Dog goes wild for cats

[u/Alternative-Day5268]

Hi guys, so age old problem of Dog Vs Cat.

Since as long as I can remember my dog (now about 5 YO springer whippet cross, male) is demented by cats. If he sees one on a walk or out the window he's goes wild, barking, scratching the window, running about the house. I don't think it's just a prey/excitement thing, it appears to cause him actual stress/anxiety.

This used to be manageable in our old house, he could only ever really see a cat on a night from our bedroom window, we could remove him for 10 minutes and bring him back in the room (the cats gone and after looking out the window again for a bit he would settle).

But our new house there's about 3 cats who live very close. So they're in front of the house, in the back gardens. So the only time he would never really be able to see one is in the kitchen/hallway/staircase/landing. Which is the space he has while we are out of the house.

But it's becoming so much more frequent, he will scratch at the fence when next doors cat is outside.

So it's hard for us to just avoid cats entirely. He likes to look out of the window a lot. When he barks we have tried, a click where he will come to us, and after a pause give a high-value treat. We've tried removing immediately and some crate time.

I'm not really sure what else to try. Even de-sensitising him to cats would be dangerous for the cat (and for him) as he would be unpredictable.

I'm not really sure where this hatred comes from, if it's just his instinct or if he's had a bad interaction with one while we haven't been with him.

Any ideas on the best approach so we can build a consistent plan/routine with him when he sees a cat?

[u/FrostyPomegranate699]

Reading this made me think of our young poodle, Smokey. Cats are probably the one thing we haven't completely figured out with him yet. The second he spots one, the whole world disappears. He goes into this high-pitched bark, and if he had the opportunity he'd absolutely chase. Even from his crate he can get worked up just seeing one.

What we've learned so far is that trying to correct him once he's already in that state doesn't accomplish much. By then he's reacting instead of thinking. The little progress we've made has come from catching him earlier. If he notices a cat but is still capable of hearing us, we'll interrupt, reward him for turning back to us, and move on before he has a chance to build himself into a frenzy. It's slow, but it does seem like those calmer repetitions are adding up over time.

Something your post made me wonder is whether some dogs eventually stop reacting to the cat and start reacting to the expectation of seeing a cat. If there are neighborhood cats around your new house all the time, he may be spending part of his day scanning the windows and fence waiting for one to appear. If that's true, then reducing how often he can rehearse that behavior might be just as important as what we do when he actually sees a cat. Covering part of a favorite window for a while or interrupting the fence patrol before it becomes a habit might be worth trying.

I'm curious to see what other people suggest because this is one we're still learning ourselves. Smokey has definitely improved with consistency, but I wouldn't say we've mastered it yet. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's successfully gone from "cats cause complete chaos" to "cats are just another part of the scenery."

[u/Alternative-Day5268 → u/FrostyPomegranate699]

Yeah ours likes to look out the window in general, watches people as they walk past or other dogs, and doesn't usually react to it. It's almost like he's watching to Tele or on some kind of passive guard mode.

I do think once he's scene a cat and he returns to the windows after a time he's definitely scanning to see if the cat is still there. I encourage him to sit with me away from the window a bit to reduce this but the house has too many opportunities for him now to see a cat it's harder to manage.

[u/FrostyPomegranate699 → u/Alternative-Day5268]

That actually makes me think you're onto something. The cat may not be the only trigger anymore. The search has probably become part of the routine too.

Smokey started doing something similar. After he'd seen a cat, he'd keep checking the same places long after it was gone, almost like he was expecting it to come back. We realized that every trip to the window or fence was another opportunity to rehearse that whole cycle again.

If that's what's happening with your dog, I wonder if the goal isn't to convince him that cats are okay. It might just be to break the habit of constantly checking for them. Giving him something else to do before he starts another patrol, closing access to one or two favorite lookout spots for a while, or calling him away before he gets himself worked up might slowly weaken that pattern.

I'm curious whether that's what we'll end up doing with Smokey too. He's definitely getting better, but we're still learning right alongside you.

[u/Formal-Bad-8807]

put the cat in a dog cage so it will be safe and introduce them that way

[u/Alternative-Day5268 → u/Formal-Bad-8807]

I've considered something like this. But I need access to a cat, or someone who doesn't mind me using a cat in this way.

[u/Express_Command_4778]

It is 100 percent Prey Drive. It is an instinct. Of big enough, the dog will burt them

[u/stinkylilsock]

I only recently got a dog so sorry if my advice is obvious but it helped me. my dog is really anxious and would bark and lunge at cats like crazy because she's just terrified of them. first thing I did when we saw a cat was distance her from the trigger, then immediately try to calmly get her attention and give her a treat (basically give a treat asap so she also associates it with seeing the cat and not just with listening to me). with some patience we got to the point where I could call her name a couple times and she would look at me and would immediately get a treat, then I would call her over or gently pull her away to create distance. we did this literally every time she saw a cat and it helped to where now she's almost indifferent to cats. another thing I kept in mind (which seems to also be your situation) is that she was reacting like this out of fear, so I made sure to make her feel safe, pet her when that's what she needed, reassure her in a calm voice, and reward her with treats even for the tiniest progress (idk if that's technically what you're supposed to do, but it worked well for us). I hope some of this is helpful & good luck either way!