and cat where they were getting along and just calmly watching each other so my wife went into the other room for a sec. My Gsd grabbed the cat by the neck and severly started thrashing it around causing injuries to the cat. My wife tried to pry the cat out of the dogs mouth and was smacking the dog and ended up getting bit by the dog (accidently). The cat ran off in shock and the dog tried to get her again. My wife corrected him severly and properly but the dog just thought it was a great fun game and is obviously looking forward to playing again.

Now what do I do to prevent this from happening other than not letting the 2 animals see each other? The cat is used to other dogs but doesnt get along with this one at all.

thanks

Ken

One of my cats is totally ok with the three dogs, the other is not; she will attack them if she can (she could be the world's only sch cat <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> ). She has 'her room'; the dogs know it is her territory, and don't mess with her too much while she is there.

If the cat leaves the room, tho, all bets are off. We have had a few close calls, which thankfully turned out well.

Cats have different social structures than dogs, they don't take to the butt sniffing and jockeying for place in the social ladder.

One person I know of strung up invisible fence wire inside the house to keep her animals separated.

Other than that, the only way to keep them safe from each other is separate them.

Ken, your dog now knows he can get a hold your cat, w/o serious repurcussions, and it will be that much harder to train him. If you want him as a patrol dog, then seriously consider the e-collar and Lou Castle's crittering technique. Remote training is a definate plus!

You will have to keep them seperated at all times. I have two cats and one isn't bothered (too much) by the GSD, but the other :rolleyes: it is constant sibling rivalry. And believe me, the cat is just as much an instigator.

I still wish I had my old 20 lb tomcat. When I brought my narc dog home, I was told he would kill my cats. (I've seen him kill coconut rats)During the introductory training, he rushed the cats, the next thing you know this dog had his head buried in the bookcase and a very angry cat on his back. As your wife found out, animals can move at some speed! This dog now completely averts his head when walking past a cat.

Also, trade in that choke collar for a prong collar. Better results!