Dogs and cats

Help! My puppy keeps chasing the cat – and it’s stressing her out!

Small furry things that are in quick motion can be very attractive to dogs of all ages. Often a chase is very exciting and rewarding to the dog. Not so for the cat, however, who sees things quite differently.

There are various reasons that can start this off. Often chasing by puppies can be play-motivated where the puppy bounds up to this interesting animal and hopes for a bit of fun. Cats however, don’t play like dogs. They like ambushes and stealthy stalks and pounces. They usually don’t appreciate some goofy puppy directly wobbling up to them hoping for a game.

Whatever the reason, as soon as the cat decides to make a hasty retreat the pup will follow, the cat will move faster, the puppy gets even more excited – and you can see how the chasing ramps up. The more this happens the more the puppy learns this is a fun game that it wants to do again, and again, and again…Allowing puppies to chase cats might seem fun and harmless when they are small, can’t do any damage and are extremely unlikely to catch the cat. This all changes as the pup grows up and may become a lethal threat to a cat. It’s irresponsible to allow our own cat or neighbours’ cats to be harassed and potentially come to harm.

The common approach is “let them sort it out themselves.” Sometimes a confident cat will hiss and swipe at a puppy and it will learn to keep its distance and respect cats. However, there are other common outcomes of this approach:

1) The cat injures the puppy. Hello vet bill.

2) The puppy (especially if a confident individual) may not back down and may retaliate. It has now learned that the best way to deal with cats is to get aggressive quickly.

3) The cat may run and be chased. The puppy has now learned that chasing cats is great fun. Not so much fun for the cats and if they are caught when the pup is bigger, then prey drive kicks in and the cat may be injured or killed.

The best way to address cat-chasing is with good puppy management. If your puppy is to cohabit with a cat, when the puppy arrives in the home it can be confined in a pen so the cat can move freely through the house without being harassed while it gets used to the newcomer. Let the puppy earn its freedom as it demonstrates the ability to respect the cat’s space. Meanwhile the cat can go about its normal life while getting used to the newcomer.

When the puppy is out of the pen, a house line can be used. This can be a length of light webbing or cord, around 1.5 m attached to the collar. This gives the owner the ability to redirect the puppy away from the cat if problems start. It’s a lot easier to grab a trailing line than a squirmy puppy. The puppy can then be diverted with a toy or onto some play with the owner.

If your puppy has been free to chase the cat in the past you can change this now. The bottom line is do not allow the puppy to chase the cat. It might be cute now. One day it won’t be.