Can anything be done about a "reactive" personality?

Is there anything you can do to make an impulsive dog stop and think before acting or is it just a personality trait you're stuck with? Mainly I'm trying to curb his chasing of my cat Neko. He doesn't do it for fun (I've dealt with that and it was easy), it's just a reactive thing where he MUST DO SOMETHING TO CAT if he's triggered. He is triggered to do it if he hears Neko running with his claws out and they scrape the floor, hears the cats getting into a fight or playing (thumping bodies), or if Neko scratches his scratching post and makes it rock a little so it makes a banging noise (though he doesn't get too worked up about that). It often happens if Neko and Willie both jump over the gate out of my room and bump into the gate a little. He thinks the cats are chasing each other or something and when you add in the noise of banging the gate he loses it. He also occasionally goes after him for non-Neko related things in a redirection type reaction. Like any random knock (hitting a wooden spoon on the edge of a pot while cooking) or yelling (at a sports game on TV or something). He ONLY does it to Neko, never Willie.

He chases Neko, sometimes screaming while he does, and once Neko jumps up on something he runs around the platform barking. If it's the coffee table and Neko is near the edge he will sometimes jump up and nip him. In the rare case that Neko doesn't run Tucker will run up and bite him once (without any damage and it doesn't appear to hurt), sometimes running him over a bit, then he's done. He's actually much more out of control when Neko jumps up on something because it gets him more worked up/frustrated. I've curbed it a little. He's easier to stop if he has to run a good distance to get to the cat and I'm standing up (so he thinks maybe I can actually stop him before he gets to the cat). But if he's fairly close to the cat when he's triggered (say they're both on the couch) or he's triggered to the point where he's screaming when he runs (this is usually when the cats are getting into a nasty sounding fight) then it's very hard to stop him. He has gotten easier to stop AFTER he chases him, so when he's barking, but I haven't ever been able to reduce the actual number of times he goes after the cat. He's just become a bit easier to stop once he's started.


Since it's really hard to practice with the trigger to teach him to ignore the triggers(I can't really make the cat do the stuff that triggers the dog in order to repeatedly practice on leash) I was wondering if there's any way to simply reduce Tucker's overall reactivity so that he can be capable of learning and thought when he's triggered so maybe commands would actually sink in or consequences that occur after he chases him (time outs) actually work. Right now I simply don't think he's capable of controlling himself from having that knee jerk reaction, when he hears Neko do one of the things that triggers him he is off like a rocket, completely zoned in on the mission of getting the cat.

Start slower.

Think of a behavior you would like to replace the reactivity with. Do you want him to go into a down? Recall to you? Etc.

Then start training that behavior in a million situations until it is perfectly rock solid. Then try to train it with the cat.

I was still living with my parents when I had to deal with my autistic brother and his cats. He couldn't grok the concept of any cat ever having less than free run of the entire house, and Brisbane ended up very cat reactive despite having been raised with them. Bro brought home a new kitty who was terrified of dogs, and Brisbane was triggered by every cat-related sound.

I dealt with it by putting a head halter on Brisbane so he couldn't bark/bite the cat, and then praising and treating him whenever he saw/heard her. She got less fearful and gradually decreased the distance and upped the criteria on her own.

The whole process took at least a couple of months, which totally sucked because it meant having Brisbane on leash in a head collar with treats handy anytime we were in the house without a closed door between us. Pure torture.

Insane cat bootcamp worked though, it prevented Briz from practicing the unwanted behaviors while giving me the opportunity to reward him for cat triggers whenever the cat decided they would happen. Just like clicker training, I literally paired cat shenanigans with cookies.

I think the whole process really helped reduce Brisbane's overall reactivity. It also made him ridiculously tolerant of his own personal cats, he puts up with kitten assholery and my husband's evil hellcat almost all of the time because he might get a treat for that.

Well it's sort of the thing where I don't want him to do anything, I just want him to stay put, he's so friggin uptight. He's reactive. If anything happens anywhere he needs to go do something about it. No Tucker, just leave it alone, everything's fine. It's not just cats, it's everything. He's the opposite of go with the flow. So I don't know, maybe I should work on proofing his sit/down stays and leave it? Honestly they're not that great.

His behavior isn't quite that frequent/extreme. I mean he's around the cats constantly, they're always in the same room together except at night because Tucker sleeps upstairs with my parents and the cats aren't allowed in there. They rub on him, Willie plays with him sometimes. So it's not the sort of thing where I'd want to play LAT, simply seeing them isn't a trigger. Actually he's more likely to be triggered if he doesn't see them. If he sees a cat run by he's less likely to chase than if he hears a cat running in another room. I think it's a control thing, something's happening in there and he needs to do something about it, God only knows what it might be! Whereas if he sees the cat run he knows there's nothing happening that he needs to deal with. Really the only time he reacts when they're in the same room as him is if the two cats are trying to play or fight each other. He does not allow that and can get quite nasty about it.

I have considered having him wear a leash all of the time though and treating if they do something that would normally trigger him. How would you deal with him if he's leashed, hears them and tries to chase, then reaches the end of the leash and starts throwing a fit lunging and barking? Would you just wait him out? Bring him to time out? The biggest problem is I don't think anyone else in my house would be willing to do it so while I'm at work it wouldn't be happening. They all have free run of the house while we're not home too, but honestly I don't think the chasing happens much during the day, the cats (and dog) are usually out cold. It's more of an evening thing. But in any case, leashing when the cats are awake is an option.

Sounds similar to Jackson with my dads cats. I haven't figured anything out yet, since we don't live there full-time anyway so it hasn't become a big enough problem for me to bother with.

Jackson's triggers are more the other dogs. He could be upstairs, with me and the cats, perfectly fine, and then if my step-mom opens the gate at the top of the stairs for her dog, Buddy, to come up.... he immediately gets on high alert, finds a cat, and corners it and starts barking and chasing. It's like... he thinks that's what he's supposed to do when the other dogs are around. All it takes is him seeing or hearing Buddy or Lilly (other dog) downstairs start moving or sounding like they're coming upstairs for him to flip out on the cats that he has been perfectly fine with prior.

It's frustrating. I have tried leashing him, etc, but it doesn't seem to matter, if he's not onleash, he will just do the same thing. But like I said? Upstairs all night long (while other dogs are asleep in master bedroom downstairs) loose with cats all night, and is absolutely 100% fine, even with cats running around and chasing each other.

Sounds just like Jackson, and I have no real advice lol.

That is always the biggest problem isn't it? Can be really frustrating.

So first off I'd make sure the cats have a safe zone they can run to that he can't access. Particularly since they are left loose unsupervised. When I got Lily I used a gate to give the cats space if they wanted it. She respects the gate as long as she and I are on the same side. She never even chased them, but my roommate's male cat was really nervous. It took him a good 6 months to warm up to her. Tucker is short enough that something like that would work great, lol.

I would try the leashing and I wouldn't wait until it turned into a full blown tizzy to remove him from the situation. Eyes locked in, super tense body... okay happy voice we are going to the other room now! Does that give enough distance for him to focus on you? If yes I would do some reps of something easy like a hand touch or positions or sit pretty... whatever is easy and fun for an alternate behavior that is rewarding interaction with you instead of focus on the cat. If he blows over the top? I would crate in a separate room with a sheet over it and possibly also shut the door. Not even for that long, just 5-10mins to calm down.

I would do bowl zen and other impulse control exercises with meals and LAT as much as possible too. Any impulse control in general bleeds over into other areas that need it I've noticed. Honestly it sounds like he is bored and making his own fun with the cat that happens to be a little nervous or willing to run from him. If the cat would swipe him a good one, he'd probably stop for good. Anyway hopefully you working with him will help a little.

With Brisbane I never let him get to the barking/lunging phase, but he also goes into despair-mode in a head halter which helped a whole lot.

Briz is also the Cat Police, a self-appointed job that predated his bad experiences and continued with the cats he had grown up with and still accepted as his personal cats. He used to be super terrible about the cats scratching anything included their scratching posts, that claw-sharpening noise was a major trigger. What we did for that was more cat=cookie. I kept treats all over the house in various tins, jars, and bowls as well as wearing them, and every time he heard a cat do anything exciting he got a treat no matter how he reacted. Sometimes we had to run to the kitchen to get him something, but I got in the habit of rewarding him whenever the cats did anything at all.

Did a cat just sprint through the room? Wow, you get a cookie!

Cat demolishing the couch? Cookie time!

Cats loudly wrestling on top of fridge? Jackpot!

This has helped tremendously with Brisbane's overwhelming reactivity and general neuroses. Everything he has ever reacted to gets him a cookie. He's largely unconcerned with cat shenanigans now, but I still routinely reward him for existing in their vicinity because cats are horrible people.

Yes, my bedroom is off limits to the dog and always has been because the litter box is in there, there's a gate across it. Most often they run for the kitchen table though. They rarely hang out in the bedroom, they usually sleep in the dog's crate now.

Sometimes when something triggers him there will be enough time to interrupt him but sometimes, especially if it's cats fighting in another room, he immediately takes off, there is no warning. In that case he'll hit the end of the leash and freak out. If I can do something before he actually runs I would likely be able to keep him attention, but sometimes that just isn't going to happen. He actually calms down shockingly fast in his crate, like 15-20 seconds.

We'll definitely work on impulse control more, he's lacking in many ways. It's just that he's pretty great around food so normal leave it type stuff is easy for him. He's pretty good with his own toys too but I haven't made it super hard for him (he drops it and leaves it very well while playing tug but I don't usually tempt him TOO much). I'll have to get creative in finding new temptations to get him to resist.

It could definitely be a pent up energy thing where he's wound up and ready to be triggered. Oddly enough when I recently increased his exercise (instead of 15-20 minute walks we were going for an hour) this behavior got incredibly worse. When I went back to little walks he was back to being more calm. It's very strange.

His relationship with Neko is odd. Tucker's in a way sort of afraid of Neko. When Tucker was a puppy Neko was bigger than him and would sometimes intimidate him away from his food bowl and eat his food. We'd be in the next room and hear Tucker whining only to find him laying down a few feet away while Neko was eating his breakfast. Neko LOVES dogs and regularly attempts to snuggle with Tucker and Tucker looks absolutely terrified when this happens, he wants to run away but is somewhat frozen with fear so he SLOWLY slinks away from Neko. But then he goes and harasses him all the time like this.

Normally I'd say a cat smacking a dog would make the dog leave it alone but Tucker is a little different. If something hurts or scares Tucker he bites it, period. He's scared of people so he tries to attack them, he attacks the vacuum, the tries to bite the dremel (he does not attempt to run first), we've all been bitten by accidentally stepping on his tail/leg because he enjoys laying under our feet while we're on the couch. I remember when he was young (when he was still dog social) I brought him to a pet store and they had dogs for adoption in a pen. We were in the aisle next to the pen, I was looking at cat food and Tucker was trying to sniff the dog in the pen (he was like a foot away). The dog in the pen lunged and started barking. Tucker leapt backwards and then charged back at the dog snarling, ready to fight. On the few occasions the cat has nailed him in the face hard enough to hurt he yelps and then gets this look of rage on his face and tries to attack the cat harder. Tucker's more likely to get into a legit fight with the cat then run away if he gets scratched. Actually the only situation I could see Tucker actually hurting a cat in is if the cat tried to attack him back. We keep the cats nails trimmed (for our own sake, they're very cuddly and their claws hurt) so they can't really cause him pain anyway. Tucker doesn't run from confrontation unfortunately.


I could definitely see that stopping the chasing. My one an only concern is that it might make him MORE concerned/aware of the cats. Now every time they do something he can get a treat so it's a reason to get excited. So even in situations where he may have chosen to ignore the cats he'll get excited and run over to me for a treat. While running to me will be better than chasing after the cat it's still not really the result I want. I want him to just stop getting excited about them period. I feel like just leashing him to prevent him from getting the reward of chasing and crating when he flips out to calm him down might work better at getting that result, it may just make him give up. I mean I'll probably feel terrible not giving him a treat when he does ignore them but at the same time I don't really want to be adding any sort of emotion, good or bad, to the cats actions. I want him to feel nothing when they run around.
We're doing the "treat every time you see a dog out the window" thing to stop his barking at them and while it has decreased the barking I will have to get up and feed him a treat every time he sees a dog for the rest of his life because he still gets pumped up when he sees them. He immediately looks from dog to me to dog to me. He starts whining. If I for whatever reason don't give him a treat he still barks, he just holds off until the dog passes out of sight because he knows at that point he's probably not getting a treat so is either barking because there's no reason not to (he's not getting a treat for being quiet so he might as well bark) or because now he's frustrated because I didn't give him a treat. Once again I really just want him to not get worked up at all, to just not care that a dog's walking by. THAT I don't think there is any way to achieve without a bark collar or something (which I don't want to do), but I feel like maybe I could get there with the cats simply by making him give up via constant leashing plus self control exercises to help make it easier for him. Not to mention Tucker's been steadily gaining weight since I've been home from school which is likely a result of the treats he gets for not barking through the window and the treats he gets on walks for not barking at dogs.


Also, since I've made this thread the dog has not chased the cat once So now of course I'm all like "do I really need to leash him for such an infrequent behavior?". But it really has nothing to do with him, the cats just haven't done anything "alarming" recently.

For Brisbane, getting fed for cat antics made him stop caring. Getting fed for hearing skateboards also made him not care. For him anyway, pairing things with food has always eventually led to him ignoring them.I think he is triggered because he is nervous, and by making them less bad they become neutral. I still treat him when the cats play chase, but not every time, and he doesn't look like he expects anything either.

Ru, on the other hand, used to bark at dogs on walks, so I started giving him a treat for seeing dogs. Now when he sees one he whines frantically and begs for a treat. Obviously he's still nervous, and possibly with consistent rewards he'll get comfortable enough to ignore them. (Or maybe Ru isn't smart enough to make that connection...)