Hi all! I'm going to try to include all relevant information without overloading the post. Our dog is 2.5yo male, 125 lb great pyrenese/bernese mtn dog mix. He was neutered at 18 months (Nov. 2020). Our cat is between 7-8yo, spayed female, and has lived with us since before we had our dog, so he's lived with her his whole life.
For the majority of their time together, the cat taught him that she was more dominant with normal cat behaviors when confronted with a large dog (hissing, swiping). She never drew blood or chased him down or anything, but she definitely let him know where her limits were if he got to close or acted too rowdy near her. He never retaliated and seemed to understand what she wanted. In the times she was feeling in a good mood, she would approach him, and he would stay very still, just wagging his tail and let her come to his face and they would sniff each other and then she'd leave and he'd get up and go about his day.
Well, all of this has seemed to change in the last 2 weeks. From what I can tell, her behavior to him hasn't changed, but now all of a sudden if she approaches him/us(my husband and I) when he's laying with us or if he's between her and us, he has started charging her aggressively (jumping up from a down position, barking, and growling). It was such a startling change in behavior that it took a couple times of it happening for us to confirm that he was actually barking/aggressive at her and not just reacting to some sound outside.
Some things in our lives have changed in the past couple of months - we moved into a new house a month ago. I am also 30 weeks pregnant, although I'm not sure he notices/realizes that I'm pregnant? I mention it though because the aggression does seem like it may be in some way protective of us?
So question is how to redirect this new aggression? Once we realized what was happening, we started doing some big "NO" and place commands but tbh, those negative reinforcements haven't always been our best with long-term results. It's a way for us to communicate we don't like that behavior but we don't see it changes his long term behavior like positive training. For the most part, we try to engage in training of redirections and opposing behaviors. The best idea I've had so far is to rain the treats down on him when he sees the cat in the same room, when he looks and disengages, etc. I've only just started doing this so not expecting to see results yet, but wondering if there's something else we should be doing? Also has anyone else seen their dog display new aggressive behaviors out of the blue to housemates they've had their whole life?
Thanks in advance!
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We’ve had our now 2 year old shepherd mix (maybe ridgeback-malinois?) for 21 months. We have two adult cats as well. Daisy the dog wants to play and be friends, but the cats want none of it. Their interaction ranges from daisy sniffing and licking them so much the cats get annoyed and aggressive, to actually chasing or cornering them and trying to play. It’s not outright aggression on the dog’s side but it makes for chaos and we are constantly telling her “no.” We are currently doing time-outs (leash anchored to the couch) for getting too much in the cats’ space, but I swear this dog has a flat learning curve. She’s super food motivated but I feel like using treats to distract her is a kind of reward—go for the cat, get a treat.
Anything else we can try so she’ll just ignore them? They might even give her cuddles if she was more calm and less in their face.
UPDATE: I just wanted to update this because the weirdest thing is happening. I think the cat might be letting the dog become her friend...the cat (an evil one named Zut) is now letting the dog lick her head and inside her ears, but very confusingly is also growling at the same time and then hisses at the dog when she’s done. They’re also kind of playing a hide and seek game, but the cat is still exhibiting aggression signs even though she seems to be actively seeking out interactions, rubbing her face on the wall/chair while looking at the dog. I will probably cross-post to a cat behavior sub, because now I agree with the dog that this cat is sending very confusing signals! Silly dog still hasn’t learned anything from hisses and scratches, though...
I recently rescued a 2 1/2 year old Doberman Shepherd mix. It seems she has settled in well and is getting along with the cats except when they come near food. Whether it’s her food dish or if we are eating on the couch and they come near us. I can usually catch it as it starts with her lip starting to raise and distract her but if I don’t catch it she will snap at the cats. She is totally ok with us near her food, we can take her dish away and stick our hands in it no problem.
I am wondering what the best approach to training her against this is? There isn’t much info on dog food aggression towards cats that I have been able to find. I don’t want to make it worse, any suggestions?
Hi r/Dogtraining. I need some help with my 5 year old Olde English Bulldogge, Rufus. He has always been a very sweet, mild mannered dog until last week when he started lunging, barking and snapping at my girlfriend's cat. My girlfriend and I moved in together about 6 months ago. The cat is not a fan of the dog, sometimes hissing and swiping at him if he gets too close, other times just ignoring him. The dog has previously been very good about backing off when the cat gets upset, just getting out of the way, maybe whining a little bit at the cat. They even had something of a truce when they both want to sleep on the bed cuddled against my girlfriend.
About a week ago, while both the dog and the cat were laying on the bed with my girlfriend, Rufus suddenly lunged and snapped at the cat. They had been laying quietly and there had been no provocation from the cat. He did not chase after the cat, just lunged and snapped to run the cat off. This has happened about a dozen times in the week since, usually in close proximity to my girlfriend. I think it has a lot to do with Rufus being totally in love with my girlfriend and seemingly being possessive of her and aggressive toward the cat when she is near my girlfriend.
When this happens, I discipline Rufus with a strong verbal rebuke and moving him to a time out away from us for a short time. We also greatly upped the amount of exercise he is getting every day, nearly tripling our walking distance and duration, hoping more exercise and stimulation would make him calmer.
So I need advice on how to get the dog to be less possessive of my girlfriend and make him willing to share her with the cat again. I thought maybe they could do some basic training exercises with her as the lead so he would see her as more of an authority figure. Might that help reduce his possessiveness of her? Any suggestions are greatly welcomed as we have to figure something out before the cat is injured or we have to find different living arrangements for the dog, which would break both of our hearts but particularly mine since he is my best buddy.
Thank you.
Hi, my husband and I adopted a one and a half year old (ish) bulldog mix. He's a big guy - around 100 pounds. He is very friendly, low energy and extremely good natured. We have another dog at home and they have been getting along great. He fits into our lifestyle really well. But (a very big "but") he is not good with our cats. We introduced them slowly (through closed doors and eventually a baby gate) over a period of two weeks. When he finally "met" the cats - through a baby gate with the cats on the other side of the room - it was clear he was fixated on them. He will stand starring at them with his ears pinned back in silence and eventually start whining if we don't pull him away from the baby gate. We have done some research and are aware these are very bad signs. We have had him for around three weeks now and do not let him in the same room as the cats. When we aren't home he sleeps in our closed off mudroom. We got him neutered this week. We have put a lot of time and effort into training him and he is smart so he knows sit, stay, come, paw etc. very well, but will NOT listen to us when he is fixated on the cat.
Is there anything that can be done? Would a dog behavioralist or trainer be able to help? Will he get used to them at some point? Is this a clear cut case of "prey drive" that can't be helped?
We love this dog, but we cannot keep him if he continues to be a threat to the cats. Any thoughts or help at all is much appreciated.