Dog that acts like cat (anybody else have this happen?)

[OscarzPeople]

I have two older cats and a 9 week old boxer. Everything was going fine until the puppy started mimicing the cats. The really wierd mimicing behavior is this... he's been climbing up onto the couch back and run back and forth like its his own personal balance beam! Honestly it's kind-of funny to see... but it scares me too. I'm so afraid he'll misstep take a dive right off the top considering he doen't exactly have cat like agility.
I think I'm partially to blame for this behavior. I started letting him up on the couch but just the seat part and now he's on the entire couch!
So far what I've been trying to do to stop this behavior is simply say "No" as I pop him on the rear with an empty paper towel role (makes a loud noise and startles them but doesn't hurt at all). And then I'll remove him from the couch top and place him on the floor. So far no real results. I'm sure with time and consistency this will right itself though. No real big issue here thing is, this behavior seems so bizzar to me that I was wondering if any other boxer owners with cats had weird things like this happen?

 

[hanley]

This sounds normal to me,some Boxers are just more agile than others.My Boxers also do this,my Susie is very agile,just like a cat, poor Cletus tries but he is not as agile, as Susie. Hanley

 

[Lovely Rita]

both maggie and a do this too :D. a actually has the balance of a cat (shes a little pug/jack russel), but maggie is simply hopeless!! and she gets worse as she gets bigger too!

oh these dogs of ours make me laugh!

 

[sgbtab]

mattie does this alot and she is very good at balancing. samson can not figure it out and as a matter of fact samson is almost 8 months old and still can not jump on the bed. what a dufus

 

[Evie&Adam]

Yup! sounds like a normal puppy :D Just wait til he decides he can walk on the dining room table!!! Adam did that once- when he was about 40 lbs.

 

[Upstatestuff]

Kit tried this once but learned quickly that it is unacceptable behavior. . We just gasped at her like the worst thing in the world had happened and she jumped off. She never tried it again. We also have 3 older cats (4, 7, and 9) and she loves chasing them around. She is allowed to sleep on the couch but as soon as she does anything other than sleep she is quickly put on the floor and directed towards one of her toys. We actually counted her toys the other day and it came to 24!! Spoiled brat!

She also can jump from high places and land on all 4 feet and continue running without missing a beat. We accidently found this out when she went into the kitchen and somehow managed to jump up on the cats window seat (at least 4 feet off of the ground) and just jumped off and began doing her boxer burns (laps) around the living room. Since she is a little over a foot tall, this means she would have to jump 3 feet in the air to get into the window seat! crazy little puppies. you gotta love em.

 

[bucca]

as i was reading your post i laughed with the empty paper towel roll. growing up we always had great danes and my mom used to use an empty paper towel roll but she used to hit against her own hand and the noise would get the attention of the dog when she said no. well one day she did that and the dog we had brutus was not in a listening mood (he grabbed a towel and was running around the house with it ripping happily) well as he past my mom she tapped him on the butt well he stopped walked up to her smelled the roll and took it out of her hand and proceeded to rip that too- he realized this thing may make noise but it doesnt hurt, the next time she tried to get his attention by hitting her hand he just looked at her as if to say im no longer scared of that and we never saw another empty roll in the house again.

 

[tiffhill1980]

I have got one better than the couch. Joe climbs on our kitchen chairs and jumps onto our kitchen table. I caught him the other day doing this. Also he jumps on our counter tops and takes our dinner. Now I think its safe to say Joe rules our house. Ive never had a dog act like this til I got a boxer. He just stands there with his head to one side(its so cute) and I just cant get onto him

 

[Ronin1]

Ronin has never done the couch thing, however he acts like a cat in other ways. When he sees something on the ground that he wants or is curious about, he rears up and pounces on it with his front paws. If he happens to see a rabbit or a bird in the back yard, he crouches down low and tries to sneak up on them. His element of surprise is a bit flawed however, as these critters can easily see a 75lb dog about a mile away

 

[OscarzPeople]

Oscar does the whole using-his-paws-like-a-cat thing but I was told that that was a typical boxer trait. (It's so funny to see him pounce though)
Our little pup has recently prefered the cats' toys to his own... I have one of those cat fishing rods, you know with the string attached to a pole with feathers and other what nots dangeling from it, anyway, Oscar can get enough of it. What gets really amusing is when my two cats try to join Oscar in the fun. The pup kicks it into hyper-overdrive-spasticly excited mode!