puppy becoming aggressive

planetx

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I adopted a puppy and a week later took in a mother cat and her kittens. The puppy has grown up with them around, and has always been fine with them up till now. He's 6 months old, and is going through adolescence

There've been 2 incidents in the last 2 days that are worrying me. The first was when the dog was in his bed, feeling unwell (tummy upset). The kittens came up to him, as they have done a hundred times before, but he chased them - not playful as he sometimes does, he really went for them and was snarling and growling. I put it down to him feeling sick, but yesterday I was carrying a plate of food (meat) and one of the kittens ran up to my leg and the dog did the same aggressive chase - he was defending the food, which wasn't even his...
I've been watching them together since, and they're fine again, but I'm worried about when the next time will be. I want to nip this in the bud, does anyone know what I should be doing with the puppy to stop this?
 

farleyv

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I would def not leave them alone. My son had a puppy that grew up with his two adult cats. She was a malamute.

She went after one, pinning him to the ground. The other cat came to his buddys rescue and jumped on the dog. Fur was flying. Then, I actually saw the dog kill a neighbors cat that had wandered into the yard. It was an awful situation, but the dog had to be pts. But not for this reason, chronic health problems.

I say where there is smoke there is fire. What kind of dog is this? Although any dog can attack a cat, some breeds are more apt to develop this behavior.

I would seek the advice of an experienced dog trainer to see if this can be nipped in the bud. But in the meantime, IMO, no alone time together.The cats really have no defense against a dog attack and you would hate for something to happen.
 

gareth

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I'm in a similar position. We had two dogs and a cat, which came with my shiny new wife and much as I am fond of them they are really her pets.

However, I have always had a house of cats and soon wanted my own kitten. I put it off for three years but recently succumbed and got a burmese kitten, whom I have already falled desperately in love with. The dogs are "OK" with her - actually more intimidated by her than anything else - but every now and again there is a growl or a snap, and I'm not happy leaving them alone. I joked with my wife that if the dogs attack my kitten she'll come home from work to find them nailed to the ceiling, but in reality I'd just be devastated.

If this is a recent development you need to nip it in the bud with the dog. If he will attack your cat he WILL attack other animals too if it is not controlled and he learns this behaviour has no consequences, but this can be trained out of them in most cases.
 

rafm

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I will preface my comments with this....I have a cat aggressive dog that lives peacefully among 5 cats. Sometimes it is a tenious peace, but a peace none-the-less.

To me, it does not sound like you have a cat aggressive dog just yet, what you have is a puppy trying to determine his place in a pack that really isn't a pack (cats aren't pack animals). Under no circumstances is the dog allowed to chase the cat, period. For no reason, not even in play....they can't always tell where the line between play/aggression begins and ends. Now, you may think the way to stop that is through yelling and punishment, which is not the case. When the dog chases the cat, distract him with a toy....you are basically redirecting his attention away from the cat. By using punishment, the dog will come to see the cat as a source of competition. You don't want that.

Another thing you must do is always give the kitties attention first. Even if he's jumping all over you, talk to/greet the cats before him. Feed the cats, treat the cats before the dog. When it is time to watch TV, kitty gets prime location on your lap, dog gets to lay next to you.

If you see the dog beginning to show signs of a chase (pulling jowl back to expose teeth or moving into a more crouched position, immediately call out his name and redirect him. If he does get a chase in, give a firm 'No Chase' or 'Leave It' and then redirect and praise.

Have you begun obedience training with the dog yet? This is imperative that you do so. This will train both you and your dog to focus on your voice, provide him with an array of commands that aren't confusing (ie: you will hear people tell their dog 'down', meaning they want him to lay down but when he gets on the couch they yell 'down' but that means they want him off the couch, how's he supposed to know the difference?) and will give him coping strategies for dealing with the cats (Leave It is one of my all time favorite commands that we have used extensively with our dogs).

Basically, the dog has to come at the bottom of the pack, or at minimum below the cats.

We adopted Charlie when he was about a year old, not knowing he was child and cat aggressive. The child part wasn't as big a deal as we don't have children and we could easily muzzle him for walks. The cat part was another story. He went after, and I do mean after one of our cats shortly after bringing him home. My DH was home when it happened and let's just say, Charlie never knew what happened in that moment. At that point, we knew we either had to give him back to the rescue or figure out a way to cope with his aggression. Thousands of dollars later, Charlie is now almost 11 and a peaceful and content member of our family. Now, if we put his food down and a cat walks up to eat out of his owl, Charlie will sit about 2 feet away from his bowl and allow the cat to eat as much as they want. We do not stop this. They are above him and thus get first dibs on food, he knows this now. However, even though he is almost 11, we still see flashes of the aggression, although tightly controlled now. About a month or so ago he was asleep on the couch and one of the cats stepped over his head and attempted to head butt him. I looked over (because we still monitor their close interactions) and he was pulling his teeth back. I issued a strong correction, pushed the cat off the couch and then made him go lay off the couch. Something about that cat trying to love on him was not what he wanted. And that's OK, but he has to be appropriate in his response (which would have been to either move or get off the couch entirely).

Also, get your pup neutered if you haven't done so already. This will also help.

Good luck, sounds like your pup just needs to understand the heirarchy in your home.....this won't be the first challenge to that heirarchy. Just continue with your obedience and remain consistent in your interactions and all should be fine.
 
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planetx

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thanks, the dog is due to be neutered soon and I'm hoping that will help. I'm sure that hormones are a lot to do with this. He was a rescue pup and has turned out to be part greyhound - but I don't think that's the problem. He's fine with the cats outside, it's in the kitchen where we have the trouble, and he's been so good with them until now.
I think RAFM got it right about the place in the pack. That happens around puberty anyway doesn't it, and I've noticed he's become a lot more headstrong and less obedient the last while. I will definitely try to bring up the cats in the pack order. At the moment I'm being really careful that I never feed one in front of the other, the dog is really food obsessed at the moment as he's just grown tall enough to steal from the counters and table - and he's had some big successes, so he's trying it all the time!

It's hard because the new cat and kittens just won't stay away from him. As I was typing the mother cat got into the dogs bed with him, and was purring and rubbing her head on him. They lay together for a few minutes, and then he started rough play, mouthing on her, and then got out of the bed and started barking and pawing at her. At that point I took her out of the dogs bed because he seemed annoyed. She's a strange cat, she always wants to be in the dogs bed.
thanks you've given me some ideas. I need to work on obedience for sure.... THIS is why I prefer cats
 

rafm

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I wouldn't have removed the cat from the bed, you reinforced his possessiveness and rewarded aggressive behavior. I would have issued a 'leave it' correction and redirected him to another place to lay down. If the cat is truly above him, he cat gets to lay where the cat wants to lay. I know that doesn't sound 'fair' but that is a people concept, not an animal concept.

Regarding the food aggression, seek professional guidance on that, immediately. Food aggression can turn ugly quickly and you do not want to deal with that. We adopted a sweet little pup last year. She is timid and one of the sweetest dogs I have ever met. She LOVES Charlie. At around 8 months she began showing signs of food aggression. Attempting to chase any cats that even walked near her bowl. She also went nuts on Charlie one day when he tried to sneak a morsel. We started having to feed her in the living room so we could monitor her. When a cat would walk by her dish and she began to lunge or start a chase, we redirected her to her bowl. She got 15 minutes to eat and once those 15 were up, her food was removed. She eventually learned that she didn't have time to mess with the cats, if she was going to eat, she has to stay focused.

Do not give the dog table scraps, ever. This makes him think that people food is something to fight for since it's so tasty. If the dog knows he won't get anything anyway, he'll stop. Gate him out of the kitchen if you have to for a while until this passes an he learns to ignore human food.

I strongly urge you to get into obedience immediately. I can't say this enough. And get him neutered sooner rather than later.

Dogs are great companions, especially after the time has been spent training them to be that special companion. They offer something cats don't. For me, it's a great balance, having both.
 

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I agree with removing the cat from the dog's bed, the cats all have places that they can go to be away from the dog - the dog doesn't have that. If you continue to allow the cats to "bully" the dog (by letting them take over his safe place), you can correct him all you want but you make it far more likely that one day he's going to have enough and do something about it without giving any warning (growling, barking, etc).

Are your cats on a feeding schedule or are they free fed? If they're scheduled, can you make the puppy's schedule the same as theirs, then separate the puppy in another room while everyone is eating? If they're free fed, for now, I would suggest filling up their food while the puppy is eating.

I would also work on creating boundaries for you puppy. Our dogs are only allowed in one section of the kitchen, where the communal water fountain is. They know not to go in the kitchen now, although when the dachs were younger they definitely tried to push it. Now when we're cooking, the dachs are sharing a bed and Josh is on the floor or the couch (if we let her up there).

The dog being part greyhound may have a part in it. They are sighthounds, it can't be trained out of them but it can be managed. I would STRONGLY advise you not to leave the dog out alone with the cats when you go out - you cannot train out instincts that have been bred in but you can manage them. You would be taking a huge risk by leaving them out together alone.

I would implement Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) training right away. Basically, the dog isn't allowed to do anything without doing something for it. He wants food? He has to sit and stay before getting it. He wants up on the couch? He has to be invited. He wants you to pet him? He has to do what you ask before.

I would also start working on his obedience and get him a training collar. Is he greyhound type or more the type of whatever he's mixed with? If he's greyhound type, I would use a martingale collar, any other type I would use a prong collar - they don't hurt the dog, they just make them uncomfortable when you are providing a correction. When properly fitted, they will not damage your dog's trachea. He's old enough now that he should be responding to your commands, when you say them, right when you say them. If he doesn't (and it's a command he knows), give him a small correction and give him the command again. Continue until he does it, then treat positively. As he is improving with his obedience, start working with him in higher distraction settings. As he begins to perform well in one distraction setting, up the level and move him to another setting. As an example, inside your home (with the cats not present) is a low distraction setting, with the cats out it's higher, then move out into your yard where it's a bit more distracting, slowly working up to an area where there is a lot going on - park with kids, downtown area, etc.

For what it's worth, here are the commands that I would work on now:
Sit
Lay Down
Off
Leave it
Watch Me (where the dog looks at you when you ask it to)
Come
Stay
Go To [Bed, couch, room]
 

arlyn

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I agree with not rewarding your dog's 'hoarding' tendancies.
My dog was very much as you describe your pup, and at 60 pounds, I needed to get a handle on it fast.
He is low man on the totem pole, something I reinforce every day, humans first, cats second, dog last, in everything, every day.
He was food aggressive, toy possessive, bed possessive.
The biggest thing that helped with his possessiveness was that he has his stuff, the cats have theirs, and that is made clear to him, and to the cats.
Crate training can be a huge help as far as his bed, that's his space, no one else's, his safety zone, the cats are not allowed in it, no human, myself included is allowed to pull him from it.

It boils down to setting clear boundaries and sticking to them.
All dogs, no matter how big or small need obedience training, but the most effective training methods train not only the dog, but you as their handler.
Obedience classes that focus on you as a team are well worth every penny.

Get your pup neutered and get him into serious training.
 

rafm

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I have not used a Martingale collar so can not comment on those. However, a prong collar is, in my opinion, cruel. I have had limited success with them and most people do not use them properly. I have always had the most luck with a Gentle Leader. They do not use pain to attempt to gain compliance. And I have always found positive reinforcement to work far better than negative.

I also want to echo the crate training mentioned below. All of our dogs are crate trained and that does help with managing the dog. Charlie no longer stays in a kennel but that has only been in the last couple of years that has been allowed. What is funny though is that he has a very nice bed in the same location as his kennel used to be. Every night he goes and gets on that bed and stays there all night, except in the winter when he goes and lays next to the heater.


There are probably eleventy-billion dog training techniques and most people are very loyal to their particular training method. I would suggest talking to numerous trainers and training options to find me that you can agree with and that works for you and your pup.
 

arlyn

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Bear started obedience training with a prong collar, he ignored it(I dismantled it and turned it into art projects), martingale collar never fazed him either, though he does still wear it for his tags.
Gentle leader was the only thing that actually got his attention and it's still the only thing I use.
He was a big, stubborn and completely untrained boy when I got him.
 

nerdrock

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It's funny that you mention that prongs never fazed your dog because gentle leaders have never fazed any of the ones I have trained.

Definitely do talk to a few trainers and get with one that works with the methods that YOU are comfortable using.
 
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planetx

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thanks again - we've actually just finished puppy training classes. Not top of the class, but he did ok. He's great with sit and down, he's not too bad with stay. 'Off' is something we need to work on... but these don't really help with food aggression - which isn't towards humans by the way, I can take anything from him. The trainer told me the biggest thing that will help us is age, he's so bursting with energy. We will go back for more classes.

I've never heard of those collars - I don't think they exist over here. I'm not huge into training to be honest, I know a certain amount is necessary, but I'm not going to be entering obedience trials anytime soon
Just enough to have a pleasant pet.
Funny thing is that he is actually a very submissive dog, but I guess puberty is the time for him to struggle to move up the pack order. I'll tolerate a lot less messing with the cats from now on, and I never leave them alone when I'm out anyway. It's been difficult because my own two cats have possession of the house, these others are supposed to be living out in a shed, but they've moved themselves into the kitchen with the dog.
 

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Please dont use a prong collar on your dog, like RAFM says they are cruel. Get you dog to some good classes so that he can learn some rules and hopefully as you say you should end up with a pleasant pet. 
 

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The earlier you start training your puppy the harder its going to be. You're lucky he's still a puppy and not an adult but since he's in the stubborn teenager stage training can and will be a chore BUT if you play with your puppy until he's tired then do some training it should be a lot easier.   The saying "A tired dog is a good dog" is very true to life so give him some good exercise before any training.   My family has a rule with puppies, if they can walk they can learn. The best time to train is when they can walk, they learn things like sit and lay down really quickly and they really don't have the concept of ignoring someone and you really don't need verbal commands. In my experience, dogs seem to react quicker to physical commands and short sounds.  With my parents' dog Diesel, we never had to use words, (he knows the commands words but we just cross trained him so other people can tell him what to do too.)    

These are the physical command cues:

Sit:  We stand up straight, and with our arms close to our chest, we snap a finger. (it doesn't even need to be a successful snap.) If he doesn't want to listen with add a sharp "Eup" sound.

Lie Down: same as sit but after the snap you point at the ground.  Note:  Dogs are one of the few animals that can recognize what a point is. You point at something usually the dog will realize what you're pointing at or what you mean.

Stay: Stand up straight and with arms close to chest, hold a hand up in the typical stop sign and say "Stay" this is the few commands that we use an actual word for.  If he doesn't listen then we just to the physical sign and do the "Eup" sound. ("Eup" is our go-to "you gotta listen" noise. This is the sound that Diesel reacts most to)

Get Off/Get Down: Pretty much the exact same as the Lie Down command. You snap your fingers and point to the ground.

Leave it:  Just a stern and sharp "Eup" sound is effective.

Bad Dog: This is the only real word only thing that we do but we don't have to use it anymore because he's recognized the "look" that we give him when we use the word.  We just look really disappointed, usually with our hands on our hips and say "Shame" or "Shameful."   When we bring out the "S" word he usually ends up hiding behind a chair. He usually knows when he's been a "shameful puppy" before we even realize he's done something wrong because he'll try to slink off somewhere before we catch him.

This is what worked for us but you got to find what works best for you.  If you use treats as reward like we did in training, always hold the treats to your chest. This teaches the dog that the treat is your property and not his and that he'll only get the treat when you give it to him.  If you try to give this method a try, you can either accompany the hand gestures with a verbal command, or noise but be consistent.

For food aggression, Diesel he struggles being over protective of his bones. Like your puppy, Diesel didn't start until he was older, though much older in Diesel's case. He didn't start until he was 3 or 4 years old and is mainly when the cats come up from behind and go for his bone. He never goes after the cats though, its always just a quick air snap and its really only with Ghibli. Ghibli is the pain in everyone's neck so its kind of understandable, punishable but understandable. We can get away with just using the word "shame" then putting up his bone. He's so terrified of the word "shame" that it works for just about anything.  My dad also helps by taking his bone and brings it over to the cats then lets the cat sniff and lick the bone as much as they want before he "chews" the bone himself and putting it up on a shelf for a few minutes. He then takes the bone down, acts like he's chewing on it again then offers it to a cat before giving it to Diesel again.  This kind of follows what others have said to establish the hierarchy and show the dog that you and the cats have the first dibs on the bones and that if a cat wants to sniff the bone then the cat can sniff the bone.

For walks we use a pronged collar.  We do not believe it's cruel, (we tested it out on ourselves at the store. It doesn't hurt, it just causes some pressure using pressure points and when you figure in the fur, its not big deal.)  We don't like using it because a lot of people see it and get intimated thinking we're using it because he's mean but he's not. He's a dog that will let tiny children rough house with him and he'll let tiny kittens and tiny dogs crawl over him.  It was a last resort because he hates being a leash and every other method (harness/leader) he would do a sit down strike. Walking on a Leash was the only thing he has ever failed with, he just pulls a lot because he wants to go his own speed and we don't/can't run at his pace for as long as he wants too.  Funny thing is, take him off the leash and he automatically heels, when we're at the dog park or at the woods walking him off leash, he may only get 50ft from us before he stops and waits for us to catch up.

Just so you know, we started working with him as soon as we brought him home. We did have to stop for awhile because he had a horrible reaction to a heart-worm pill and he was very, very sick for a month but besides that every time we gave him a treat he had to sit for it. He always had to do something for the treat like the NILF method someone had mentioned. Make the puppy work for everything, from food to treats to toys. 

Just remember this  "Make him sit, Make him stay. Make him Leave It til you say Okay!" Its not a perfect rhyme but its catchy enough to make it easy to remember.

Hope my words of lengthy words of wisdom/personal experience helps you out.  Having discord among your pets even if its just occasionally is horrible!   Good luck!
 

melesine

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I agree with the previous posts. With our German Shepherd we did many many " leave it" commands, and sometimes she even had to be leashed in the house. She never was aggressive with them, but she played way too roughly and didn't understand how kitties are different than dogs. We got the kittens when she was about 6 months old. It's been about 5 months and she is now BFFs with them. They sleep next to each other, the cats play with her tail and she never chases them anymore, she has really learned to play with them gently. Consistency is the key IMO.  
 
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