Can a grey with high prey drive ever be cat safe?

[wavymaeve]

We adopted our girl a year ago and she’s an angel but has a high prey drive. Wants to chase squirrels, cats and pretty much anything that moves. We didn’t care about her not being cat safe when we adopted but have been recently thinking we would love to be able to get a kitten in the future and have them be friends. Is this ever possible with training? 

[JohnF]

I would say it's not reliably possible, and that trust and friendships with a cat or other small furry pet animal that darts around or squeaks can be dropped in a moment of heightened interest. It's that trust issue again, and even with the best will in the world you can't expect dogs to inhibit reliably like people do.    Often the testing is done in circumstances that are far from being the dog's usual and long term environment; they can be angels in foster, yet as their self-confidence grow on rehoming and their anxiety reduces, the old prey drive comes back to a hair trigger.  So some cannot even be allowed off leash in parks where dogs are allowed.

I've adopted when I already had a cat, and all went well for 6 weeks or so. Then family visited with their small dogs who chased the cat, leading my dog to chase and catch the cat. I only just managed to save the cat from severe injuries, and had I not been on hand the cat would have been shaken to death.  From that point on my dog lost privileges and was not even allowed to eyeball the cat, and if we were going out the cat was confined to the kitchen where there is a cat flap to the outdoors.  There was no trouble between them ever again; but I still didn't trust.

So it's going to depend upon the personality of the Greyhound and your own vigilance. At least you have had a year to get used to each other. I'm sure others will chime in and say it will all be fine. Hopefully it will, but never trust that it always will be.

 

[HeyRunDog]

My Grace has a low prey drive and she won't pay any attention to a cat, squirrel or rabbit when on her lead on a walk. She's even tried to give a cat who stayed put as we approached a friendly sniff. That is until they run...... which is why I keep her on the lead even in the park as I don't think I could trust her not to go after anything small and hairy that moves even if it was another small dog.