Boyfriend's Dog Attacked My Cat

figsmom09

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Dec 31, 2016
Messages
1
Purraise
1
Hi Everyone - A few nights ago my boyfriend brought his dog over to my house because we are thinking about moving in together and wanted to start introducing his dog and my cat. The dog was kenneled, but when he needed to go outside to go to the bathroom, he got out of his kennel before I was able to get my cat safely into a bedroom. He charged, attacked her, and fractured her jaw in multiple places. Thankfully, she's recovering from surgery now and expected to have a full recovery (minus now having a misaligned jaw and a few extracted teeth). My boyfriend and I both feel terrible and like the incident was our mistake/naivety. 

His dog is a rescue and extremely sweet to humans, but has had a couple of incidents of getting into fights with other dogs. Animal Control has said that he's not going to be ordered to be put down. I'm pleased about that (I would feel terrible if his instinct and our mistake got him put down), but I don't want the dog to be around my nieces/nephews or my future children. Not to mention I have no intention of exposing my cat to dogs now that she's pretty traumatized by the incident, especially the dog that attacked her. 

My boyfriend loves this dog (so did I before he attacked my cat), so I feel terrible for suggesting it - but I can't see how we will have a future while he has the dog. I also don't want to rehome my cat. She's my baby and it's not her fault that any of this happened. What would you do? I know that this is more of a relationship issue than an animal issue, but I didn't know where else to turn to get advice. Any help is appreciated!
 

NewYork1303

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 9, 2015
Messages
3,025
Purraise
2,015
Location
Washington State
Just because a dog attacks other dogs or even cats doesn't mean it would ever hurt a child. One of my friends has a rescue dog who is very aggressive towards dogs and cats, but her nieces and nephews (ranging from 2-12 years old) can do anything to that dog and she just lays their and licks them and is so sweet. 

The problem that most dogs have with cats is a prey drive. They don't know what they do is wrong. They see a small animal move and their instinct says to attack and kill. This must be trained out by very slow introduction and a lot of great dog training. For example, you can train a dog to lay down or sit on command whether they are running across a room or just hanging out next to you. This gives you a safety net so that you can tell the dog to lay down to get them to break off a chase (this is usually used to keep off leash dogs from running into traffic after something, or even to stop your dog from coming to you, if you have called it and then realized that it would be dangerous for your dog to run up to you because of a car or something). 

My mother has a dog that was sent away from a farm because of her prey drive and desire to kill chickens. We live with my mom now while waiting to get into our new house, and this dog has been trained to be respectful with the cats. I'll admit that some of the training was done by a cat we had when the dog first moved in. The dog cornered the cat but was then wacked across the nose by claws. We've been working with her since we got our cats to keep her from chasing them even if they run. 

In the case of a high prey drive dog, this may never work, but lots of training without the cat even around is the first step. 
 

catpack

TCS Veteran
Kitten
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
3,271
Purraise
646
Location
Southeastern USA
I suggest you seek the advice of a veterinary behaviorist and a certified dog trainer that uses *positive* reinforced training. Stay clear of anyone wanting to use shock collars (some will call them e-collars (for electronic) in an effort to desensitized owners), prong collars or dominance as a training method/tool. These practices are out of date and do not correlate with what veterinary science has found to be a solution to problems.

This is a very tricky situation. Has your BF's dog ever been around cats before?

At the end of the day, it may not be possible for both pets to reside in the same house. I would attempt to take emotions out of the picture and decide which animal is most adoptable and rehome them if it came down to it. But, first decide if you think you and your BF are likely to stay together long term. This issue can cause both of you to have resentment.

Start with the veterinary behaviorist.

I also want to second that the dog attacking the cat in no way means that he will attack a child. So, at this point, that shouldn't be in the equation.
 

Willowy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 1, 2009
Messages
31,886
Purraise
28,287
Location
South Dakota
In a natural setting, cats are prey to dogs. It's entirely natural and not at all "bad" for the dog to have prey drive, but of course many of us like to have both cats and dogs as pets in the same house so we would prefer for the dog not to eat the cats. I agree that a good professional trainer would be best. If training isn't done correctly it could lead to the dog becoming more aggressive toward cats and you don't want that.

Prey drive in no way correlates to human aggression, so don't worry about that. But ALL dogs should always be surpervised around babies and small children, as babies can make some very prey-like noises and movements, and toddlers may inadvertently hurt a dog. One must recognize that we take sharp-toothed predators into our homes and, while usually things work out just fine, if circumstances aren't managed properly it can lead to problems.
 
Last edited:
Top