cats that will go after dogs?

Hello

I have a very high prey drive dog that is taught to leave our cat alone and he does most of the time. We never leave them alont together EVER. SOmetimes though my dog will look at my cat and the cat will come running towards him from across the room and try and scrach him?? The dog (cause he knows hes not allowed to interact with the the cat) Just kinda moves away from the cat. WHat are we suppose to do in a situation like this?? The thing is the cat is being good because hes not running away (prey drive dogs love to chase things) But also the cat seems to be acting in an agressive manor when the dogs not?? My mother thinks the cat senses something wrong with our dog but these two animals have lived together for as long as the d og has been alive! (2 years) Its a really confusing relationship. Anyone elses cat act like this towards their dog? Our cat also makes a really wierd chattering sound when he walks by my dogs crate. The same noise he uses when he sees birds that are out of his reach. BUT why on earth would he do that to my dog? (89 pound shepherd)

Our first dog and first cat would do that. We had the dog first and when we got the new kitten, we taught her not to hurt it (siberian husky vs 8 week old kitten). Now as the cat grew older, he seemed to learn that the dog was not allowed to touch him, so he occasionally would swat at her, or go up to her and slap her. The dog would just look at us like "what should I do?" Or get up and walk away. Luckliy the dog had very weak hunting instincts, so leaving them alone wasn't an issue.
I think the thing is that your cat has discovered that the dog won't touch it and is taking advantage of the situation.
You might need to train the cat not to attack the dog. Being that your dog is a 'hunter', there may come a day when it's limit is reached and frustration out weighs the training.

My two girls are doing the same thing to my dog, who is also a herding breed (Australian Shepherd X Border Collie) who has also been taught to ignore the cats. Sometimes he'll just be walking along, being a good boy, when Buffy will come from out of nowhere and charge at him, spit, swat at him, then back off a few paces and growl. Jake, in turn, looks shameful and kind of moves off a few feet, looking down and away from the cat. Willow does it too, but only when Buffy is showing signs of stress (Willow's very protective, lol) or Willow truly believes her life is in danger (when she's sleeping on a chair that's pushed under a table, and when Jake walks under the table and next to her, not seeing her at all, she'll spit at him). I think that both cats are realizing that Jake isn't going to hurt them, but they're still insecure. They're also getting bolder and want to make sure Jake doesn't mess with them. Usually after they charge and spit and Jake doesn't do anything, they look kind of stunned and confused, and they'll wander away. I figure that they'll eventually just ignore him altogether, they just need this time right now to investigate Jake inside and out, lol

We have a 75 lb lab/sheperd mix, we got her when she was real small, we had one cat at the time so she has been around cats most of her life. When we had to bottle feed some little tiny kittens last winter the dog would protect those little kittens from the other cats. We still have one of those kittens who grew up into a nice male cat. That cat can do anything to the dog and she don't care and plays with the cat alot, even the stray Tuffy can play with the dog. The only time the dog gets aggresive is if a cat comes near her when she is eating or sleeping, then she will get upset and chase them away. But in turn if one of the cats gets mad at the dog she just walks away giving the cat its space. Its really pretty amazing to me with so many cats now and the dog that they all get along as well as they do. I have noticed that sometimes they act up if I give one animal alot more attention than the others, its like the others get jealous or something. I guess none of all this is really any help with your problem other than as long as our dog don't get to the point of acting like she really wants to hurt one of the cats they all seem to learn how to get along but then our dog is really a big baby at heart probably because she is mostly lab. Sorry for the long post and no really good advice.

Our Toby is not crazy about dogs. He`ll get in a high spot and watch when the neighbor comes over with her little dog, but if the dog gets too close Toby will jump down and slap the dog till it runs and hides momentarily under the couch. (No claws out though , so I truly do not think the cat is afraid ) After driving the little dog to hide, Toby will STRUT slowly away and goes back to his high spot....It`s as if he is saying" You peasant! How dare you approach THE KING without an invitation!"
Tedy, on the other hand, grew up with about 20 cats, 4 kids and a HUGE dog (That always has cats laying around on it)....so he LOVES the neighbor dogs visits!
Animals really are quite entertaining , aren`t they?
Linda

Chichi hated my parents dogs when i lived at home.She would charge at them, scratch them and hiss at them for no reason! They knew to stay back because she was so evil but I guess its just a display of dominence to let them know (and keep it in their head) that she is the boss! I dont think anything is necessarily wrong with your cat or dog for that matter just normal ranking spats

Hello

Thnx for the responses. The thing is my dog is also and EXTREMLy dominant dog by nature. Whenever i take him to class he is constantly trying to correct the other dogs and boss them around. He has been this way since he was born. I just hope he never snaps at the cat. Overall the dog is extremly smart we have chickens and he would just LOVE to eat them but quickly learned that he is not permitted to ever touch them. Another thing im concerned about is peoples horror storyies of cats taking out dogs eyes with their claws? IS there any truth to this? My cat is a pretty big strong cat hopefully he is puprosly not trying to nail the dog in the eye.