Puppy chasing cat

[NotJustACigar]

I've read all the help and advice about preventing a puppy from chasing a cat but am finding it quite difficult to get her to stop.

When we intend to encounter the cat or when it's safe to leave them I can go and get a bunch of roast chicken and get the dog focused only on me when the cat's around. But if we come across the cat unexpectedly when in the garden or something, I've only got a few treats with me usually and once those are gone the puppy will chase the cat as the cat runs away.

Any advice please? Puppy is 13 weeks, poor cat is 9 years.

I would correct for cat chasing tbh.
I know you are supposed to use counter condition with treats, make cat a positive experience etc and I agree with all that and definitely do reward for calm behaviour around cats.

But any hard staring or tensing in preparation to lunge forward and chase, I would have the stern voice and would say hey! Or ah! In a deep, low tone and put the pup away in solitary for a few minutes if indoors and say hey! Or ah! coupled with a leash correction if outdoors.

I would correct. But IME the easiest lesson will come from the cat when the puppy gets too close and ends up with a scratch on the nose. She won’t do it again.

Our dpuppy and dcat have forged their own path....
No bloody nose as yet.

You can correct if you like but highly unlikely to have a lasting effect.

Best to control and manage the situation.

Indoors this is much easier. The cat has to be able to escape the dog so use stair gate and door gates the cat can jump over but the dog can not follow. Tall cat tree the dog can not get up etc.

I would also teach a positive interupter which tends to work better than correction

Consider having a long line on your puppy to prevent the chase

Be careful with how you are handling the food when the cat is around. The dog needs to understand the behaviour you want rather than you just distracting with food when the cat is around.

Personally I dont think it is the cats responsiblilty to have to scratch the dog and sort out this situation- not all cats will be happy to do this

@AlternativePerspective

I would correct. But IME the easiest lesson will come from the cat when the puppy gets too close and ends up with a scratch on the nose. She won’t do it again.

I hate it when people say this as when a cat encounters a dog like mine ( even as a puppy) a cat trying to fight back is never going to win and is likely to end up seriously injured if not worse . If it’s a big issue OP you could try keeping the puppy on a house line until he’s learnt not to chase .

@AlternativePerspective

I would correct. But IME the easiest lesson will come from the cat when the puppy gets too close and ends up with a scratch on the nose. She won’t do it again.

This might be true in some situations, but some dogs will just ignore the warning scratches/hisses and kill the cat.

I've read a fair few horror stories where family dogs have gone too far and the cat has end up severely injured or killed. Ours are never left alone together for this reason, as our dog has quite a high prey drive and I have no doubt he could kill our cats if things went too far one day.

Our cat has learned not to move too quickly when the dog is around. And we have a baby gate on our half Landing so the cat can move around upstairs completely freely. I work from home so the dog is rarely alone in the house and if she is, she's crated because as much as I train her she's got a really high prey drive.

Thanks all. I have a baby gate up, don't leave them together unsupervised and am doing the "look at me then treat" technique as in the video. I will update in a few weeks with a progress update.

Our dpuppy 10 months is the size of a small pony now and her and dcat have been caught playing this last week! No claws out at all!!
Heart warming!

I would say because your puppy is only 13 weeks old its only very young and it will chase the cat at that age as it wants to play. Carry on with the distraction method. What's the best thing to distract your puppy a toy a noise and then reward puppy once hes looked at you and ignored the cat. Make yourself more interesting than the cat. Have a safety gate for your cat also. I have dogs and cats. One of mine will chase the cat as its fun and hes nearly 3. Ironically he let's the cat eat out the food bowl with him. Having said that cats are clever. Mine walk in slowly as its the running thats triggers the chasing. Dogs can get along with cats and you puppy will in time. My dogs have a high prey drive but they do get along with my cats. Your puppy will get use to the cat in time.