I have two cats who are approximately six years old. Last week, we got a Doberman puppy. All the animals are about the same size and weight now, but the puppy’s going to grow!
At this point, she barks and chases the cats. One of them will swat her, but she’s not impressed. She’s starting to swat back with her giant feet, and I’ve seen her try to bite as well.
The puppy (Lilith) is not trained to do anything. We’re still working on housetraining, and I’ve got some books coming from the library, but I’d really like to start cat-training today. I’m getting worried she’ll grow up and eat them no matter what I do.
My experience with introducing a puppy into a cat-dominated household is that the puppy is **always ** awed and goes cowering when the cat/s assert their power: thus the power-differential is established early on, and the puppy, when full grown, rarely wants to try it on with the pussy, preferring to keep well away from the feline furies.
That your doberman pup is already growling and fighting back doesn’t bode well for the future IMHO. Lilith feels herself the dominant creature (despite her tender age) and will become even more aggressive towards the cats in the future as she grows.
Look, I’m not a trainer or breeder or anything official, so it would be best to wait here on the boards until someone responds who really knows what they are talking about.
It’s just that in my humble experience, it’s impossible to ‘train’ a dog to not respond to cats. Either they’ve got the ‘Oooh, see, CAT, KILL’ gene or they haven’t. Dobermans have been expressly bred in the past as a hunting animal, so the chances are that your Lilith has been bred true to form, and is just expressing her innate instinctual thing. It’s not a fault by any means, but you have to decide whether it’s one you can live with, or whether you want to get rid of the cats or the dog prior to a ‘tragedy’ happening.
You’ve got to convince your dog that the cats are higher up the pack order than he is. It doesn’t help that the cats don’t go for pack order, but at least they’re asserting themselves. Dogs and cats speak different languages, so you have to help translate.
Since you are the pack leader* you have to teach puppy that it’s OK for the cats to bat at him, but not OK for him to bat back or bite. When he does, either scold him or give him something else to do (alternate). It may sound bad that you’re teaching him to accept being abused by the cats, but the goal is to teach him to leave them alone.
*: You are asserting yourself as pack leader, right?
I have 5 dogs (including 2 dobes) and four cats. They all get along, because I insist that they do. I always say I’m the biggest bitch in the house. The only dog I ever had that really didn’t get along with the cats was an airedale, but terriers are all prey-driven. Even so, she could co-exist with them.
Correct your puppy when she does something wrong. Keep a shake can (a soda can with a few pennies) to distract her away from them, and praise her when she leaves them and comes to you. Is she trying to play with them? If she is, she’s not being aggressive, she’s just being a baby. redirect her energy. If it’s just play and the cats get tired of it, they will strike back.
I saw this on an episode of The Dog Whisperer once. If I recall correctly, the technique used was pretty simple.
Put the animals into cages next to each other. Sooner or later they’re going to get used to the sight of one another. Take them out after a good period of time, when they start to mellow down, and reacquaint them. If they are still aggressive, give them the shout-point-and-stare, or another form of getting their attention, then put them back into the cage. If they are non-aggressive give them a reward. Repeating this should do the trick.
Note: When they play around together it might get out of hand, so be sure to leave a good amount of “get to know each other” time before leaving them unattended.
I agree. I’ve had a mixed household for years and we teach dogs that the cats are higher up because even a little bite could kill one. The dogs (well, we’re down to one dog now as the other two have succumbed to old age) are not allowed to chase, act agressivley or bark at the cats. They have learned that the only time it is acceptable to even growl at them is when a cat is in their face.
I make sure the cats aren’t teasing/tempting the dogs and so far it’s been a fairly quiet household.
The only accident we’ve had was years ago, when I first got Abby. She has a bad habit of thinking she’s was the peace keeper, so when our dogs would get in spats she’d jump in the middle. She got bitten badly once, it abscessed, and she almost died.
A variation on the soda can with pennies… my vet recommended a bean bag filled with chains (old dog choke chains or whatever is lying around). If you are not close enough for the soda can to distract, you can throw the bean bag to land near the puppy (But obviously not hit her) to distract her. The loud noise so close can really startle them so they attach bad feelings to whatever they were doing.
Remember that YOU are the boss of the house! (Well, after the cats of course!)
I wouldn’t do the cage thing just because I wouldn’t want to stress out the cats with it.
I’d try the can w/ coins or any other loud startling object. You could also put her on a leash and give it a tug saying “NO” or “OFF” at the same time. Pick whatever word you want to teach her that a certain item is off-limits but be consistent. It’s never too early to start with training, especially when discouraging biting.
Dobermans were created as a personal protection dog (not for hunting) but can still have a high prey drive. They had brains bred in them too so you need to activate that part of her! The last thing you need is an out-of-control dog running the roost.
Until this is under control, make sure your cats always have a place they can escape too out of the pup’s reach.
Also, you should start looking for puppy kindergarten training classes in your area. One she has her shots, it’s time to get the socialization started!
And I hope you’re looking into crate training as well.
I go home for lunch, so I had Lil out of the crate and she started harassing a cat. I called to her and told her no and finally got her attention with a squirt of water from a spray bottle. (The cat was mighty surprised to see the newcomer get his old punishment).