@@boatwg3075 yeah, if I were getting a bully breed I'd want to make sure it's a puppy. At least the owner understood he was in a predicament, and sought professional help instead of letting it slide trying to train on his own, until something awful happened to Tony.. though I imagine he would have gotten rid of the dog before that.
@@boatwg3075 yeah i think there’s a lot of shame about not adopting for some people and finding a puppy to adopt is pretty difficult. i agree, though. i tried rescuing an adult dog before getting a puppy and had to take her back because she was way too dangerous for my cats (along with other issues and just not being a good fit for either of us). ‘adopt don’t shop’ really don’t account for how complex adoption is and the added difficulties
@@boatwg3075 yeah, don't do it if you can't. But I have done it with two big adult dogs, and using training and safe areas for the cats during training, it's worked great. But you need to be ready to do this. The more the new dog gets away with it I think the harder to break that. Mine learned immediately that the cats were protected and off limits.
Great tools and lesson. For those of you who have a problem with your dog obsessing as you are teaching the leave-it command: if they are still “staring down” the object that they have been told to “leave-it”, here’s a bit of finesse that such a short video couldn’t quite show. The dog is actually “leaving it” when the dog takes his/her eyes off the object. That is when they have actually left it, in their mind. As Long as they are giving the object the stare-down, whether it’s a piece of pizza someone dropped, or the ball, or a steak or a cat, you will know when to praise or give a treat-it’s not until the eyes have come off the object! Usually a head turn. Boom. Praise. That’s the moment that the dog actually left it. The dog might return to the tension of the stare-down and obsess again, or focus on the forbidden object, but when the dog looks away again, bingo! Praise again. The dog is learning that there is other life happening that doesn’t include the object of obsession. And for a dog that wants to please, they have discovered that the calmness that happens when they look away is what pleases you. Attention to this detail will really make your leave it command a game changer. The dog learns to leave-it in his/her brain as well as in the behavior, and if the dog learns to look away, they are truly learning to actually let it go.
Any advice? I just got a new kitten, and I have three dogs. Two get along with the cat okay, but the other has a high prey drive. He knows the commands, but when he’s obsessing over this cat, he refuses to listen. If I get his attention for a second, I attempt to praise him for it, but before I can he’s already back in the cats face, locked in, panting, whale eyes, lip licking. It worries me, and I’m not sure what the next approach would be.
I don't mean to be negative about this video, but I would caution anyone against holding a cat while a dog is in the room. I tried to hold my cat, she bit me in the face and I had to have face surgery. Be mindful.
a few days ago my sweet old boy henry is the friendliest and bravest cat and accidentally scratched me because he was so scared from our new dog koda barking at him trying to get to him :( i do not recommend holding the cat at all
I watch his show every saturday and bought the book ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxGQVgV21bQ7B9b9duQ1ByImyT9xHbjOKq because i like his method. He's very talktative in the book about his dog training experiences with several different breeds over the years. When he does get to the training chapters, you need to read more slowly, take mental or written notes and try to apply his advice to your pet. That's where i'm at now. Another review is in order aftet i've trained my blue mountain shepherd with brandon mcmillan's method.
"Leave it!" Has always been my most useful and loved command. Ever! I still had to chuckle at Stacks and his GSD vocalizing! (Lifetime GSDer here who adores their not well known goofy side.) Well done, Tom, Stacks and owner!
The goofy is strong with mine, too! It's GSD or nothing in my house. There's no other breed as well suited for all aspects of family life, though admittedly a few breeds come pretty close.
Love this! I did the same thing with my almost 5 month old German Shepherd Puppy and our 3yr old cat. It took about 3 days or so but now he's just watching the cat walk by while he's on his bed with no reaction. Some mornings he does get a bit primal and wants to chase and play with the cat but the cat is no longer putting up with his harassment and will hiss at him. As soon as he hears the hissing, he's back on his bed or in his crate. If only my cat can speak the words "Leave it!" it would make the whole process perfect. LOL Thank you again for another great video! You are the only professional dog trainer/dog behavior specialist on youtube that makes sense to me.
Is your dog still doing well with your cat? I’m in the same position, my cat is even the same age when you posted the comment. I just want to know that if I keep working at it, everything will be okay ya know? A lot of people are telling me to rehome my dog instead especially since I’m 7 months pregnant.
I adopted a bull terrier and she’s very prey driven with my cat. We’ve been doing “leave it” every day with ample rewards while he’s got a safe space in a gated bedroom and multiple cat trees around. She’s picking it up really quickly! You’re awesome!
The cat gets cornered - dog could be injured badly too. This is a man is doing what he needs to keep both pets safe. I'm glad he didn't return the dog back to the shelter.
that pen/cage was the best thing i've ever bought. it helped a TON with raising my puppy. he's a GSD/Rhodesian mix & quickly adjusted to it after a couple of weeks, which was amazing bc he had a ton of anxiety. now he absolutely claims it as his space. if he's not in the pen by 8pm to go to sleep, he gets extremely upset and cries nonstop
Catification too! I'm the lady who loves your channel even though I don't have a dog! I do however have a cat! May I give advice for the cat during the process? A huge help is that poor kitty needs 'ups' - by this I mean easy up riutes and places to get up and away. It also will help kitty feel less stressed to escape up. Love you! I get best info from Jackson Galaxy for cats!
This works for more confident cats. 2 of my 7 cats continue to use the tall cat trees to stay out of the dog's reach. The others startle every time pup barks, and run to the basement, which is off-limits to the dog. My poor kitties. They are all rescue cats and have varying degrees of socialization. I adopted most of them because nobody else would.
Dylan Donaghue not really, as long as the cat knows that high place is available to them they will retreat to the closest place they can. Just make sure it's none slip for the cat to grip on in flight , and make sure the dog can't get to it easier by standing on a sofa , also never leave them in the same room when your out until you know the dog won't look they're way . Had GSDs and cats all my life , had a 18 month rescue bitch never been round cats before, we actually nailed it pretty quickly , to the point the cats came walkies too. Just to add some cats prefer being able to hide to a dark place, so a wooden box nailed to a high shelf could possibly work for some cats, I would suggest 2 boxes One that they can pass threw to get to another .
@@dylandonaghue6750 Thank you so much for being a caring soul and rescuing all of those Cats and giving them a better life!! I hope they get along with Dog eventually!
Awesome video. As a dog trainer who is also known for my work with cats, this is a very real issue. Love seeing how other trainers handle it because it can be life or death.
He’s repeating the same thing that he showed over and over. He’s just fast forwarding through the 2nd, 3rd, 4th times of the same thing. You’re not missing anything.
I foster dogs and the first thing i teach them, regardless of if they are puppies or an adult dog, is place and stay for duration. This teaches the dog you are the leader and makes it easier for future training exercises.
Watch Richard Hines on this topic. An older guy with 20 years experience and he covered his face in horror at this trainer's techniques. He said that they're not fixing the problem, just managing it. That dog is stuck on a leash for life and if the owners aren't there, the cat is dead. They're not even addressing the aggression toward cats. That behavior has to become something that the dog chooses to not do even if no one is there.
Worked for my 5year old and 3 year old GSD rescued from the shelter both had issues just like this dog in this video it's the owners not the dog with time and positive reinforcement it is possible.
I watched this just to see what it entailed and...he doesn't even tell you what he did to teach the dog. All he mentions is that the dog was "disciplined" which is extremely unclear.
@Valhalla Pyre lol yes to teach the dog how to lay in one spot instead to fix the problem for the people at the detriment of the dog who isn't any better off for knowing that coming off a bed will be met with discomfort.
This definitely works with my Shepherd and cat as well. Cat is 4 and we got our Shepherd about 14 months ago. He still likes to chase the cat but he’s getting better at controlled play and leave it.
This really works now my cats after 2 years come running to my GSD. to greet him in the yard when i let him out to go potty in the morning letting the cats back in..Just takes time, some separating steps, reward positive behavior only...When contact takes place in the beginning keep the basket muzzle on (a short time) remember reward good behavior with high voice and sometimes treats..Wash rinse repeat until u see a calm dog, this helped for me on so many things.
nice! I introduced my husky pup to my amazon parrot as soon as we adopted her. She knows not to bother her and even lets my parrot ride on her back! She still needs to learn to leave cats alone. Great video!
Thanks for another great video, Stacks did such a great job! I love that Tony has a safe place as well. Great idea! We have a 5 year old staffy x and got 2 make kittens 4 months ago. She has a huge prey drive especially for birds, rats and cats. If she saw a car when walking she would bark and chase. We used similar principles when introducing them, bed, come, stay, drop, leave. Happy to say after about 6 weeks (so when kittens were 12wks old) they were able to be out in the open without her chasing them. Not only does it make for a happier household, it has also changed walking her as she is not driven to chase cats or bark and be angry. Obviously it all depends on the dog, ours generally is very social with other dogs and humans.
Gotta appreciate an owner who wasn’t just dealing with the problem, he wanted a solution within weeks of adopting the dog! That’s so fantastic, try and nip this in the bud in this new home
Another great video Tom! I work with people and their dog(s) & cat(s) issues to help prevent people surrendering their animals to shelters. This is the number one complaint I get when both species are in a home. Thanks for making the cats safety a priority when working to resolve the issue. The only thing I wish you would have included was that cat chasing should never ever be allowed or encouraged, no matter how old the dog is (I think you would agree with me on this). People often think it's so cute when their tiny puppy hides near the base of the stairs (or where ever) waiting for the fun little squeekie toy (that be the cat) to come walking down the stairs. The pup then pounces, attacks or tackles the poor unsuspecting cat, and the chase is on. What people tend to forget is, is that dog is going to get much bigger and could cause a lot more damage once full grown. Only then do people tend to not find it funny anymore and then sadly, it's a habit that is hard to break in the dog rather than having just set these boundaries in the first place when the dog was young. I feel this is a pretty big issue and is quite common (here in Alberta Canada in my experience anyway). Thanks again for posting another great video Mr. Tom :) I indeed gave it a thumbs up & have already subscribed. Can't wait to see what you do next.
I agree. I don't think its cute for puppies to chase cats. I kind of got cold chills thinking of when my brother brought home a big dog someone was going to shoot because the dog was sick. The dog got well. Actually a nice dog. Then there was a cat someone dropped off who was pregnant. I never saw her, but the dog found the family. He chased the mother and blew his own knee out. I think he decided it wasn't worth the bother after that. Never a good idea to encourage chasing. No matter how "cute" you think it is.
My cat used to escape to run off with the neighbors shepard/pit bull mix. A few times the dogs owner would knock on the door, hand me my cat with "Your cat is a bad influence on my dog." Seems they had a thing for digging up other neighbor's gardens, instigated by my cat. The dog long since moved away & I inherited 2 geratic cats. Once they cross the rainbow bridge, I will get a dog for my younger cat, who missed his dog friend. No going out unsupervised for them. I don't want the neighbors outside the house with torches & pitchforks.
This is so important. My niece brought in a rescue dog and it attacked her cat. Would have cost her 4,000 to operate on the cat and she did not have that kind of money. NEVER trust a strange dog with your animals.
We just adopted a pitbull mix from a shelter. He has been suffering from malnourishment. I really wanted to adopt him and give him a good life but last night my son, let him in to where we had the cats separated, and he killed my cat that we loved so much 😢 I really do not want to give him back to the shelter, but I also have to protect my other cat. Right now I have them separated, and we are looking into obedience training. This is just so heartbreaking but your video definitely gave me some hope.
I just found this video. I’m def gonna try this with my dog. She’s a little over a year old and very strong. She also loves to chase our cat, who btw, is about 18 yrs old and so enjoys tormenting the dog. Our cat is a dick for the most part but, we love her just the same. Thank you for sharing this video.
I love this video because I am in the exact same situation, except for a little bit ahead of the game with training our rescue shepherd. It is taking me four weeks to get to this point and I think we’re about 2 to 3 weeks out of introducing the dog and the cat although they seen each other through a glass windows. The cat is beyond ready to meet the dog. It’s the dog needing a bit more discipline and structure to get me to a comfort level of my cat’s safety. Thank you! Ps, I also use affirmations, intentions and visualizations, and I can see them both enjoying each other’s company as they both have lovely, playful attitudes. One step at a time. Lots of patience and love.
These people are awesome I am so glad they have sought help & havent just thrown cat out. I see so many hard cruel a-holes who new puppy/dog doesnt get on with cat so cat goes. This is love right here. Xx
One important thing to add...it's really never a good idea to bring/carry/present a cat to a dog like this. Interaction should *always* be on the cat's terms to ensure their safety, their comfort, and best results.
This video has given me hope that my cat and 10 month German sheperd pup can get along again. They got along for the first few months after I brought the sheperd home then the cat started running from her and now the cat has it’s own room and the dog busts hunts for her.
Yay! Now hopefully everyone can coexist in peace. Great job! I have a 4 month old GSD and of course she LOVES all my cats but they dont appreciate that much affection and attention from her LOL so the "leave it command" has helped a bunch instead of us just yelling "no" all the time and trying to "save the cats." I love all your videos! I just discovered your channel a few weeks ago and your tips and advice have helped so much in raising this pup and also applying new and different things to my adult dog. Thank you!!!!
I needed this video! My doberman constantly goes after my small dog and doesn’t listen to the little dogs “back off snarls.” He already has a strong recall and place. I will add that to the leave it!! Thanks!!
Rachael Reif have you used a dogtra collar? They are incredible. I have a Doberman who loves to play with my cats and commands learned using the collar are great.
Danielle Zappa I have the Mini Educator by Ecollar Technologies. I haven’t used it much for behavior correction yet, more for recall training, place, etc for conditioning.
I adopted a rescue from Cyprus and he’s good with cats.. until today. He begun to chase them 😣 he only wants to play and once he reaches them he does stop. He hasn’t attempted to grab them which is good but it’s stressing the cats out, he’s managed to pick up the sit and down command in the two days I’ve had him, so I’ll be applying this information into our training tomorrow !
Gotta spend $300 on an electric collar, first. The video completely fails to mention the fact that this was done using the ecollar on high enough levels to create behavioural suppression (not resolution), under the guise of obedience commands. This takes 30mins or less, but it's NOT a resolution. Your dog is still going to feel the same way about your cats. Resolution has to involve actually dealing with the precursors (thoughts and feelings) to the behaviours. Just like humans, behaviour is outcome of how you think and feel. If you want to learn how to resolve this issue permanently so you don't have to control, manage, and police your dog forever (and if you don't, the suppression goes away and they begin to behave in the same way again which is a testament to how ineffective suppression as a training technique is) then check out "Training Between The Ears" on UA-cam. Resolution of a problem is defined by the dog naturally (at liberty aka free behaviour aka not under any type of command, cue, or control from you or the environment or anything else - literally just acting naturally) and by default behaving in a calm and collected way. The dog's perception of the stimulus (or often, stimuli) has been modified in such a way that the outward behaviours we see as the problem naturally go away on their own. The dog has no need whatsoever to act that way when they have a healthy perception. Behaviour is how we know what the dog is thinking and feeling.
Tell me if I'm wrong Tom, but it seems to me that left alone in the house together, the dog can never be trusted with the cat. The negative result is that one or the other has to be locked up, or left outside. One or the other is excluded from the family/pack.
This is the issue inherent in using suppression through obedience and high level corrections to manage behaviour vs resolving the root problem in the way the dog thinks, feels & perceives the world and gaining practical life skills like the ability to manage their own arousal levels appropriate to the circumstances. A well behaved dog beats a well trained dog any day of the week. The well trained dog has no foundation to fall back on and relies on the structure of being almost constantly in a command of some kind because they lack those fundamental skills like frustration tolerance, patience, environmental adaptability, ability to modulate their energy level to that of other dogs, canine social skills etc - all learned skills that anyone can teach any dog and that give us the ability to create authentic changes in the way dogs actually go about their lives with us OUTSIDE of a structure of obedience as management.
My GSD is about 2 years old and my cat is almost a year.. my GSD grabbed my cat's head two days ago and will not listen to anyone when he's around my cats, so I'll definitely be trying this ASAP!
Well, it’s about controlling the dog. Even if the cat got free, it’s unlikely he’s getting close to pup. Trainers see that as optimal times to teach. Can’t hold the cat forever ya know?
Our current dog's first day in our house was an adventure. Our cat who was used to her previous dog came home to our new 7 month old Golden puppy who had not been around a cat. I picked the cat up to take her to a safe place, but the dog excitedly ran towards us and the cat did freak out, chomped down on my finger joint, screamed, then ran. The dog chased, I bled everywhere. We got the cat safely secured, used peroxide on my finger and wrapped it. The following days were spent going to doctors, getting finger surgery for a bone infection, and months of splints and therapy. Cat bites are no joke. Our dog learned that cats rule the universe, they became great friends, and the dog was with her when she passed at home. Our new cat now goes out to the yard with our dog for bathroom trips and knows that the dog respects her in all situations. I have a permenant witches crooked finger for pointing anytime I need to correct the dog's behavior.
I have always introduced puppies to my family with cats. It is much safer and easier for them to get along and bond better for long term in my opinion since my childhood with dogs and cats. Our St. Bernard name Oscar had grew up along side of neighbor’s black tuxedo named Samson who was his best friend. They had done everything together including Samson sleeping in Oscar’s mouth during winter time during day in dog house. There was zero issues with them and Samson was our neighbor’s cat who wanted to be with Oscar.
What a great gsd! right at the beggining he wanted to please the trainer 😍. Super fine to train! Why not add a positive association like cat=food, cat=play later on to facilitate interaction?
Thank you for such a straightforward approach to training. I was amazed that no treats were used in this process. I have a chance to train a border collie/aussie mix to ignore cats in a home environment (mine). This just might make the difference.
I'm no expert on training dogs. But I've trained my shepherds with lines that have a strong high pray drive working class type shepherds. My question is why are you not breaking his "eye lock" on the cat? Should you not be redirecting his mind onto something else to get him to break off the the cat?. Not being rude or anything I'm just asking for my own personal reasons with training my shepherds and helping others who have the issue with a high pray driven dog.
My 7 month old puppy (100+lb) is still learning to leave the cats alone. He does leave them alone most of the time when I’m around but when I’m not watching he chases them sometimes. He’s got them many times and left them covered in dog saliva. He doesn’t try to bite them aggressively just want to nibble them. Now one of my cat just let him nibble him unless it gets too hard then he hisses at him and by that time I would have separate them already. I have a lot of cat shelves on the wall with many cat trees so the cats have plenty of spaces to hide but they get curious of the dog too. Hopefully when my puppy settles down he will be less energetic.
You really are THE coolest dog trainer on UA-cam! 😎 Your knowledge and understanding of dogs is so impressive. Thank you for sharing your videos. I can’t stop watching! 🇬🇧
My dad is getting remarried and wants to get rid of our dog we've had for almost 4 years because his new wife has a cat and she always trys to kill cats. I'm doing everything I can to keep her.
I love this!! I have a GSD named Bobby and two little dogs that don’t accept him, so they can never be together and when they are, the little ones attack and the gsd will think they’re playing and will keep pestering the small ones. I’m hoping I can try this out w all 3 and can maybe lower the chaos in my house 😁
This is great, but Stax was on a leash the whole time. That's necessary in the beginning, of course, but we don't know the outcome when the dog is free in the house and wants to greet the cat. The trainer should have talked about that.
There is no outcome for that. With this type of training the dog will need to be continually suppressed with obedience as management since he has only learned positional cues and literally nothing about how to act around a cat.
@@Taureantiger888 I prefer to teach rather than use forced compliance and/or bribery. Much like you do with a young child of 1-3yrs old. Dogs have about the cognitive & emotional capacity of a 2-3yr old child so while not a perfect comparison by any means at all, it is a good one in terms of how to optimally 'parent' any social mammal - rules, boundaries, expectations, limits, modelling, teaching, supporting as much as needed but no more & no less - such that the learner actually gains competence and is empowered through the process of learning. I teach dogs, much like young children, how to regulate their arousal (energy) & their emotional states on their own so that they're very capable of & understand the expectations I have and the choices that I want them to make and then choose to do those things largely of their own accord. In the end, you can make a dog (or a child) do literally anything if you're persistent & physically capable and you can get a dog or a child to do literally anything if you bribe them. Neither of those things are teaching, though. They focus on the end result rather than the process and that approach is going to pervert the process every single time.
@@chelseaneville9672 Thank you but this isn't specific enough. How would you teach dogs not to chase a cat? I have a 4 month old Standard Poodle(my first dog) who chases and mouths my Bengal Cat. Mind you..we have another cat and he attempted to start play with her too(he does a play bow) and she swiped him and he no longer bothers her. My Bengal cat who has always been dominant allows the dog to "catch him" and doesnt fight back. It honestly seems like the Bengal has some sub-dom mascositic role going on with the dog. Mind you I've always and continue to keep the puppy on a long lead in the home so I can prevent him from chasing the Bengal but it still happens. Outside..I notice that the Bengal initiates play by coming around the puppy and then making the puppy chase him. The Bengal naturally outruns the puppy but when the puppy gets tired he waits for him. That said..I hate that my pup chase him when he gets the chance because he's very mouthy(Standard Poodles are mouthy). How would you suggest I approach this? I have allowd the chase on one occasion because I was certain the Bengal would set boundaries(swipe) like the femald cat but he hasn't.
This shepherd is adorable so this certainly helps. I got a stray rescue dog a week ago. The dog was born and self-raised in the mountains by herself for the first 4 months of her life, then she was rescued and vaccinated, neutered and sheltered for another 6 months until picked her up. She was of course terrified when she arrived home so she stayed in that baby park for the whole week, she didn't eat or drink or peed or pooed the first 3 days and then ate an drank on the fourth and peed and pooed on the night of the fourth when i took her out for a walk (which she categorically refused the previous days). I have another dog and she accepted it immediately (they both accepted each other), but then today i introduced her to my two cats and she went from nice dog who walked peacefully with my other dog and ate from my hands and licked my hands to a werewolf in 1 second. If the baby park wasn't there and her locked inside, i am fairly certain she would have eaten the cats alive. Never seen such a radical change in personality. This shepherd here seems to come from a breeder or maybe a pet shop and must have been socialized her entire life, but my dog is basically a former wild dog who must have had to catch and kill her prey for the first few months of her life because nobody was feeding her in the mountains. So now i am stuck with the dilemma of, do i keep the dog and see what happens with the cats using a dog trainer like this guy, or do i give her back before it is too late to let her be adopted by a family without cats. I feel like an A hole if i give her back because she is starting to get used to us, and i feel extremely selfish and self-indulgent if i keep her because this could put my cats at risk and maybe this dog will never be truly happy if she is constantly triggered by my cats. My cats like to chase birds and butterflies and whatever moves around them , and i know that if i had a pet bird, this bird would never be safe, so i feel the same about my cats regarding this new dog. It is so frustrating not to know what is best for the dogs and cats. Persoanlly i really don't care spending 3 years to educate my new dog, but i can't put my cats at risk and under constant stress either and although i have a house with floors and 7 rooms, (just for myself and the pets) i can't forever keep the dog and cats apart, cats are smart and sneaky and they will find a way to interact with the dog and i suspect dogs will find a way too and i can't possibly keep this dog forever in a baby park, so it feels like a catastrophe just waiting to happen sooner or later. What do you guys think, should i try or should i give the dog back (there is no way my cats are going anywhere, they are old cats over 18 years old whom i have had just as long and they only know me and my house and this life and they are literally my kids. But i haven't really gotten to know the dog yet and although i already like her immensely, it wouldn't be unbearable to give her the chance to be adopted by a more appropriate family.
@@bohudson8605 Hi, thanks for the comment Bo, I ended up keeping the dog. She has goitten far less aggressive toward the cats but they are still not allowed to be in the same room together without supervision. And by that i mean that every day i put the dog into the locked baby park (which she can't jump over the fence of) and bring the cats and let them walk around. She has started to get used to the smell of the cats and doesn't show her teeth or bark anymore, she "just" howls like a wolf, but because this is the same howl she gives when i prepare her food it is still a bit alarming and until she stops howling i won't let her near the cats without a fence in between. The cats however are not scared of her and they have their jungle gyms they can escape to to be out of reach from the dog but this is not a big loving family just yet ! The dog trainer who comes once a week told me that things are looking up but it will take time before they fully accept each other. Besides the dog is still very asocial and spends most of the day in her crate and still dreads her twice daily walks and jumps at everything, so i can only walk her very early in the morning and after sunset, and i live in a very quiet area, but she will jump even if an airplane flies nearby or if a neighbour closes his window when we walk past a house, and if she sees someone on the street then she goes into full panic. She really only trusts me so far so i am trying to socialize her little by little as the trainer told me without rush. I can only tell you what the trainer told me, keep them separated but let them meet at least once every other day with a fence or a door in between them and be patient. It's been months now and things are evolving very slowly but they are evolving in the right direction so i just have to wait and be patient and i recommend you do the same. How old are your dog and cats and do you have any idea where the dog came from before it ended up in a shelter, because this helps a lot to understand what sort of trauma it might be facing. Sorry for the long comment !
I got lucky. I adopted a 4 yr old female 6 pound Maltese who came from a family with children, cats, Great Dane, 2 horses and chickens. I currently have 5 cats. My new Maltese is the perfect t dog. No issues whatsoever. Her previous owner trained her good. I’m glad because I don’t know how to train a dog.
My stress level every time my dog gets my cat in her mouth I keep them separated in separate rooms but I accidentally left the door open and I felt really bad because I thought my cat was dead but turned out she's okay and it's really stressing me out so thank you for your video
Acclimating them works.. using a tall baby gate and keeping them separated at first, waiting for the cat to come to you guys (you and dog) so the cat doesn’t end up traumatized.. and also putting both on a leash indoors when getting them ready to meet. Experience: I have a pitbull/bully and bengal cat
Like how owner had control and everyone was relaxed even cat - didn't panic trying to run! My 3 yr old has issues with cats and it's mostly outside strays!! She goes crazy & I'm not sure how to change this. Have used vibration on a shock collar as well as leave it. Now have a 5.5 month old puppy that she is teaching her cat reaction too!! 😭 Problem is living in a trailer court since divorced, so a lot of strays & they come trough my yard occasionally.
Hi, I am a behavioral trainer and have learned so much from your videos, I refer people to them all the time. Would love to see video how you address other forms of prey drive. I basically do exactly what you do in the video in my training, but tricky case right now and trying to search through your videos on prey drive but only saw this one.
I hope this helps. My chihuahua mix will not leave the kitties alone. Every time he gets swiped, he gets angrier and keeps going. They start off playing but it gets out of hand fast.
There’s an outside cat that’s not mine, but likes to visit every so often. I love to make new pet friends, but my dog likes to charge after it. Thanks for helping me. I’ll see if it works.
E recently "rescued" a beautiful Rottweiler who has been very hard to train as he is scared of everything. Leash, water, loud noises, and flinches and cowers at us as if we were going to beat him which was never the case. He is about 8 months old and we now need help more than ever as it seems almost impossible to train him. He ended up killing our barn cat along with 11 of our laying hens. He now is desperately trying everything to get to our baby goats and has ever tore the hotwire down to get to them. He didnt get one of them, but got ahold of one of our chicks and ran away with it in his mouth. Thank goodness our gsd was out there at the time and she helped me get him as she is our guardian dog and is very well trained. I love my dogs and willing to do whatever to make sure my dogs are happy along with obedient. Im not a lazy owner that is just too lazy to train my dogs. Ive worked hard with my gsd and working just as hard with my rott. But with him being so scared of everything, and being so huge and strong it literally seems its impossible. Idk what to do.
I had this problem with my 3mo GSD. She is working line and has a high prey drive. I had never had this issue with a puppy before and it freaked me out, because she had just so much drive. It’s a year later and we can trust them together freely in the house. But it was a huge process. Plus my cats are very chill and non-aggressive, which is unhelpful! 🤣 Please, if you do have a high drive pup, don’t ignore the behaviour as normal puppy stuff or ‘funny’. Take it seriously from the start. Your cat’s safety is paramount and things can go south real quick. Because I recognised the behaviour as potentially problematic I was able to implement stuff like this early in my pups training.
I had 6 cats and adopted Zoya my GSD when she was 5 years old. She never seen a cat before, the previous owners thought she would kill my cats because of her prey drive. My 9 week old kitten put her in her place plus I was on high alert with not know what she would do to my cats. I basically did recall and had her by my side on the couch. All my cats love her and sleep with her.
We have three cats. Our six year old Lab/Mastiff was raised with them but we recently adopted a Corso/Mastiff from the shelter who looks at our cats and Chinchillas as prey. Fingers crossed this works.
I have a 6 yr old 88lb male GSD that's only friends with the cat he grew up with ! Outside cats, foxes ,rabbits , squirrels , etc are good time prey to him ! He has run down & caught 2 foxes ! Lets them go , his fun is the chase.
I’m having a problem with the dog and cats but my dog was 13 weeks when I brought her home and only have had her a week. Been teaching her “leave it” that’s how I found this channel lol
Great video. If he only had the dog a couple of weeks, he should have the dog tethered to him or his wife to show the dog his boundaries. I just rescued a 1 yr old GSD almost 4 weeks ago and after tethering her to us, she learned she is not supposed to go in my kitchen. It also stopped the roaming and gave her structure.
Thank you for sharing this! We are having to temporarily move in with family while we sell our home and build another but my 13 year old lab does not like cats and of course they have a cat. I'm super nervous he's going to try to attack the cat. Luckily he's getting slower in his old age with arthritis and all but this is really helpful as he is trained with the leave it command so I think if can use these tips right off the bat we may have success. Thanks Tom!
That was great. However, we have eight cats and a newer one (stray) not yet fully introduced to the others so he is in another room. Now, regarding DOG - we just took in a almost 1 year old puppy - found sitting at the end of our driveway. When my Husband got out of the car which he was backing out of the driveway - he did not see the dog until he went to get back into the car - the dog was sitting on the floor of the front seat. This dog is highly active and barks at the cats through the door. We will try your method - one cat at a time. Wish us luck. Judi
Oh how I needed this!! My newly adopted Shephard is undergoing lots of training as is and we have a cat that took an instant dislike to my dog.. Which led to the cast stalking and behaving like a crazy pissed off cat. At first My Shephard paid no mind to the cats antics but here we are weeks later and the dog is over it and now wanting to chase the cat. And before anyone thinks we allowed the cat to get by with his behavior I'll say no we worked with the cat as well but it had only gotten a bit better over the past week. Lots of work still to do.
The place command is so valuable for addressing a host of behaviors. Its quickly becoming my favorite command to teach. Is there any issues with teaching place as one of the first, if not the first, command with a new dog. I'm thinking about my fosters who are rotating new dogs into their homes often.
@@mjsdogtraining2191 The behaviour in the street is indeed a trained trick. The basics of my training is hand signaling. So I could potentially trigger that with merely a hand signal. But reflecting over your intitial comment I must admit that I do agree with that. The suppression is a better barter than the prey. I've seen it while training my dog.
@@Bear-form Yes I agree but there's alot of training that goes into that Police dog from a puppy and only the elite of the group get selected to perform the police K9 task. On top of that the police dog comes from a line of high quality breeding. I think a k9 type dog would be too much for the average owner to handle. The possibility of managing the drive in a dog is possible but one must also be realistic with ones expectations based on the genetic traits of the dog. That's just my opinion though.
I have almost the same situation. My details: 6 mo old lab mix, new to our house, who is great with commands when we are walking in the neighborhood and looking at cats in the neighborhood but my cat (8 year old Siamese) creeps silently through the house then sees the dog and runs, which triggers the dog and she is gone before I can even say anything. She has been with us for 3 days and is getting much better at not pulling at running squirrels but not sure if she will ever leave the cat as long as the cat runs.
He needs some cat trees and cat shelves so the cat has somewhere to rest. First few days only allowed outside so cat can see them , then full supervision with a house line only until they are reliable. We teach gentle and leave it command. Dog knows how to play gently with the cat. Our previous senior cat would swipe and tell them off, the 2nd cat likes to play with them. Cat food and water are always on top of a storage office drawer. That's how we teach them. We taught an 18 month old groodle , and 12 month old terrier around 9 yrs ago), and our 7 month old GSD last year.
I am in the same situation right now. I rescued a Olde English Bulldogge and he is brilliant and will leave but he really just wants to hang out with my cat, My cat not so much but I have baby gates in place to stop anything bad happening. I use treats to take the focus away from my cat.
I wish I had seen this video 5 years ago when I had rescued a dog that wanted to kill my cats. Took us a year and a 1/2 before we were comfortable with her being around the cats by herself. This would have made it so much easier.
Great info here. We adopted a husky known to chase (but not harm) cats and we're trying these tips to integrate them. I hope it will help that our other dogs are usually indifferent/sometimes play with the cat.
@@SputnikCrisis I let them be in the same rooms when we're around, but separate them for the night or when we go out to run errands. Probably excessive, but it would only take once for those natural instincts to kick in. O_O She lunges to the end of her leash every time she sees a squirrel or rabbit on her walks.
We have a husky that we got as a pup. He’s 2 now. We had cats when we got him and he grew up with them. He’s okay with them but still always wants to aggressively sniff them and sometimes paws at them (playfully but doesn’t realize how strong he is). Now we have a kitten we have been introducing via crate. Sometimes husky freaks out like he’s scared, backs up and licks lips. Other times he goes to crate and paws and nips at it. It seems like he’s trying to be playful, but idk what to do to show that this is a baby and he can’t be that rough
And can I say that I love how responsible the owner is in this situation? Seriously stand-up guy.
Yes, but If I were him I wouldn't even consider bringing an adult dog into a cat home at the first place unless he was still a puppy.
@@boatwg3075 yeah, if I were getting a bully breed I'd want to make sure it's a puppy. At least the owner understood he was in a predicament, and sought professional help instead of letting it slide trying to train on his own, until something awful happened to Tony.. though I imagine he would have gotten rid of the dog before that.
@@boatwg3075 yeah i think there’s a lot of shame about not adopting for some people and finding a puppy to adopt is pretty difficult. i agree, though. i tried rescuing an adult dog before getting a puppy and had to take her back because she was way too dangerous for my cats (along with other issues and just not being a good fit for either of us). ‘adopt don’t shop’ really don’t account for how complex adoption is and the added difficulties
@@boatwg3075 yeah, don't do it if you can't. But I have done it with two big adult dogs, and using training and safe areas for the cats during training, it's worked great. But you need to be ready to do this. The more the new dog gets away with it I think the harder to break that. Mine learned immediately that the cats were protected and off limits.
I've done it a lot. All my dogs were adults coming into the home and they all do great with the cats one of the dogs is always cuddling with the cats
Great tools and lesson. For those of you who have a problem with your dog obsessing as you are teaching the leave-it command: if they are still “staring down” the object that they have been told to “leave-it”, here’s a bit of finesse that such a short video couldn’t quite show. The dog is actually “leaving it” when the dog takes his/her eyes off the object. That is when they have actually left it, in their mind. As Long as they are giving the object the stare-down, whether it’s a piece of pizza someone dropped, or the ball, or a steak or a cat, you will know when to praise or give a treat-it’s not until the eyes have come off the object! Usually a head turn. Boom. Praise. That’s the moment that the dog actually left it. The dog might return to the tension of the stare-down and obsess again, or focus on the forbidden object, but when the dog looks away again, bingo! Praise again. The dog is learning that there is other life happening that doesn’t include the object of obsession. And for a dog that wants to please, they have discovered that the calmness that happens when they look away is what pleases you. Attention to this detail will really make your leave it command a game changer. The dog learns to leave-it in his/her brain as well as in the behavior, and if the dog learns to look away, they are truly learning to actually let it go.
This is so helpful!
Any advice? I just got a new kitten, and I have three dogs. Two get along with the cat okay, but the other has a high prey drive. He knows the commands, but when he’s obsessing over this cat, he refuses to listen. If I get his attention for a second, I attempt to praise him for it, but before I can he’s already back in the cats face, locked in, panting, whale eyes, lip licking. It worries me, and I’m not sure what the next approach would be.
I need you to train my dog! Thank you for sharing this (4 yrs. Ago!😊).
I don't mean to be negative about this video, but I would caution anyone against holding a cat while a dog is in the room. I tried to hold my cat, she bit me in the face and I had to have face surgery. Be mindful.
Just learned that the hard way
@@lexirose572 I'm so sorry. Take care.
Understand you! Especially before training.
yea my cat don't bite but he trying hard to escape that he scratched me, he go berserk they both hard to train
a few days ago my sweet old boy henry is the friendliest and bravest cat and accidentally scratched me because he was so scared from our new dog koda barking at him trying to get to him :( i do not recommend holding the cat at all
I watch his show every saturday and bought the book ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxGQVgV21bQ7B9b9duQ1ByImyT9xHbjOKq because i like his method. He's very talktative in the book about his dog training experiences with several different breeds over the years. When he does get to the training chapters, you need to read more slowly, take mental or written notes and try to apply his advice to your pet. That's where i'm at now. Another review is in order aftet i've trained my blue mountain shepherd with brandon mcmillan's method.
"Leave it!" Has always been my most useful and loved command. Ever! I still had to chuckle at Stacks and his GSD vocalizing! (Lifetime GSDer here who adores their not well known goofy side.) Well done, Tom, Stacks and owner!
I don't have a GSD, but my good buddy does, and that dog is hilarious and goofy, for sure.
The goofy is strong with mine, too! It's GSD or nothing in my house. There's no other breed as well suited for all aspects of family life, though admittedly a few breeds come pretty close.
Starts at 5:00
You're welcome.
Appreciate ya
The real MVP.
HERO
Thanks
Love this! I did the same thing with my almost 5 month old German Shepherd Puppy and our 3yr old cat. It took about 3 days or so but now he's just watching the cat walk by while he's on his bed with no reaction. Some mornings he does get a bit primal and wants to chase and play with the cat but the cat is no longer putting up with his harassment and will hiss at him. As soon as he hears the hissing, he's back on his bed or in his crate. If only my cat can speak the words "Leave it!" it would make the whole process perfect. LOL Thank you again for another great video! You are the only professional dog trainer/dog behavior specialist on youtube that makes sense to me.
Thanks so much for that! I appreciate it!
OK this comment gives me hope
Is your dog still doing well with your cat? I’m in the same position, my cat is even the same age when you posted the comment. I just want to know that if I keep working at it, everything will be okay ya know? A lot of people are telling me to rehome my dog instead especially since I’m 7 months pregnant.
I adopted a bull terrier and she’s very prey driven with my cat. We’ve been doing “leave it” every day with ample rewards while he’s got a safe space in a gated bedroom and multiple cat trees around. She’s picking it up really quickly! You’re awesome!
I have a bull terrier too, in the same situation. We do the leave it.
The cat gets cornered - dog could be injured badly too. This is a man is doing what he needs to keep both pets safe. I'm glad he didn't return the dog back to the shelter.
that pen/cage was the best thing i've ever bought. it helped a TON with raising my puppy. he's a GSD/Rhodesian mix & quickly adjusted to it after a couple of weeks, which was amazing bc he had a ton of anxiety. now he absolutely claims it as his space. if he's not in the pen by 8pm to go to sleep, he gets extremely upset and cries nonstop
Catification too! I'm the lady who loves your channel even though I don't have a dog! I do however have a cat! May I give advice for the cat during the process? A huge help is that poor kitty needs 'ups' - by this I mean easy up riutes and places to get up and away. It also will help kitty feel less stressed to escape up. Love you! I get best info from Jackson Galaxy for cats!
Agreed, this cat my feel so much better once he can get up above the dog
This works for more confident cats. 2 of my 7 cats continue to use the tall cat trees to stay out of the dog's reach. The others startle every time pup barks, and run to the basement, which is off-limits to the dog. My poor kitties. They are all rescue cats and have varying degrees of socialization. I adopted most of them because nobody else would.
Dylan Donaghue not really, as long as the cat knows that high place is available to them they will retreat to the closest place they can. Just make sure it's none slip for the cat to grip on in flight , and make sure the dog can't get to it easier by standing on a sofa , also never leave them in the same room when your out until you know the dog won't look they're way . Had GSDs and cats all my life , had a 18 month rescue bitch never been round cats before, we actually nailed it pretty quickly , to the point the cats came walkies too. Just to add some cats prefer being able to hide to a dark place, so a wooden box nailed to a high shelf could possibly work for some cats, I would suggest 2 boxes One that they can pass threw to get to another .
@@shanarablue339Interesting. Why do you suggest 2 boxes (one tunnel / one closed)?
@@dylandonaghue6750 Thank you so much for being a caring soul and rescuing all of those Cats and giving them a better life!! I hope they get along with Dog eventually!
every dog you work with actually helps thousands from all the people watching your videos. thanks tom!
Awesome video. As a dog trainer who is also known for my work with cats, this is a very real issue. Love seeing how other trainers handle it because it can be life or death.
Hi! Do you have an Instagram?
@@stillstanding1234567 did you mean me or Tom? We're both on Instagram.
@@cherylschaeffer7832 you!
@@stillstanding1234567 Yes, I do have an Instagram
Any suggestions? I have a 3 yr old pit and my daughter got a kitten. ???? Any advice is appreciated.
Lol my cat taught my dogs to leave him alone....after a few swipes they give him a wide birth
Same in my house lol
Susie L same here than my cats always kind of strut off 😂
My German Shepard is no Mach for my tabby cat (idk what breed of cat) my cat bully’s my German Shepard though
😂😂😂
Sm my dogs are scared of the kitten in my house
Why fast forward through the actual training? I’m trying to do this for my own dog since I’m having the same problem.
So you hire him.
So pay him lol
He has specific videos that walk you through each of those commands in detail
He’s repeating the same thing that he showed over and over. He’s just fast forwarding through the 2nd, 3rd, 4th times of the same thing. You’re not missing anything.
Pay for help u tightarse
I foster dogs and the first thing i teach them, regardless of if they are puppies or an adult dog, is place and stay for duration. This teaches the dog you are the leader and makes it easier for future training exercises.
Watch Richard Hines on this topic. An older guy with 20 years experience and he covered his face in horror at this trainer's techniques. He said that they're not fixing the problem, just managing it. That dog is stuck on a leash for life and if the owners aren't there, the cat is dead. They're not even addressing the aggression toward cats. That behavior has to become something that the dog chooses to not do even if no one is there.
Worked for my 5year old and 3 year old GSD rescued from the shelter both had issues just like this dog in this video it's the owners not the dog with time and positive reinforcement it is possible.
I watched this just to see what it entailed and...he doesn't even tell you what he did to teach the dog. All he mentions is that the dog was "disciplined" which is extremely unclear.
Oh my God! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
is no one gonna talk about how fast the dog learned that 😭😭😭
It's called editing and harsh aversives with an electronic collar for leaving the bed.
@@chelseaneville9672 they use a prong collar not an E-collar
@Valhalla Pyre lol yes to teach the dog how to lay in one spot instead to fix the problem for the people at the detriment of the dog who isn't any better off for knowing that coming off a bed will be met with discomfort.
yes, called bad editing
oh Chelsea.....
your comments are not helpful in the least
This definitely works with my Shepherd and cat as well. Cat is 4 and we got our Shepherd about 14 months ago. He still likes to chase the cat but he’s getting better at controlled play and leave it.
That dog is really keen to work! My stubborn ass dog would just be like as if im doing all that for no treats - cya!
This really works now my cats after 2 years come running to my GSD. to greet him in the yard when i let him out to go potty in the morning letting the cats back in..Just takes time, some separating steps, reward positive behavior only...When contact takes place in the beginning keep the basket muzzle on (a short time) remember reward good behavior with high voice and sometimes treats..Wash rinse repeat until u see a calm dog, this helped for me on so many things.
Can we see a follow up video of how they are doing now?
Yeah, I noticed the cat and dog never interacted in any meaningful way...
Yea definitely
Same here - I'm dealing w the same situation, and would like to see how to take it further .
I need tips i have 2 cats 8 in 9 years old we got a dog he runs affter them
@@hollybutler3978 me too! 2 cats,& a 9 month old German shepherd all I can do is keep them totally separated
nice! I introduced my husky pup to my amazon parrot as soon as we adopted her. She knows not to bother her and even lets my parrot ride on her back! She still needs to learn to leave cats alone. Great video!
Thanks for another great video, Stacks did such a great job! I love that Tony has a safe place as well. Great idea!
We have a 5 year old staffy x and got 2 make kittens 4 months ago. She has a huge prey drive especially for birds, rats and cats. If she saw a car when walking she would bark and chase.
We used similar principles when introducing them, bed, come, stay, drop, leave.
Happy to say after about 6 weeks (so when kittens were 12wks old) they were able to be out in the open without her chasing them.
Not only does it make for a happier household, it has also changed walking her as she is not driven to chase cats or bark and be angry.
Obviously it all depends on the dog, ours generally is very social with other dogs and humans.
Gotta appreciate an owner who wasn’t just dealing with the problem, he wanted a solution within weeks of adopting the dog! That’s so fantastic, try and nip this in the bud in this new home
I've been having this same issue with my GSD since we picked him up from the airport at 12 weeks old. So glad you made this video!
Holy crap. Did you read my mind? This is the video I’ve been needing!!!
Another great video Tom! I work with people and their dog(s) & cat(s) issues to help prevent people surrendering their animals to shelters. This is the number one complaint I get when both species are in a home. Thanks for making the cats safety a priority when working to resolve the issue.
The only thing I wish you would have included was that cat chasing should never ever be allowed or encouraged, no matter how old the dog is (I think you would agree with me on this). People often think it's so cute when their tiny puppy hides near the base of the stairs (or where ever) waiting for the fun little squeekie toy (that be the cat) to come walking down the stairs. The pup then pounces, attacks or tackles the poor unsuspecting cat, and the chase is on. What people tend to forget is, is that dog is going to get much bigger and could cause a lot more damage once full grown. Only then do people tend to not find it funny anymore and then sadly, it's a habit that is hard to break in the dog rather than having just set these boundaries in the first place when the dog was young. I feel this is a pretty big issue and is quite common (here in Alberta Canada in my experience anyway).
Thanks again for posting another great video Mr. Tom :)
I indeed gave it a thumbs up & have already subscribed. Can't wait to see what you do next.
Thanks so much Jennifer!
I agree. I don't think its cute for puppies to chase cats. I kind of got cold chills thinking of when my brother brought home a big dog someone was going to shoot because the dog was sick. The dog got well. Actually a nice dog. Then there was a cat someone dropped off who was pregnant. I never saw her, but the dog found the family. He chased the mother and blew his own knee out. I think he decided it wasn't worth the bother after that. Never a good idea to encourage chasing. No matter how "cute" you think it is.
My cat used to escape to run off with the neighbors shepard/pit bull mix. A few times the dogs owner would knock on the door, hand me my cat with "Your cat is a bad influence on my dog." Seems they had a thing for digging up other neighbor's gardens, instigated by my cat. The dog long since moved away & I inherited 2 geratic cats. Once they cross the rainbow bridge, I will get a dog for my younger cat, who missed his dog friend. No going out unsupervised for them. I don't want the neighbors outside the house with torches & pitchforks.
This is so important. My niece brought in a rescue dog and it attacked her cat. Would have cost her 4,000 to operate on the cat and she did not have that kind of money. NEVER trust a strange dog with your animals.
My puppy is trying so hard just to be friends with my cats, it’s the cutest thing, and the puppy has learned to keep her distance.
My puppy does not keep his distance and my cat is afraid of him, idk what to do
Same!! Having the same issue abs feeling so discouraged
My dog trying to be friends but he’s too big and he ends up hurting the cat
We just adopted a pitbull mix from a shelter. He has been suffering from malnourishment. I really wanted to adopt him and give him a good life but last night my son, let him in to where we had the cats separated, and he killed my cat that we loved so much 😢 I really do not want to give him back to the shelter, but I also have to protect my other cat. Right now I have them separated, and we are looking into obedience training. This is just so heartbreaking but your video definitely gave me some hope.
I just found this video. I’m def gonna try this with my dog. She’s a little over a year old and very strong. She also loves to chase our cat, who btw, is about 18 yrs old and so enjoys tormenting the dog. Our cat is a dick for the most part but, we love her just the same. Thank you for sharing this video.
I love this video because I am in the exact same situation, except for a little bit ahead of the game with training our rescue shepherd.
It is taking me four weeks to get to this point and I think we’re about 2 to 3 weeks out of introducing the dog and the cat although they seen each other through a glass windows.
The cat is beyond ready to meet the dog. It’s the dog needing a bit more discipline and structure to get me to a comfort level of my cat’s safety.
Thank you!
Ps, I also use affirmations, intentions and visualizations, and I can see them both enjoying each other’s company as they both have lovely, playful attitudes. One step at a time.
Lots of patience and love.
These people are awesome I am so glad they have sought help & havent just thrown cat out. I see so many hard cruel a-holes who new puppy/dog doesnt get on with cat so cat goes. This is love right here. Xx
One important thing to add...it's really never a good idea to bring/carry/present a cat to a dog like this. Interaction should *always* be on the cat's terms to ensure their safety, their comfort, and best results.
This video has given me hope that my cat and 10 month German sheperd pup can get along again. They got along for the first few months after I brought the sheperd home then the cat started running from her and now the cat has it’s own room and the dog busts hunts for her.
Hi, I'm from Germany and I had the same problem also with a German shepherd! You teach dogs and their owners the same way like my dog trainer. Wow
I just came upon this video and it is exactly what I need! I have two adult Australian Labradoodles, and recently brought home a ragdoll kitten.
Yay! Now hopefully everyone can coexist in peace. Great job! I have a 4 month old GSD and of course she LOVES all my cats but they dont appreciate that much affection and attention from her LOL so the "leave it command" has helped a bunch instead of us just yelling "no" all the time and trying to "save the cats." I love all your videos! I just discovered your channel a few weeks ago and your tips and advice have helped so much in raising this pup and also applying new and different things to my adult dog. Thank you!!!!
Yess, best of luck!
I needed this video! My doberman constantly goes after my small dog and doesn’t listen to the little dogs “back off snarls.” He already has a strong recall and place. I will add that to the leave it!! Thanks!!
Rachael Reif have you used a dogtra collar? They are incredible. I have a Doberman who loves to play with my cats and commands learned using the collar are great.
Danielle Zappa I have the Mini Educator by Ecollar Technologies. I haven’t used it much for behavior correction yet, more for recall training, place, etc for conditioning.
I adopted a rescue from Cyprus and he’s good with cats.. until today. He begun to chase them 😣 he only wants to play and once he reaches them he does stop. He hasn’t attempted to grab them which is good but it’s stressing the cats out, he’s managed to pick up the sit and down command in the two days I’ve had him, so I’ll be applying this information into our training tomorrow !
Great video! I’m definitely going to try working on this with my dog. He’s been driving my cats crazy 🙄
haha yes! Best of luck, thanks for watching!
Gotta spend $300 on an electric collar, first. The video completely fails to mention the fact that this was done using the ecollar on high enough levels to create behavioural suppression (not resolution), under the guise of obedience commands. This takes 30mins or less, but it's NOT a resolution. Your dog is still going to feel the same way about your cats.
Resolution has to involve actually dealing with the precursors (thoughts and feelings) to the behaviours. Just like humans, behaviour is outcome of how you think and feel.
If you want to learn how to resolve this issue permanently so you don't have to control, manage, and police your dog forever (and if you don't, the suppression goes away and they begin to behave in the same way again which is a testament to how ineffective suppression as a training technique is) then check out "Training Between The Ears" on UA-cam.
Resolution of a problem is defined by the dog naturally (at liberty aka free behaviour aka not under any type of command, cue, or control from you or the environment or anything else - literally just acting naturally) and by default behaving in a calm and collected way. The dog's perception of the stimulus (or often, stimuli) has been modified in such a way that the outward behaviours we see as the problem naturally go away on their own. The dog has no need whatsoever to act that way when they have a healthy perception. Behaviour is how we know what the dog is thinking and feeling.
@@chelseaneville9672 Holy shit this video is misleading as hell
@@chelseaneville9672 Show me where an e collar was used? He'd have to have a little control box and press the button.
@@chelseaneville9672 Thank you so much! Honestly.
Tell me if I'm wrong Tom, but it seems to me that left alone in the house together, the dog can never be trusted with the cat. The negative result is that one or the other has to be locked up, or left outside. One or the other is excluded from the family/pack.
This is the issue inherent in using suppression through obedience and high level corrections to manage behaviour vs resolving the root problem in the way the dog thinks, feels & perceives the world and gaining practical life skills like the ability to manage their own arousal levels appropriate to the circumstances.
A well behaved dog beats a well trained dog any day of the week. The well trained dog has no foundation to fall back on and relies on the structure of being almost constantly in a command of some kind because they lack those fundamental skills like frustration tolerance, patience, environmental adaptability, ability to modulate their energy level to that of other dogs, canine social skills etc - all learned skills that anyone can teach any dog and that give us the ability to create authentic changes in the way dogs actually go about their lives with us OUTSIDE of a structure of obedience as management.
It taking me 4 years for the dog to get used to the cat... but now imma try this
My GSD is about 2 years old and my cat is almost a year.. my GSD grabbed my cat's head two days ago and will not listen to anyone when he's around my cats, so I'll definitely be trying this ASAP!
Damn clear and concise training... stays realistic too.
I would not hold a cat in a situation were he could freak out lol
Kinda was about to say, she wasn’t really holding that cat securely or calmly lol
Well, it’s about controlling the dog. Even if the cat got free, it’s unlikely he’s getting close to pup. Trainers see that as optimal times to teach. Can’t hold the cat forever ya know?
Our current dog's first day in our house was an adventure. Our cat who was used to her previous dog came home to our new 7 month old Golden puppy who had not been around a cat. I picked the cat up to take her to a safe place, but the dog excitedly ran towards us and the cat did freak out, chomped down on my finger joint, screamed, then ran. The dog chased, I bled everywhere. We got the cat safely secured, used peroxide on my finger and wrapped it. The following days were spent going to doctors, getting finger surgery for a bone infection, and months of splints and therapy. Cat bites are no joke. Our dog learned that cats rule the universe, they became great friends, and the dog was with her when she passed at home. Our new cat now goes out to the yard with our dog for bathroom trips and knows that the dog respects her in all situations. I have a permenant witches crooked finger for pointing anytime I need to correct the dog's behavior.
I have always introduced puppies to my family with cats. It is much safer and easier for them to get along and bond better for long term in my opinion since my childhood with dogs and cats. Our St. Bernard name Oscar had grew up along side of neighbor’s black tuxedo named Samson who was his best friend. They had done everything together including Samson sleeping in Oscar’s mouth during winter time during day in dog house. There was zero issues with them and Samson was our neighbor’s cat who wanted to be with Oscar.
What a great gsd! right at the beggining he wanted to please the trainer 😍. Super fine to train! Why not add a positive association like cat=food, cat=play later on to facilitate interaction?
Thank you for such a straightforward approach to training. I was amazed that no treats were used in this process. I have a chance to train a border collie/aussie mix to ignore cats in a home environment (mine). This just might make the difference.
I'm no expert on training dogs. But I've trained my shepherds with lines that have a strong high pray drive working class type shepherds. My question is why are you not breaking his "eye lock" on the cat? Should you not be redirecting his mind onto something else to get him to break off the the cat?. Not being rude or anything I'm just asking for my own personal reasons with training my shepherds and helping others who have the issue with a high pray driven dog.
Thanks for the vid. New German shepherd-golden doodle mix, 15weeks old, will be teaching him this. Our cat will appreciate it :)
My 7 month old puppy (100+lb) is still learning to leave the cats alone. He does leave them alone most of the time when I’m around but when I’m not watching he chases them sometimes. He’s got them many times and left them covered in dog saliva. He doesn’t try to bite them aggressively just want to nibble them. Now one of my cat just let him nibble him unless it gets too hard then he hisses at him and by that time I would have separate them already. I have a lot of cat shelves on the wall with many cat trees so the cats have plenty of spaces to hide but they get curious of the dog too. Hopefully when my puppy settles down he will be less energetic.
You really are THE coolest dog trainer on UA-cam! 😎
Your knowledge and understanding of dogs is so impressive.
Thank you for sharing your videos.
I can’t stop watching!
🇬🇧
Kerrie thanks for wAtxhjng Kerrie!
My dad is getting remarried and wants to get rid of our dog we've had for almost 4 years because his new wife has a cat and she always trys to kill cats. I'm doing everything I can to keep her.
I love this!! I have a GSD named Bobby and two little dogs that don’t accept him, so they can never be together and when they are, the little ones attack and the gsd will think they’re playing and will keep pestering the small ones. I’m hoping I can try this out w all 3 and can maybe lower the chaos in my house 😁
Thanks for watching!
This is great, but Stax was on a leash the whole time. That's necessary in the beginning, of course, but we don't know the outcome when the dog is free in the house and wants to greet the cat. The trainer should have talked about that.
There is no outcome for that. With this type of training the dog will need to be continually suppressed with obedience as management since he has only learned positional cues and literally nothing about how to act around a cat.
yeah, this seems like management when complete prevention is the true desire
@@chelseaneville9672 so what do you suggest?
@@Taureantiger888 I prefer to teach rather than use forced compliance and/or bribery. Much like you do with a young child of 1-3yrs old. Dogs have about the cognitive & emotional capacity of a 2-3yr old child so while not a perfect comparison by any means at all, it is a good one in terms of how to optimally 'parent' any social mammal - rules, boundaries, expectations, limits, modelling, teaching, supporting as much as needed but no more & no less - such that the learner actually gains competence and is empowered through the process of learning. I teach dogs, much like young children, how to regulate their arousal (energy) & their emotional states on their own so that they're very capable of & understand the expectations I have and the choices that I want them to make and then choose to do those things largely of their own accord.
In the end, you can make a dog (or a child) do literally anything if you're persistent & physically capable and you can get a dog or a child to do literally anything if you bribe them. Neither of those things are teaching, though. They focus on the end result rather than the process and that approach is going to pervert the process every single time.
@@chelseaneville9672 Thank you but this isn't specific enough. How would you teach dogs not to chase a cat? I have a 4 month old Standard Poodle(my first dog) who chases and mouths my Bengal Cat. Mind you..we have another cat and he attempted to start play with her too(he does a play bow) and she swiped him and he no longer bothers her. My Bengal cat who has always been dominant allows the dog to "catch him" and doesnt fight back. It honestly seems like the Bengal has some sub-dom mascositic role going on with the dog. Mind you I've always and continue to keep the puppy on a long lead in the home so I can prevent him from chasing the Bengal but it still happens. Outside..I notice that the Bengal initiates play by coming around the puppy and then making the puppy chase him. The Bengal naturally outruns the puppy but when the puppy gets tired he waits for him. That said..I hate that my pup chase him when he gets the chance because he's very mouthy(Standard Poodles are mouthy). How would you suggest I approach this? I have allowd the chase on one occasion because I was certain the Bengal would set boundaries(swipe) like the femald cat but he hasn't.
Wow. My sisters dog already knows how to leave it, but I never thought of saying that when she chases the cats. It seems to be working so far.
This shepherd is adorable so this certainly helps.
I got a stray rescue dog a week ago. The dog was born and self-raised in the mountains by herself for the first 4 months of her life, then she was rescued and vaccinated, neutered and sheltered for another 6 months until picked her up. She was of course terrified when she arrived home so she stayed in that baby park for the whole week, she didn't eat or drink or peed or pooed the first 3 days and then ate an drank on the fourth and peed and pooed on the night of the fourth when i took her out for a walk (which she categorically refused the previous days). I have another dog and she accepted it immediately (they both accepted each other), but then today i introduced her to my two cats and she went from nice dog who walked peacefully with my other dog and ate from my hands and licked my hands to a werewolf in 1 second. If the baby park wasn't there and her locked inside, i am fairly certain she would have eaten the cats alive. Never seen such a radical change in personality.
This shepherd here seems to come from a breeder or maybe a pet shop and must have been socialized her entire life, but my dog is basically a former wild dog who must have had to catch and kill her prey for the first few months of her life because nobody was feeding her in the mountains. So now i am stuck with the dilemma of, do i keep the dog and see what happens with the cats using a dog trainer like this guy, or do i give her back before it is too late to let her be adopted by a family without cats.
I feel like an A hole if i give her back because she is starting to get used to us, and i feel extremely selfish and self-indulgent if i keep her because this could put my cats at risk and maybe this dog will never be truly happy if she is constantly triggered by my cats.
My cats like to chase birds and butterflies and whatever moves around them , and i know that if i had a pet bird, this bird would never be safe, so i feel the same about my cats regarding this new dog.
It is so frustrating not to know what is best for the dogs and cats.
Persoanlly i really don't care spending 3 years to educate my new dog, but i can't put my cats at risk and under constant stress either and although i have a house with floors and 7 rooms, (just for myself and the pets) i can't forever keep the dog and cats apart, cats are smart and sneaky and they will find a way to interact with the dog and i suspect dogs will find a way too and i can't possibly keep this dog forever in a baby park, so it feels like a catastrophe just waiting to happen sooner or later.
What do you guys think, should i try or should i give the dog back (there is no way my cats are going anywhere, they are old cats over 18 years old whom i have had just as long and they only know me and my house and this life and they are literally my kids. But i haven't really gotten to know the dog yet and although i already like her immensely, it wouldn't be unbearable to give her the chance to be adopted by a more appropriate family.
Hi. I have the same problem as you, year old shelter GSD wanting to hurt my cats. What did you end up doing? Thanks
@@bohudson8605 Hi, thanks for the comment Bo,
I ended up keeping the dog. She has goitten far less aggressive toward the cats but they are still not allowed to be in the same room together without supervision. And by that i mean that every day i put the dog into the locked baby park (which she can't jump over the fence of) and bring the cats and let them walk around. She has started to get used to the smell of the cats and doesn't show her teeth or bark anymore, she "just" howls like a wolf, but because this is the same howl she gives when i prepare her food it is still a bit alarming and until she stops howling i won't let her near the cats without a fence in between. The cats however are not scared of her and they have their jungle gyms they can escape to to be out of reach from the dog but this is not a big loving family just yet !
The dog trainer who comes once a week told me that things are looking up but it will take time before they fully accept each other. Besides the dog is still very asocial and spends most of the day in her crate and still dreads her twice daily walks and jumps at everything, so i can only walk her very early in the morning and after sunset, and i live in a very quiet area, but she will jump even if an airplane flies nearby or if a neighbour closes his window when we walk past a house, and if she sees someone on the street then she goes into full panic. She really only trusts me so far so i am trying to socialize her little by little as the trainer told me without rush.
I can only tell you what the trainer told me, keep them separated but let them meet at least once every other day with a fence or a door in between them and be patient.
It's been months now and things are evolving very slowly but they are evolving in the right direction so i just have to wait and be patient and i recommend you do the same.
How old are your dog and cats and do you have any idea where the dog came from before it ended up in a shelter, because this helps a lot to understand what sort of trauma it might be facing.
Sorry for the long comment !
Thank you so much. My husband and I just tried this and our new dog is doing really well!
I got lucky. I adopted a 4 yr old female 6 pound Maltese who came from a family with children, cats, Great Dane, 2 horses and chickens. I currently have 5 cats. My new Maltese is the perfect t dog. No issues whatsoever. Her previous owner trained her good. I’m glad because I don’t know how to train a dog.
My stress level every time my dog gets my cat in her mouth I keep them separated in separate rooms but I accidentally left the door open and I felt really bad because I thought my cat was dead but turned out she's okay and it's really stressing me out so thank you for your video
Acclimating them works.. using a tall baby gate and keeping them separated at first, waiting for the cat to come to you guys (you and dog) so the cat doesn’t end up traumatized.. and also putting both on a leash indoors when getting them ready to meet. Experience: I have a pitbull/bully and bengal cat
Like how owner had control and everyone was relaxed even cat - didn't panic trying to run! My 3 yr old has issues with cats and it's mostly outside strays!! She goes crazy & I'm not sure how to change this. Have used vibration on a shock collar as well as leave it. Now have a 5.5 month old puppy that she is teaching her cat reaction too!! 😭 Problem is living in a trailer court since divorced, so a lot of strays & they come trough my yard occasionally.
Hi, I am a behavioral trainer and have learned so much from your videos, I refer people to them all the time. Would love to see video how you address other forms of prey drive. I basically do exactly what you do in the video in my training, but tricky case right now and trying to search through your videos on prey drive but only saw this one.
I hope this helps. My chihuahua mix will not leave the kitties alone. Every time he gets swiped, he gets angrier and keeps going. They start off playing but it gets out of hand fast.
There’s an outside cat that’s not mine, but likes to visit every so often. I love to make new pet friends, but my dog likes to charge after it. Thanks for helping me. I’ll see if it works.
E recently "rescued" a beautiful Rottweiler who has been very hard to train as he is scared of everything. Leash, water, loud noises, and flinches and cowers at us as if we were going to beat him which was never the case. He is about 8 months old and we now need help more than ever as it seems almost impossible to train him. He ended up killing our barn cat along with 11 of our laying hens. He now is desperately trying everything to get to our baby goats and has ever tore the hotwire down to get to them. He didnt get one of them, but got ahold of one of our chicks and ran away with it in his mouth. Thank goodness our gsd was out there at the time and she helped me get him as she is our guardian dog and is very well trained. I love my dogs and willing to do whatever to make sure my dogs are happy along with obedient. Im not a lazy owner that is just too lazy to train my dogs. Ive worked hard with my gsd and working just as hard with my rott. But with him being so scared of everything, and being so huge and strong it literally seems its impossible. Idk what to do.
And what happens when he isn’t on a leash? That’s the part I wanted to see.
What a good boy - just goes to show, a little structure and a great teacher bringing out the best in Stax
I had this problem with my 3mo GSD. She is working line and has a high prey drive. I had never had this issue with a puppy before and it freaked me out, because she had just so much drive. It’s a year later and we can trust them together freely in the house. But it was a huge process. Plus my cats are very chill and non-aggressive, which is unhelpful! 🤣
Please, if you do have a high drive pup, don’t ignore the behaviour as normal puppy stuff or ‘funny’. Take it seriously from the start. Your cat’s safety is paramount and things can go south real quick. Because I recognised the behaviour as potentially problematic I was able to implement stuff like this early in my pups training.
I had 6 cats and adopted Zoya my GSD when she was 5 years old. She never seen a cat before, the previous owners thought she would kill my cats because of her prey drive. My 9 week old kitten put her in her place plus I was on high alert with not know what she would do to my cats. I basically did recall and had her by my side on the couch. All my cats love her and sleep with her.
Oh my gosh do we need this! Great video, gave me hope for peace here.
Awesome! Thanks so muhc for watching!
We have three cats. Our six year old Lab/Mastiff was raised with them but we recently adopted a Corso/Mastiff from the shelter who looks at our cats and Chinchillas as prey. Fingers crossed this works.
I have a 6 yr old 88lb male GSD that's only friends with the cat he grew up with ! Outside cats, foxes ,rabbits , squirrels , etc are good time prey to him !
He has run down & caught 2 foxes ! Lets them go , his fun is the chase.
I’m having a problem with the dog and cats but my dog was 13 weeks when I brought her home and only have had her a week. Been teaching her “leave it” that’s how I found this channel lol
Great video. If he only had the dog a couple of weeks, he should have the dog tethered to him or his wife to show the dog his boundaries. I just rescued a 1 yr old GSD almost 4 weeks ago and after tethering her to us, she learned she is not supposed to go in my kitchen. It also stopped the roaming and gave her structure.
...structure is key...works with kids too...[] :)))
Yesss!
Thank you for sharing this! We are having to temporarily move in with family while we sell our home and build another but my 13 year old lab does not like cats and of course they have a cat. I'm super nervous he's going to try to attack the cat. Luckily he's getting slower in his old age with arthritis and all but this is really helpful as he is trained with the leave it command so I think if can use these tips right off the bat we may have success. Thanks Tom!
Love the video and am hoping it will help in my situation with my 6 month old border collie and my 4 cats. Will start today, wish me well.
That was great. However, we have eight cats and a newer one (stray) not yet fully introduced to the others so he is in another room. Now, regarding DOG - we just took in a almost 1 year old puppy - found sitting at the end of our driveway. When my Husband got out of the car which he was backing out of the driveway - he did not see the dog until he went to get back into the car - the dog was sitting on the floor of the front seat. This dog is highly active and barks at the cats through the door. We will try your method - one cat at a time. Wish us luck. Judi
Looking to adopt a dog and have a cat . The choices are limited if you look for ones to get along with cats but will keep this video in mind
Oh how I needed this!! My newly adopted Shephard is undergoing lots of training as is and we have a cat that took an instant dislike to my dog.. Which led to the cast stalking and behaving like a crazy pissed off cat. At first My Shephard paid no mind to the cats antics but here we are weeks later and the dog is over it and now wanting to chase the cat. And before anyone thinks we allowed the cat to get by with his behavior I'll say no we worked with the cat as well but it had only gotten a bit better over the past week. Lots of work still to do.
The place command is so valuable for addressing a host of behaviors. Its quickly becoming my favorite command to teach. Is there any issues with teaching place as one of the first, if not the first, command with a new dog. I'm thinking about my fosters who are rotating new dogs into their homes often.
Oh Ho! This is the next step for us at home with Echo. Thank you.
You can't (exactly) suppress the prey drive, but you CAN manage the situation 🙌
Thanks!
A police dog has an off switch. So the possibility is there.
@@Bear-form a k9 trained dog also has an ON switch as well. Dogs instincts tell them to chase prey, humans train them to chase humans.
@@mjsdogtraining2191 The behaviour in the street is indeed a trained trick. The basics of my training is hand signaling. So I could potentially trigger that with merely a hand signal. But reflecting over your intitial comment I must admit that I do agree with that. The suppression is a better barter than the prey. I've seen it while training my dog.
@@Bear-form Yes I agree but there's alot of training that goes into that Police dog from a puppy and only the elite of the group get selected to perform the police K9 task. On top of that the police dog comes from a line of high quality breeding. I think a k9 type dog would be too much for the average owner to handle. The possibility of managing the drive in a dog is possible but one must also be realistic with ones expectations based on the genetic traits of the dog. That's just my opinion though.
Will try this my puppy is horrible with my cats
What a coincidental I have a German Shepherd too
I have a dog that was a new addition. She had gotten along with the cat at first. Now she cases the cat anytime she moves.
I have almost the same situation. My details: 6 mo old lab mix, new to our house, who is great with commands when we are walking in the neighborhood and looking at cats in the neighborhood but my cat (8 year old Siamese) creeps silently through the house then sees the dog and runs, which triggers the dog and she is gone before I can even say anything. She has been with us for 3 days and is getting much better at not pulling at running squirrels but not sure if she will ever leave the cat as long as the cat runs.
He needs some cat trees and cat shelves so the cat has somewhere to rest. First few days only allowed outside so cat can see them , then full supervision with a house line only until they are reliable. We teach gentle and leave it command. Dog knows how to play gently with the cat. Our previous senior cat would swipe and tell them off, the 2nd cat likes to play with them. Cat food and water are always on top of a storage office drawer. That's how we teach them. We taught an 18 month old groodle , and 12 month old terrier around 9 yrs ago), and our 7 month old GSD last year.
This was a life-saver, thank you so much
I am in the same situation right now. I rescued a Olde English Bulldogge and he is brilliant and will leave but he really just wants to hang out with my cat, My cat not so much but I have baby gates in place to stop anything bad happening. I use treats to take the focus away from my cat.
100 percent! Great owner first and foremost!
Shepherds are one of the easiest breeds to train for sure. Extremely intelligent.
this was an already trained dog. not saying the process doesn't work, but it takes more than a day to train a dog
I wish I had seen this video 5 years ago when I had rescued a dog that wanted to kill my cats. Took us a year and a 1/2 before we were comfortable with her being around the cats by herself. This would have made it so much easier.
Oh look...him brought snak to me training session. lol 🐶
Great vid. 🙂👍
lol thanks for watching!
Great info here. We adopted a husky known to chase (but not harm) cats and we're trying these tips to integrate them. I hope it will help that our other dogs are usually indifferent/sometimes play with the cat.
How is it going? We just got a third husky and she is very fixated on the cats. We're at the beginning of this journey
@@SputnikCrisis I let them be in the same rooms when we're around, but separate them for the night or when we go out to run errands. Probably excessive, but it would only take once for those natural instincts to kick in. O_O She lunges to the end of her leash every time she sees a squirrel or rabbit on her walks.
@@rinamorgan8795 Glad to hear all your pets are still in a loving home and can be around each other at times! :)
@@SputnikCrisis I promise they are super loved and spoiled. :D
We have a husky that we got as a pup. He’s 2 now. We had cats when we got him and he grew up with them. He’s okay with them but still always wants to aggressively sniff them and sometimes paws at them (playfully but doesn’t realize how strong he is). Now we have a kitten we have been introducing via crate. Sometimes husky freaks out like he’s scared, backs up and licks lips. Other times he goes to crate and paws and nips at it. It seems like he’s trying to be playful, but idk what to do to show that this is a baby and he can’t be that rough