# How to stop puppy from chasing a provoking cat



## kolto83 (Feb 18, 2011)

Hi there,

As I mentioned in my introduction thread, I have a 9-week old Black Lab/Amstaff mixed male puppy who came into my possession last weekend. He's very sweet and playful; a typical puppy. The problem is, my existing cat (who had zero problems adjusting to the pup) actually provokes the pup to chase him. The pup chases and plays rough with my cat, and my cat loves it 90% of the time, but I've been doing some reading that it shouldn't be encouraged due to the prey drive in my pup. Also, I do not like the way the pup growls (playfully, but still growling) and shakes his head whilst chewing on my cat--who lays there happily clawing, biting, taunting, and generally loving his new playmate.

I've seen tons of threads on this forum and others discussing what to do when the dog chases the cat, but everything I've found thus far talks about the cat being scared. My cat is not scared at all; on the contrary, he loves the attention. I tell my pup "Ah Ah!" when he chases/chews on my cat, and praise him immediately after for letting go, and then I distract him with a toy. This works, so long as I sit there and hold the toy for him to chew on...until my cat comes over and taunts the pup again. I have picked out a local trainer and am going through the registration process to enroll the pup in a puppy obedience class as I am willing to put in the time, effort, and money to train him to be an obedient companion, however it's not entirely the puppy's fault. I have no idea what to do. Any information would be helpful. I love my cat dearly and would die if anything happened to him. Thank you for reading and again, thank you in advance for any information. =)


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## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

I have a cat that provokes my dogs as well. I monitor their play and break it up if either gets too rough (yeah.. hard to imagine a cat getting to rough with a German Shepherd). 

Put a drag line on your puppy and break the play off if he gets mouthy with the cat. Get a crate so the puppy can be separated from the cat. If you elect to crate the cat be sure there is a litter box in the crate as cats who "hold it" can and do form crystals in their urine that can block the ureter leading to a need for emergency (as in immediate) veterinary intervetion.


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## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

Elana55 said:


> I have a cat that provokes my dogs as well. I monitor their play and break it up if either gets too rough (yeah.. hard to imagine a cat getting to rough with a German Shepherd).


Yeah I have a cat here that does that too, he's the resident barn cat & I sware he thinks he is a dog & is a gulliton for punishment lol. It took me forever to teach Jo not to mess with that darn cat (who didn't make my life easier by taunting her) she is a cattle dog mix & I didn't want her to exibit her herding tendencies on the poor cat. She still tries every once & a while she will try to mess with him but a gruff leave it stops her & send her running back to me for praise lol lol.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

You may have a valid concern. Always monitor their play.
1. When a pup is small, a cat can get over-excited and really bite down hard on the pup, and won't let go when the pup cries. It may even excite the cat further.
2. When the dog is much larger, he will be MUCH stronger than the cat and not realize it. He will be able to do signficant damage to the cat - without malice - before being stopped. I watched a pit bull playing with a Rott. The Pit grabbed hold of the Rott's check and drew blood, while the Rott shreiked. We pulled them apart.... but the Rott came back over to play. We thought the Pit was fighting, but the Rott recognized that the Pit was playing - just over excited... Dangerous, nonetheless (I had to have this observation explained to me.)

Having said all of this - I think it is a VERY good idea to let the cat and dog play... but you have to socialize both of them, especially the dog with many other dogs and animals, and teach both of them Bite Inhibition... so that they don't get over-excited and cause damage. They may still get excited, but they will be careful about causing damage.

For Bite Inhibition, see the Sticky: The Bite Stops Here and search the Web, as well as these posts.

While they are early in playing, you do have to train them that play stops immediately! when they get too rough (not too excited). You don't really care if they wear each other out, the concern is if there is injury. It is as subtle difference for them right now. Some good results are that the dog slimes the cat badly with dog spit, without really biting down, and that the cat swats the dog 100 times before the dog can react.... but the cat never bares his claws...


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