Puppy chasing dog

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nativepony

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We're having real problems with our 15 week old lurcher puppy chasing our cat. When we first got her she got swiped by the cat every time she got too close but now the dog has got much braver and every time the cat comes into the house it gets chased out again. Its really making me sad as I love my cat so much but he just feels he can't even come in the house at the moment. I don't think the dog is being aggressive as she is wagging her tail and I think she just wants to play but just wondered if anyone had any advice?
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Distract the dog by throwing a bunch of keys or a plastic bottle with pebbles in it or even a whistle (although that may upset your cat) and call her to you. Much praise when she comes.
The other way is to have her on a lead and let the cat mooch around. If the dog goes to move towrds the cat a sharp tug on the lead and ask her to lie down and then much praise.
They will work it out eventually although a lurcher is a sight hound so may take some time.
Good luck.
CALA may have more constructive ideas the above ones are ones that worked for me and my Old English Sheepdogs and rotties.
 
I would also use the lead option and give her a bloody good tug and check on it, and a firm LEAVE IT, u must step in to reprimand the puppy otherwise the cat would not even bother returning if he/she has to face this everytime.
It's a natural chase instinct and she prob has no intention of hurting at all, not at this age anyway, but it's still not pleasant for the cat.
You could also try a water pistol to deter her, as a negavite assosiation with chasing the cat, but I tend to go straight for the firm option
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esp where other animals are concerned.
Can she not be behind a baby gate, so that cat can bypass her.
 
I presume you don't want her to play with wild rabbits or other peoples cats either in the future, no matter about whether she only does it in a happy way or not?
Only because she wants to play and only because she doesn't want to hunt to kill, it doesn't mean that you have to allow it all the time, your home belongs to both your cat and your puppy and if your puppy doesn't respect when the cat says "No" any more, you must step in. Also considering her breed, right now and here your little puppy might be doing it for fun but there is a real risk that one day it will all turn into practising her skills to hunt your cat. It's much easier to teach a puppy than to retrain an adult dog that has x amount of practise on a certain behaviour, a behaviour that can lead to that you might have to re-home either your cat or dog.

As Mattilda suggested you can distract your puppy to break the chase behaviour.

You can put on a long line and harness, when she chase after your cat, say "No"/"This way"/"Come", if she doesn't stop/turns to come to you, put a foot on the line, when that has stopped her you must remember to tell her what to do instead (come to you, lets go this way, find a toy etc). Some people does, by using a long line and harness, manage to learn their 'likely to be interested in chasing/hunting as adults'-puppies, that their owners have a magic power that can stop them from hunting/chasing at any point and at any time.



Also it doesn't hurt to try and give your cat a little extra yummy treats so that he maybe gets a little more reasons to tell your puppy to take a hike or whatever you call it, because he wants in and eat his yummy treats.

Good luck.
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Thank you for replies - will try the lead option first I think! Also, just realised in my original post I said "Puppy chasing dog", whoops, meant to say "chasing cat!!"
 
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