- This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
We adopted Lucy, our rescue Doberman cross, three week’s ago. Lucy is 14 month’s old and was very neglected with no training, walking or socialisation throughout her puppyhood. She is progressing brilliantly with her training, is very settled into our home and is a valued family member. Our one issue is she was cat tested at the shelter and was great with the shock-proof shelter felines, however our two cats are potential toys/prey/let’s not find out! each time she sees them. We had a well recommended dog trainer conduct a one-on-one assessment in our home. They accurately stated our cats were a big part of the problem as they weren’t dog friendly (absolutely true!), wanting to run as soon as Lucy came into view, and by doing so provided something fun for her to chase. The trainer suggested for the next training session we place our cats in cat boxes so they can’t escape before letting Lucy explore these, on leash. We’ve decided not to proceed with this as it’s way too risky and could go horribly wrong very quickly.
My question is has anyone successfully trained their Doberman to settle with nervous cats and not chase them, without resorting to them being held captive?Attachments:
-
We have a 3 year old Doberman that was not raised around cats and would bark at them from the door etc. We moved in with my mother recently who has 2 cats, 1 in particular really disliked Mila (at first she would just try to sniff then when the cat would bolt the chase was on)
Since, we have slowly tried to acclimate them and we have had what I would consider as success in this scenario. First few times we would hold Mila and let her see the cat and sniff at her while the cat was eating or somehow distracted, then we kind of allowed them to be around each other, kept Mila restrained at first then as she calmed a little we would let her off (at times chase would break out; the dog would get reprimanded and so on) but after a few weeks of doing this they have seemed to relax. The dog just wanted to get her curiosity sniffs out but the cat wouldn’t have it, in turn making her life harder lol. another thing that helped that probably isn’t a good thing lol is the cats LOVE her dog food. Mila is a grazer so if food is in her bowl they would come nibble while she was out of the room, then they would come in when she was in the room as long as she didn’t come by the food (I think this helped the cats get to know her scent without being close to her) The cat by no means has tried to befriend the dog and it’s been a slow process but it’s become a civil relationship at least and no one has to be held captive
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Toledo, United States.
