Can you train a terrier not to chase cats?

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NellRosk

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My JR X is 4 and reaching a point in her life where she's actually quite well behaved now she's calming down. Her recall on walks is fabulous, she's not aggressive with other dogs anymore and she's generally just a nice little dog now. Apart from when it comes to cats! Last night she chased one into an outbuilding and cornered the poor thing for ages yapping at it. I tried everything I could to get her out, shouting at her, coaxing her out with cat biscuits, starting the car and pretending to drive off (usually a fail safe). But when she sees a cat she just completely blanks you out and will not listen to anything you say. I know it's just her being a terrier but is there anything I can do? I was meant to be somewhere last night and ended up really late because I couldn't leave Ruby harrassing the poor cat! They were both behind loads of stuff and I just couldn't get to her. Even resorted to trying poke the little s*** out with a broom handle but she was impervious to anything! Help greatfully received, I think my cats have had enough being harrassed.
 
You could try a collar that sprays citronella to distract the dog. We had one on our Parsons JR (to improve her recall) when she started to chase a cat. I was impressed that the collar worked when the dog was flying along. You would have to have the dog wear it all the time and be ready with the remote control - not easy.
Good luck.
 
I used a citronella collar on out lab who started woofing loudly for no reason (he'd stand in the middle of the garden and bark for hours) it worked brilliantly.
I sympathise although your doing better than me! Mine has calmed down and become a lovely dog 99% of the time finally at the grand old age of 9! Yesterday though he actually chased a cat very closely, far too close for my liking all the way across the fields we were walking across back to cats house, through the owners garden and up a tree. Talking no notice whatsoever of me! Id hald hoped said cats owners would be sat in the garden and give him a swift kick up the ****!!!
The joys of terriers ;)
 
I used a citronella collar on out lab who started woofing loudly for no reason (he'd stand in the middle of the garden and bark for hours) it worked brilliantly.
I sympathise although your doing better than me! Mine has calmed down and become a lovely dog 99% of the time finally at the grand old age of 9! Yesterday though he actually chased a cat very closely, far too close for my liking all the way across the fields we were walking across back to cats house, through the owners garden and up a tree. Taking no notice whatsoever of me! Id half hoped said cats owners would be sat in the garden and give him a swift kick up the ****!!!
The joys of terriers ;)
 
I cant! My terrier does flyball and agility so ground work is excellent. I can call him off a rabbit or deer in a word but can i call him off a cat - no way! He's 3 and a half.
 
HGA-12 said:
I would keep her on a lead and do some ground work, when there are cats about so you can pull on the lead and say "NO".

or one of these would stop him barking at it
or

google it here is one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2eoks2lwtE
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I've tried this, she just loses all sense of herself when she sees one and no amount of pulling/ shouting/ reasoning will get her to focus again until the offending cat has gone!
 
poiuytrewq said:
I used a citronella collar on out lab who started woofing loudly for no reason (he'd stand in the middle of the garden and bark for hours) it worked brilliantly.
I sympathise although your doing better than me! Mine has calmed down and become a lovely dog 99% of the time finally at the grand old age of 9! Yesterday though he actually chased a cat very closely, far too close for my liking all the way across the fields we were walking across back to cats house, through the owners garden and up a tree. Talking no notice whatsoever of me! Id hald hoped said cats owners would be sat in the garden and give him a swift kick up the ****!!!
The joys of terriers ;)
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I think I'll try one of these! Lol, I love terriers but they can be nightmares sometimes!! I was rather hoping the cat would give her a hefty swipe (obviously avoiding her eyes) last night because she bl00dy deserved it.
 
SplashofSoy said:
I cant! My terrier does flyball and agility so ground work is excellent. I can call him off a rabbit or deer in a word but can i call him off a cat - no way! He's 3 and a half.
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I think it's just programmed into them to go bananas when they see one! Our cats rarely come into the house due to demon terriers but if someone takes the dogs out they like coming in for a fuss. You should see the dogs when they come home.. Sniffing everywhere and tear arsing round the house to see if the cats are still in!
 
Mine has never been fussed by cats, he wants them to be his friends and he'll try and get them to play but he's very respectful of them (faintly terrified), he's regularly lose on the yard with cats, kittens, chickens and chicks without any worry.

Of course this is of no help what so ever to the OP but you know, it's not often I get to boast about how well behaved he is! :D
 
Dizzle said:
Mine has never been fussed by cats, he wants them to be his friends and he'll try and get them to play but he's very respectful of them (faintly terrified), he's regularly lose on the yard with cats, kittens, chickens and chicks without any worry.

Of course this is of no help what so ever to the OP but you know, it's not often I get to boast about how well behaved he is! :D
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Would you like another one Dizzle?!? She's well behaved 99% of the time. I was SO close to writing her 'free to good home' ad last night.
 
We don't still use the collar, it was borrowed to train her to recall. Our problem is rabbits and squirrels - she was off in hot pursuit.as soon as the door was opened. The cats are trained not to come into the garden when the dog is out!
Now she's nine the recall is a lot better, but she still likes to give blackbirds perched in the trees a good barking at.
 
Our Lakeland Cross boy is fine with the cats we have here (three) and will let them rub up against him and lie down on the sofa together, BUT let the Enemy Ginger Cat from next door stray in here then that's a different matter :)

We've had him since he was a pup, and the dog and the kittens sort-of grew up together really; so it wasn't a situation of having to re-train like OP's got, he just knew from the word go that chasing the cats was totally unacceptable.

Sorry, no suggestions other than those suggested here.
 
My little dog is very good and rarely chases anything, but cats are a different matter entirely, all common sense goes out of the window when she sees one and she's off. Luckily it happens very rarely nowadays.

I put it down to her being attacked by one when she was only a few weeks old.
 
Honestly? Not really. We have three cats. Our late westie adored them, and they adored her, they spent a lot of time cuddling and were best mates. She still loved to chase them occasionally though if she wanted to play, and strange cats were fair game. On a lead she would soon settle down, but we never cracked the off lead bit.

Current pup is a work in progress, he does love our cats and really tries not to chase them, but he gets very excited and ends up bouncing on them like tigger. :rolleyes: It's hilarious to watch as you can see him trying really hard to stay calm and just cuddle, but the inner loon gets the better of him. He isn't allowed off the lead on walks yet but I imagine that if he met a cat he would be terrible too :(
 
Our Jr hated cats and would chase without thought until Magic can along. He was a massive black cat who adopted us. He walked straight into the house one day jumped into the sofa whilst the dog ran up to him he put his big paw out and showed his claws and the dog never went near him again. He also used to go see a man down the road on fish and chip day. He walked into the house past the gsd waiving his tail after some fish. That cat was not scared of anything.
 
An adult terrier very hard work : ) one way would be to get a kitten in the house let the dog know it's part of the family . And gradual supervised contact , may work , but it may be to late . Best time for breaking terriers to other animals is as a pup .
 
It's a chase instinct and once they are in chase mode you just can't get through to them, however conditioned their training. You have to catch it in the millisecond before the prey runs - then you might. And half of the problem is the cat that will always run.
My JRT learned to tolerate the cat in the house (had her in her crate while the cat was about and she learned to cope with his presence very well and quite quickly) and then the cat learned not to scamper off. Outside though all bets were off - the chase is just too strong an instinct once they have learned it, and not learned as a puppy to ignore it.
 
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