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Prey Drive With Small Dogs And Cats And Sa


Guest Neurobio7

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Guest Greyt_dog_lover

Ok, I cut-and-pasted from a previous thread. I have been a cat tester for multiple groups as well as I foster greyhounds with my cats. Here is my method for the first few months I have new hounds in my house:

 

First week:

1) Muzzle does not come off the hound unless the cats are behind closed door, or hound is in crate, PERIOD.

2) Cats will be put behind closed doors for more than half of the day the hound is awake and I am home.

3) When the cats are around, the hound will have a leash attached (as well as muzzle, see above).

4) to work on desensitization, get some good small bites of food, such as cheese. Have significant other/friend help with the next few steps

5) One person has hound with muzzle and leash on one side of room, second person gets cat and walks into room holding cat. Person with cat sits on floor on opposite side of room and allows the hound to see the cat. Person holding hound calls his/her name, once the hound looks, give treat. REPEAT for 5-10 minutes. DO NOT allow cat to move or otherwise stir and make noise. If the cat gets upset, remove the cat, do not allow the cat to run or make noise as this may excite the hound.

6) do this multiple times during the day. After each session, the cat should be placed in a room, do not allow interaction.

 

Second week:

1) Muzzle does not come off the hound unless the cats are behind closed door, or hound is in crate, PERIOD.

2) Again, two people. One brings cat into room, one holds the hound with muzzle and leash. Person with cat should sit much closer to hound. The hound can be allowed to approach the cat and sniff. All the while the person holding the hound should call his/her name and treat when the hound looks away from the cat. If the hound does not look away from the cat, the person holding the hound on the leash should move away from the cat and get the hounds attention, if needed show the treat to the hound to break the hounds' attention.

3) REPEAT for 5-10 minutes multiple times during the day.

4) After each session the cat should be placed in a room, do not allow interaction.

 

Third week:

1) Muzzle does not come off the hound unless the cats are behind closed door, or hound is in crate, PERIOD (see the trend?).

2) Again, two people. The hound still has muzzle and leash. By this time the hound should be nearly 100% reliable in looking away from the cat for a treat. If not, repeat second week until you have 100% reliability.

3) Second person brings cat into room, sets the cat down and allows the cat to move around the room. The person with the hound should be ready for the hound to try to move, do NOT allow the hound to follow or approach the cat when it is moving around. Instead call the hounds name and treat. If during this week the cat takes off or the hound starts to get anxious (barking, panting, drooling, excessive pulling) you need to go back a week.

4) If you can now distract the hound while the cat is moving around the room, good. Keep this training up for a week.

 

Fourth week:

1) Muzzle does not come off the hound unless the cats are behind closed door, or hound is in crate, PERIOD.

2) Two people, same drill (muzzle and leash).

3) Now you want to get the cat riled up when you have the cat and hound in the room together. If the cat is calm, then push the cat to run out of the room or otherwise get the kitty to make noise. Hold the leash and repeat treating when the hound looks at you. If you cannot get the hounds attention, go back a few weeks in the training.

4) Repeat daily.

 

Once you can have the cat in the room running around and making noise and be able to get the hound to look at you for treats, THEN you can allow the cat to have free run of the house. At this time, put up the baby gates at strategic places around the home (such as hallways and maybe doorways) about 6" above the ground. This will allow for the cats to move freely, but the hound cannot follow. Also as others have said, pull away the furniture from the walls to allow the cats to slide behind. At this time I may allow the cats and dogs to be able to move around at night, but have to see both how calm the cats are around the hound and vise versa. Before this I do not allow the cats and dogs to be able to be in the same room at night when I sleep, period.

 

This method of desensitization is much more effective at getting hounds and cats to live together as it reinforces the behavior you want, as opposed to correcting the behavior you don't want. For correction to work, you have to be present.

 

Do not allow your cats and dogs to co-mingle while you are gone for at least the first 3-6 months, you never know what can happen when you are gone. The muzzle does not guarantee that your cat will not be harmed. A greyhound can still kill small animals with a muzzle on.

 

**NOTE**

If at ANY time one of your hounds exhibits the following behavior: puffing of cheeks, drooling, stiff stare, unable to break eye contact of hound and cat, barking, whining, or other outrageous behavior, REMOVE THE CATS. If your hound exhibit some or all of these behaviors it is NOT safe, nor will it ever be safe to have them in the same house, sorry to say, but that would be irresponsible to keep an unsafe greyhound and cat in the same house.

 

Do NOT allow your hound to be loose with the cat in the house when the hound is not under your direct control (ie leash) for at least the first 3 weeks of my regiment. Secondly, a baby gate is not enough separation when you are gone. You need to close the door where the cat is when you leave, or crate the hound, either or, nothing less. Drugs, I don't think you need to medicate your hound, you need to do some alone training (do a search in the forums here).

 

Lastly, having prey drive outside and prey drive inside are two different things. I currently have a certified cat zapper, he killed a cat in his foster's yard when the cat jumped the fence into the yard with him, but he has lived with my cats for many years without any incident. A greyhound will look at the animals in his house differently then the animals outside, typically. My hounds will chase and kill any small creature in my yard, but inside my house, no problems.

 

Chad

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Guest DMBFiredancer

That's awesome! If I ever get a boy he will be Carter :)


DMBFiredancer- I was close to naming him Grux for Leroi or Beauford for Carter.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Impossiblealto

My grey does the same things. Cats, small dogs, squirrels, birds, rabbits, etc. I recently got him a Gentle Leader, so as to stop the lunging on our walks (and longer walks means more exercise). Once he gets fixated it is impossible to snap him out of it. Continue with the "leave it" training.

 

What I figure helps best is lots of exercise. I'm lucky I have a decently large backyard that he can run in and tire himself out. Another exercise is when I throw a ball, he chases it, and immediately comes back to me and gets a treat such as turkey bacon or chicken. I think it helps curb the prey drive a bit.

 

He also has terrible separation anxiety, but I know it's because he has spent over half of his 5 years of life at a shelter, which means he has been in the constant company of dogs and other humans. He is somewhat attached to me, but is gaining more confidence every day, which is how the high prey drive started. He would not glance at squirrel or cat when I first got him, but now he's maniacal!

 

I read him a bedtime story last night, and he was 100% relaxed. I want to record my voice and play it for him while he is gone. His main problem is boredom - he's a very smart dog, which means he needs lots of stimulation.

 

Don't worry, you'll get through it with consistency! It's comforting to me to know that my dog isn't the only one with this issue, as I hope it is to you.

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Guest Neurobio7

Hey Impossiblealto,

Your guy sounds a lot like Darwin did. He was perfect at the start and then challenged me and then settled into his own skin. He was a very insecure dog in a secure home and didn't know what to do with himself. He is the smartest dog I have ever worked with. He requires a stern leader with a calm but very confident tone. He is always looking for guidance. I can almost see him thinking sometimes about what to do if I don't tell him. I am still training the track life out of him and he no longer fixates or cares about little things. He still looks at little white dogs funny but then when he realizes they are dogs he is ok. He is scared of some of them. I think the biggest things were time, training and trust. I started taking him mountain climbing (on leash) and that definitely built his trust in me (i had to save him a few times when he got too arrogant about what he could do). I think this trust helped his seperation anxiety go away. He also listens a lot better on the mountain. I'm not sure if my commands are more serious sounding because there isn't a lot of room for mistakes as opposed to raiding the garbage can for napkins at home. He is a puppy inside a young dog's body so I hope over time he will settle in and gain confidence.

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Guest Impossiblealto

Hey Impossiblealto,

Your guy sounds a lot like Darwin did. He was perfect at the start and then challenged me and then settled into his own skin. He was a very insecure dog in a secure home and didn't know what to do with himself. He is the smartest dog I have ever worked with. He requires a stern leader with a calm but very confident tone. He is always looking for guidance. I can almost see him thinking sometimes about what to do if I don't tell him. I am still training the track life out of him and he no longer fixates or cares about little things. He still looks at little white dogs funny but then when he realizes they are dogs he is ok. He is scared of some of them. I think the biggest things were time, training and trust. I started taking him mountain climbing (on leash) and that definitely built his trust in me (i had to save him a few times when he got too arrogant about what he could do). I think this trust helped his seperation anxiety go away. He also listens a lot better on the mountain. I'm not sure if my commands are more serious sounding because there isn't a lot of room for mistakes as opposed to raiding the garbage can for napkins at home. He is a puppy inside a young dog's body so I hope over time he will settle in and gain confidence.

 

The first sentence that stands out to me is, "He was a very insecure dog in a secure home and didn't know what to do with himself." That is absolutely what I sensed in him. He is so astute and intelligent it creeps me out sometimes, lol :)

 

I 100% agree with you about time, training, and trust. I have only had him home for about a month, and he is only starting to open up. Once he realizes I am his stronghold and his caretaker, he'll never have that fear of my leaving because he knows I'll be back.

 

Thank you for your kind words :)

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