Dog reacting to cats when out walking

[duvetdrama]

Hi, my one year old pup is really reactive to cats when we are out walking. There's loads of cats in our neighbourhood and everytime she sees one she is barking and lunging at them. One time, a couple of months ago a cat came out from under a car and gave her a real fright so I wonder if it stems from this. She lives with two cats and doesn't bother them. Any ideas/tips? Thanks 😊

Walk somewhere else or you'll make it worse. Good that she doesn't react to your cats.

Honestly entirely par for the course for us - but I have a breed which is notorious for disliking cats (prey drive), and it isn't enough of an issue for me to try and fix it.

Walk somewhere else or you'll make it worse
I think its pretty impossible to walk somewhere and guarantee that no cats will be in the area!

Try and be alert to any cats and get in there with a treat before she reacts or do a swift about turn. Our dog was very reactive to lots of things but has grown out of a lot of them. He still reacts to cats that are staring at him. We have 2 cats at home and he's always been fine with them though. We have a big black and white cat and there's a cat identical to him that visits our garden, we all struggle to tell them apart but our dog knows the difference and will bark him off.

Our dog hates cats and squirrels. I don't know of a dog who doesn't try to give chase to either or both... it's what dogs do.

Our dog is weird, she cosies up to cats in the street if they don't run. There are a couple that let her lick them and they lick her in return but if a cat runs she is compelled to chase it.

It's normal. My beagle lives with three cats with no problems, but he goes bonkers at cats he sees when we're out.

He was sat in the car last week while I was getting something out of the house - he spotted a cat walking down the road and went absolutely nuts lol.

Avoiding them is impossible and 99% of the time, the dog spots them before I do so there's no way to distract them either. I just keep a tight grip on the lead and either turn around or walk past as fast as I can, lol.

Mine very nearly got my neighbours cat this morning which decided to come in the garden while we were playing. What the hell it was thinking is beyond me! If it had slipped on the way up the fence it would have been game over .

He's very reactive to cats I tend to just walk away from houses , we're a bit limited as he also hates off lead dogs so that leaves the main road which fr some reason he likes walking up and down (village main road with grassy verges) and gardens etc which only allow on lead dogs . He will not walk down my street - millions of cats- but does enjoy watching out the window - has a great view from the top of the house

@Scandishores222 I took the treats out with me this evening on our walk to do some training and guess what? No cats 😆 She was on high alert past the usual cat homes.. will definitely give this a try another time.

Typical 😄 you might also want to up the treats-something irresistible, roast chicken, steak, ham. Hopefully she'll make a new association cat=amazing food.

Well, guaranteed plenty of cats in residential areas but very few in woodlands, mountains, moors, beaches... so I'd get in the car and get out of town.

@villainousbroodmare we go walking away from residential areas twice per day, usually to a national trust woodland a couple of miles away. The evening walk is around our small village, where there are lots of cats.

@Scandishores222 yes, it was irresistible treats we used when she was first introduced to our own cats so that's a good idea