Dog Owners, please help!

We have two dogs, a golden retriever/chocolate lab mix, and a german sheperd. The german shepard Toby has been acting strange lately around the kitties, when they walk by him, mostly on his side he snaps at them. He never bites, he loves the cats to death and thinks he is their mom. He loves kissing them and used to try and carry them around until he got in trouble for it. I am wondering if maybe he is going blind in one eye, or already partly blind. He is only about 2 years old.

Don't worry he doesn't even try to bite, once he realizes who it is he just lays his head back down. If anyone knows what might be going on then please help.

My guess is they are bugging him when you aren't looking- chewing on ears, stealing the food out of his dish- Kenai does the same thing when she has reached her limit with the Trips.

They do eat his food, but only when he is away...but then again he tries to eat their food as well. Most of them won't go near him to bug him. The only one that trusts him enough to touch him is missing her name is princess and she is indoor/outdoor. She hasn't been home for almost 2 weeks. This has happened before and she came back...so hopefully she will be back in the garage soon. (we have a kitty door into the garage so if any of the indoor/outdoors get annoyed by the indoor cats they can be in their with food and water and a warm bed)

A vet checkup might be in order just in case - sometimes a dog will behave differently if something's bothering him or he's not feeling well, just like a cat will.

Yes, that may be quite hard though, he is scared to death of the vet, it cost $500 dollars to get his ears cleaned because they had to completely knock him out (pills didn't work) and last time we tok him to get them cleaned he peed all over everyone...poor vet techs! We will get him checked out though just in case.

You need to look closer at the body language he has when he is doing this. does it look like he's scared? Does he make any growling or barking noises when doing this? Is it only when he is laying down relaxing? or does he do it when he is up and active? How close was he to Princess? Were they buddies? these are all good things to watch for and think about. Dogs are pack animals and if Princess was a buddy of his he is missing her and doesn't want any one to bother him. As for the body language if he's only doing it when he is laying down the cats are probably spooking him and when a dog gets spooked health or not they react each react differently. One of the dogs I had as a child used to slap at what ever it was that startled her awake. Then another one used to full force bite when startled. If he's is Growling or barking then he is probably getting bugged by the cats where you don't see it and he's is growling/barking with the snapping to warn them to leave him alone. Also if it were a seeing/hearing problem he would also be doing it to you as you walk by. It most likely wouldn't be directed just at the cats.

But all in all it is always a good Idea to have the vet check it out. you can never be to sure.

Ike does this, when he's sleeping and Rowdy sneaks up and nips him on the butt. Once that he sees that its Rowdy, Ike lays back down and goes back to sleep.

If I was sound asleep and somebody nipped me on the butt, I'd probably react the same way.

My cats love to tease the dogs and they know that Ike and Pearl won't hurt them.

Well I am pretty sure they aren't touching him during the day because they are somewhat..how do I put this, they aren't scared because they will walk right underneathe him, but they still know that he likes to chase them so they stay away. Him and Princess weren't that close, she loved him, always rubbing on him, he was always nervous around her. When he snaps it is more like a growl mixed with a moan. He only does it once never more then once. Another thing is he is jelous of them because they can sleep on our laps and he cant because he is to big, but he still tries his hardest to fit in our laps. Thanks for all the help.

I really think he is just warning them to stay away. atleast from what you have said. But if you are really concerned that it may be a health problem don't hesitate to take him to the Vet!