Adoptee going after my cats.

[katja71578]

My husband and I adopted a 1 1/2 year old boxer. She's doing very well in the house and in her crate. She listens to both of us when we tell her to sit, stay, lay-down, etc. The only problem is she keeps trying to go after my cats. I'm not sure if she is trying to "get" them, or if she just wants to play. I'm afraid to let her go and see what will happen. We just moved into our new house a week ago and the upstairs has no furniture just yet, and I'm afraid that the cats will try to run up there to hide, but there is nothing for them to hide under and Aliah (the dog) will corner them and stomp or bite them.

We've been either locking the cats upstairs and Aliah run free around the house, or letting the cats free and keeping Aliah in her crate, or on her harness and leash. If the cats walk in the room, Aliah is fine. If they jump or run, Aliah tries to go after them, and we squirt her with a water bottle.

We're considering getting a muzzle and seeing what she might try to do, but I'm still worried that she will stomp them.

I took Aliah over to my sister's house last night to play with her dog, and I noticed that she kind of 'head-butts' when she plays and stomps her feet on the ground....that makes it even harder for me to tell the difference between playing with and 'getting' the kitties.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions? If anything happens to my cats, the dog has got to go.

 

[Chris W.]

prey drive

My rescue has high prey drive too, we got her at age 1. The dogs we've had raised with the cat (now 13yo) knew to be gentle right off, or the cat would whomp on them. Cat Respect, haha.
Well, we've had her a year now, and have always watched her like a hawk. We tell her be nice and don't interfere when she is being gentle. We held the cat and she was on leash and she was allowed to smell the cat til her heart was content. Usually we can catch her running towards the cat, issue a no command and she stops immediately. We've been completely consistant for this year. They all have the run of the house at night when we're sleeping now, and occasionally now I will still find a chew spot on the cat, only 2 in the passed 6 months.
She has learned that as long as she is gentle, she is allowed to continue to interact with our cat. When she gets too rough, the priviledge is removed.
Our cat refuses to hide and is pretty tolerant of her, I noticed that the cat is teaching her too how to be gentle. He will sit there and let her annoy the heck out of him, and when she crosses the line, after he's growled at the dog and she continues, he will snap at her lip. He does't have front claws.

 

[jdvz79]

To start off (NOT TO START A SCUFFLE) but you should have thought about the fact that some dogs chase cats. Paticularly with a rescue because sending the dog back to a shelter is the WORST thing for the dog. Did you get her from a boxer rescue? Most recues can find a dog that is good with cats. The squirt bottle is probobly not the best idea! You could cause her to have a fear of water or anger toward you. I found that a firm NO! follwed by a down stay helps them learn that they are doing something there not supposed to.

 

[Matt S]

by katja71578
Does anyone out there have any suggestions? If anything happens to my cats, the dog has got to go.

Firstly, a couple of ??'s

How long have you had the dog?

Did you consider that this situation may arise before you adopted your dog?

I hardly think it would be fair on the dog if it gets off loaded again for something it has no control over.
It's not the dogs fault that you have cats & that it doesn't know how to react around them as yet.
I also do not think putting a muzzle on the dog is the long term solution to any problem, to my way of thinking it'll only create more issues.
This situation can be resolved, but no doubt it'll take time & effort on your part.
Here are a couple of links on the subject.

http://www.doggiedoor.com/dogscat.shtml

http://www.paw-rescue.org/PAW/DogTip_Cat.html

This is not a uncommon problem & there are plenty more sites out there, these are just 2 that I've come across previously.
Also it may pay to use the Boxerworld search engine & do some searches on keywords such as 'cats', 'introducing cats' or 'boxers cats'.
Best of luck.

 

[Scrapper's Mom]

Get a baby gate and gate off a room or area for the cats. You could also put up a cat tree downstairs that they can climb on if they are being chased. Then try and let the dog and the cats work out their relationship. As long as the cats have a safe haven they can get to when they are being chased, you shouldn't have to worry about them being hurt. Only intervene if there's an imminent threat of harm and don't overreact. Scrapper chases our kitty Roscoe all the time. It's his favorite pastime. We have a bedroom gated off for Roscoe, with his food and water bowls in there and he goes in there if Scrapper is hot on his trail. We also have a floor-to-ceiling cat tree in the corner of the family room where Roscoe perches all the time and watches over everything.

But I have to tell you, although at first Roscoe was angry and acted as if he were afraid of Scrapper, ever since Roscoe was once cornered by Scrapper and found out that the worse that will happen is a thorough tongue bath, he prowls all over the house. Roscoe doesn't particularly care for the "paw" that Scrapper uses to try to pin him down, but he's agile enough to avoid it. Also, cats have sharp claws and teeth and are pretty good at defending themselves. The dog and the cats will learn the parameters of their relationship after a while. I actually think Roscoe likes Scrapper now, kinda sort of.

 

[katja71578]

Okay, let me answer your questions....

1) We got Aliah from a boxer rescue

2) We brought her home Sept. 30

3) We knew that this might happen, but we were hoping that it wouldn't.

Now let me explain the situation with the boxer rescue...the rescue we're going through won't let us "adopt" Aliah until she is spayed. Well, she went into heat on Sept. 8 and they won't spay her until two weeks after her heat cycle and she is still currently bleeding just a little bit. She is scheduled to have surgery on Oct. 17. So, we are currently fostering her.

WE DO NOT WANT TO GET RID OF HER. She is a cute, sweet, wiggly, fuzzy baby who has had a rough life so far. We want nothing but to give her a loving, warm, happy home. I know that I'm crazy to think that 6 days is going to make such a huge difference in any animal's behavior. We are hoping that having her spayed will take some wind out of her sails, so to speak. I am sure that they will find their own happy medium, but I am just being over-protective of my cats.

We have a cat tree that we can put upstairs so they can climb out of reach...and in the basement we have a room with a cat door already built in (that's where their boxes are right now). I was just looking for some solutions to be pro-active...trying to break this habit before it gets out of hand. My first post sounded kinda harsh, anti-dog and all...and I didn't mean it to sound like that.

Thank you for the suggestions! I hope they work!