Mo charging at the cats! Yikes!

[sallyomally]

Dog people, thank you for your patience. I know so little about life with dogs;our Bailey grew up with Abby and there was never a problem between her and the cats. What's happening now leaves me clueless as to what to do. Mo is charging at the cats. This has happened once before and we thought perhaps she was startled.. but just now, Jean Claude and Rhett were sort of moving fast and coming from the dining room, and Mo shot off the couch like a rocket, coming right at them.Jean Claude made a panicked exit back to the garage, but what was most surprising was Mr. Rhett's reaction! He puffed up and with a steely gaze , opened up a can of kitty whoop *** ,did the best John Wayne swagger I've ever seen and came after Miss Mo! I had to call him off and gave Mo a firm "no". Jean Claude is only slightly traumatized and Mo is back on the couch with my daughter, looking a bit guilty. I'm sure there are ways to solve the problem, but I feel so badly for my sweet little Jean Claude. He's my feral baby and my daughter and I are the only two humans he's not terrified of.He's easily frightened and so confused by the new sister. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sallyomally]

Spoke with a dog trainer today. She gave me some excellent ideas.

 

[KLS52]

I hope they work...I'm torn between feeling bad for Jean Claude and being happy that Mo has a loving home.

 

[Pickle Juice]

Hope so too. I have no advice of my own. It's odd to think back, but I have never had this problem, even with dogs I boarded who didn't live with cats. I never had a single incident. Even when one of my cats walked up and started eating food from one of my boarder's bowls while she was eating too. She needed a bubble over her head with "WTF???" in it. I took a photo and gave it to her dad. It was hilarious.

 

[mlp]

Spoke with a dog trainer today. She gave me some excellent ideas.

Good.

I have two dogs that I had to work with very hard and very consistently to get them to not respond to running cats.

Jack is a JRT, and JRT's have a high prey drive. In Jack's case, it only took a few months. Now, even many years later, and without having had to reinforce that training in the interim, I can take him to neighbors who have barn cats running around, and he won't even glance at them. In fact, even though he breaks when a rabbit or squirrel flushes out in front of us on a walk, he will stop on a dime as soon as I say "No!" But it's extremely important to Jack that he be The Good Dog, and that really helps.

Grace, OTOH, is still a work in progress after nearly two years. She's very high energy, and although she stops in her tracks when I say "No!", she still instinctively gets up to run toward any kind of cat squabble.

 

[sallyomally]

Things have calmed down considerably. Mo responds well to food distraction and a firm "no". The cats all slept in the living room last night for the first time since Mo arrived on the scene. Mo and Jean Claude even followed me to the bathroom this morning! Rhett accompanied us on our morning walk as well. I understand that this will be an ongoing process and am happy that we are making progress. The trainer reinforced the importance of staying calm ( Mama needs to avoid overreacting)and consistent and using distraction. Thanks for listening. It's definitely been a learning process,but I'm sure we'll be fine. The cats seem to be more relaxed and it looks like we'll make it!

 

[KLS52]

Oh yay!! So glad!

 

[sallyomally]

Mo has done very well, with only one charging incident when she saw Rhett running across the yard during a walk. She responded immediately to "no" and a food distraction (this little gal looooves food). Funny update: Jean Claude has done a complete about face and is now following her everywhere she goes! He's completely inside now, and nice and relaxed.

 

[KLS52]

Oh yay!! So glad!

lol