How do I teach my puppy...

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bex1984

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...that he MUST leave my cats alone?!

He is in no way aggresive towards the cats but is desperate to go and play with them (and that includes chasing them when they run away). The cats are scared of him and so won't stand their ground and give him a (probably much needed) bop on the nose.

If they brave coming downstairs (he's not allowed upstairs), he gets excited and tries to run after them. We have so far held onto him gently and just kept the atmosphere calm, but 2 months of this doesn't seem to have made a difference TBH.

I don't know how to make it clear to him that chasing/barking/whining at the cats is not acceptable behaviour and he needs to leave them completely alone. He understands No, and Leave It, but gets too excited when the cats are there and doesn't listen.

Any ideas?? I miss seeing my cats downstairs :(
 
I would.
Long line and treats

Get cats in the room with you with pup on long line, when he goes to go up to them, call him back - if he comes back, nice treat BIG fuss, if he doesn't, sharp no and when he comes back then treat. Make sure the treat and you are more interesting than those pesky cats and make sure they praise is big and blissfull!!! The long line will make sure they cats are safe and enable you to make him come back.
 
Thank you, I shall try it. i have spent all morning wondering how to stop the cat from just refusing to stay in the room while we do it (our house is all open plan so can't shut us all in one room together!), then I suddenly thought....Tuna!! Fairly sure my female cat will hang around if I bribe her with tuna, and her brother gets jealous of her so he'll want to join in too ;) Plus Stan loves it too so can have it as his reward for leaving them alone.

So...starting this evening we shall be having regular tuna sessions...wish me luck!!
 
Long lining is def one way, another way is for the puppy to see the cats frequently in the same space without being able to chase, for instance if the puppy is crate trained then you place the puppy in the crate and keep him occupied with a kong or bone and encourage the cats in with their food (chicken breast) this way the puppy gets to see the cats when they are still and the cats get to see the puppy in a calmer state, this way they will stick around longer, this then gets frequent interaction with both parties without the chase factor, also dont be affraid to be firm with him, a smacked botty would not hurt in this kind of scenario, he needs to be snapped out of the behaviour, jsut as the tug on the long line would do, he will obs know the smacked botty came from you, but then he knows it's the consiquence for this type of behaviour.
 
Only just caught up with replies, plus thought I'd give a bit of an update...

...tried putting the little monster on a long lead and bringing the cat downstairs...Stan disgraced himself by leaping about barking and growling and did get a fairly firm telling off in the end. Later that evening he encountered one of the cats again, but upstairs (we carry him up the stairs to bed every night - I know it sounds strange but it works) and was nice as pie, not a squeak out of him. It seems to me to be a terrotorial issue - he sees downstairs as his territory and doesn't want to share it with them. He has hit puberty with a vengeance in the last few weeks so I'm wondering whether to wait and tackle this when his balls have come off?!

he is a funny one with his crate, he will whine if we shut him in there when we're around downstairs (I think he feels he is missing out on some fun!) so not sure that would work because the noise would scare the cats, but may be worth a try if he's got a kong in there with him, i think I might try that next :)
 
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