Puppy Barking at Cats???

[Umaz1]

Kaya is our 7.5 month old black lab and has been at home with us since Oct. She is incessant about chasing and barking at our 2 cats. We make sure that the cats have an escape route when they go face to face with her thinking that the cats will defend themselves and it serves Kaya right if she gets swiped at as she needs to respect their space. When these encounters go on for a bit..we step between the 2 animals and tell her QUIET and when she does we give her a treat. Well that is all well and good until it seems like 3 seconds later she is chasing the other cat....I just really can't stand the barking at them. They have become more tolerable of each other as a threesome but it is still not good. We also reprimand the cats also when they instigate bad behavior towards her...

any advice would be greatly appreciated...

 

[Maxy24]

If she barks I'd remove her, she probably really wants to keep looking at the cats so removing is an effective and quiet (noise from you may increase noise from pup) way of making the dog not want to bark.

Teaching the dog to play "look at that" with the cat as the object to look at may help the dog to stop seeing the cats as a trigger to chase. This may also help barking.

"Look at that" basically involves leashing the dog and waiting for him to look at one of the cats. As soon as he does click (or enthusiastically say "yes!") and give a yummy treat. Do this each time he looks. For this situation you'd want to keep the dog leashed constantly for a few weeks until the dog no longer wants to chase. You'd have to carry treats with you at all times to reward looking at the cats (without the dog trying to chase or go to the cat). Unfortunately it's already become a bit of a habit so it'll take longer to change than if this training had started right away. Find opportunities to reward the dog whenever possible.

 

[Umaz1]

Thanks Erin..i will try the "look at that" approach training ..it is just hard as Kaya has limited access to the house when we are away..and i don't think i know how to keep the cats from sitting on the other side of the baby gate watching her...

but hopefully someday they will all get along....hahahhaha

 

[Adrienne]

We foster puppies and most of them bark at my cats when they first come home. My best tip is to have the dog drag a leash behind them for quick, easy, no hands on removal from the situation. It's just to darn stimulating for them! Then really work on the leave it command.

 

[lizzybeth727]

Thanks Erin..i will try the "look at that" approach training ..it is just hard as Kaya has limited access to the house when we are away..and i don't think i know how to keep the cats from sitting on the other side of the baby gate watching her...

but hopefully someday they will all get along....hahahhaha

Erin's advice is great. I'd just point out that barking and chasing the cats is extremely self-reinforcing - it's just fun - for Kaya. So any time she does it, she is reinforced for doing it and the behavior becomes stronger. That's why it's extremely important to prevent this from happening when you're not home, so that she doesn't get the chance to practice. You could close her in one room or close the cats in another, so that they are behind doors and can't see each other.

 

[drdamian]

invest in a citronella no-bark collar, which is effective and not cruel; if your puppy barks, the collar sprays a small amount of citronella, which puppies dislike.