Homeland K-9 Dog Training Academy

I have an 8 month old doberman along with a 10 month old kitten.  The kitten is now confined to the closet because every time that she starts to come out of the closet my doberman chases after her and makes her run away and hide.  They have now been living together for about a month.  They have actually been introduced and have known each other since i have brought him home which was when he was 6 weeks old.  Is there anything that we can do to get it so that he will not chase her anymore?  I have worked with correcting him every time that he takes off to go get her but that doesn't seem to be working because he just gets too focused on her.

prey drive is an incredible thing.  it can be a tremendous asset in training.  it can also be your biggest problem.  things are perpetuating with the cat keeping the game going.  i gave up.  three and a half years ago when i adopted smokey, really wanting to make my skills better, i got rid of the cat instead.   I AM NOT TELLING YOU TO DO THAT.  if i was faced with the same situation today, i might go about things a little differently.  sorry i can't be of more help.  i have a bad ferell cat problem that are keeping smokey on his toes.  right now i am not going to face a cat in the house.  you have to face it, you can't avoid it.  try practicing your ob, on leash, invite the cat however you can to just be in the same room.  if he goes into prey drive, correct at a level that is appropriate for the sittuation.  much the same way if a dog is showing aggression unwanted.  try this and let me know how it goes.  since i have little experience with this, hopefully someone else can add.

I agree with Joe on the supervision of you dog when it is with the cat.  We had a cat for 17 years-- she helped "raise" 2 of my labs.  The cat was gradually introduced to them and there was alot of supervision and corrections (to the labs) if they did not  "play nice". As our cat grew up she would defend herself with hissing and a few paw swipes (she had her claws) and the dogs left her alone. 

Maybe while your dog is with the cat you  could provide "something of larger value"--i.e. food, toy--  have the cat in the room for small amounts of time, until they can be together-

This can take awhile our cat spent alot of time upstairs  (on her own accord) as my labs grew up...

Our cat was a SISCA cat and she was not the"model" cat. She had been to several households and then brought back to SISCA  for "behavioral" problems. When she came to our house we already had  our first lab, who was just about 8 months old,like your dog.  It took awhile -- each of them had their own territory- but as they grew up  together they were able to bond. When our first lab died-- the cat  then took on our second lab, who was a challenge--

I found it interesting as the years went on, the dogs would chase after the neighborhood cats, yet the dogs let our cat clean their ears and groom them.

All cats have their own attitudes, hang in there ---

I'm dealing with the same problem right now...My girlfriend moved in not too long ago and brought along with her, her cat. I have a Belgian Malinois (very high prey drive). I agree with Joe on this one. Work on the dog's OB, possibly incorporate the "leave it" command into training. When he looks at the cat and seems to be fixated on it, give him a slight correction and the command, "leave it." He will eventually get the idea to leave the cat alone. This has worked very well with my dog, however it only works when the cat is calm and walking slowly. If the cat runs quickly across the room, thats a different story. My dogs prey insticts kick in and he takes off full speed. I am still working on it but it has helped quite a bit. As Joe mentioned, prey drive can be tremendous in some dogs but OB should help some. Hope that helps.

We kind of have the same problem. When our dog comes in from out side she likes to chase one of our cats (male), right when she walks in the door. I started vurbally corecting the dog, which worked for a little bit, but soon she would just shut me out. So I went to using the leash when we would walk in the house, and correct her with it. She is doing much better now. We are still having a problem with our second cat coming around, and being use to the dog.