dog tried to attack cat.

[showpony]

In shock! So we got our rescue dog when he was 17wks old, have him about 4 years.we suspect he was quite inbred as there have behaviour issues along the way. Cat was here first so has always lived with him. Since dog hit about 3 there has been chasing in the garden but never an incident in the house. Half an hr ago was in kitchen and the growls and snarling from dog in the sitting room were horrific, dog was trying to pin the cat down under the coffee table! And in my mind was going for the kill. Had to repeatedly force the dog off the cat with the sweeping brush. Cat is as placid as anything and keeps well out of dogs way.

What the heck could have caused dog to turn out of the blue?

 

[CorvusCorax]

TBH if you saw it starting in the garden then it was always probably going to come into the house...most dogs don't think 'well I can do this in the garden but I can't in the house' - it needs to be much clearer than that.
If you didn't see what happened then there is no telling what might have caused it - cat could have antagonised dog, dog may have just thought 'prey - yum' particularly if it has been happening in the garden for a year.

What are you doing now, and do you know how you are going to manage them, to prevent it happening again?

There's nothing to say behaviour issues are due to inbreeding or vice versa (how do you know if he was inbred or not?) but it may be worth popping the dog to the vet to rule out a medical issue.

 

[showpony]

Dog is very up to date with vet checks. It was when we moved to somewhere with land chasing in garden started.. dog in question has lived in house quite happily for last few years with the cat! Re inbreeding the retriever in Ireland is being increasingly in bred, when we got him he had severe food aggression .

 

[CorvusCorax]

Is he used to being crated/do you have stair gates so that the cat can escape if need be?
I wouldn't leave them alone together unsupervised now that you know this is an issue. And obviously don't let the dog chase the cat in the garden!!

Unless you see his pedigree you'll never know if he is inbred or not. Food aggression has nothing to do with inbreeding and inbreeding in Ireland/in retrievers is no worse than it is anywhere else or in any other breed but if he isn't from the best background I suppose that won't help.