Because dogs are naturally inclined to chase cats and their instinct requires redirection to avoid this end, the answer to how to train a dog not to chase cats is by rechanneling its herding or hunting predisposition in a new direction.
You train a dog not to chase cats by turning your dog and cat into great companions. It is possible for your dog and cat to become best friends using response conditioning.
This conditioning takes patience, but the reward will most like be a living cat, an unscratched dog or both. If you’ve seen a photo of a dog and cat snuggling together and thought, “that would never happen!”, then video this short vide and read on.
Training a Dog To Respect Your Cat’s Oasis
You need some serious tools to keep your cat secure once your dog has made up its mind to chase your cat. Training your dog not to chase your cat will not happen instantly and your cat needs a safe haven where to exist dog-free.
Start by demarcating a kitty-exclusive safe zone. You can do this by providing your cat with a spacious wire cat cage to run into or stay in. These multi-level wire crates have toys and plenty of room to climb in. Your cat should be safe and comfy inside in your absence and while you train your dog to get along with the cat.
These convenient tools will help station your cat at a specific location that you will teach your dog not to violate. They just prepare the area for that part of the training process next.
Methods for Training Your Pooch Not to Chase Your Cat
Proper dog training redirects a dog’s instinct to chase after prey, by setting limits for unwanted behavior and encouraging other instinctive behavior to replace it. Never let your dog, for instance, chase your cat, EVER. This is paramount because as a single chase could ruin all the gains from your earlier training.
The reward center in your dog’s brain lights up like a Christmas tree when the chase is on. Consequently, in order to train your dog not to chase anything, you must not reward the case but eliminate any prize resulting from it. Yet the reward from the chase will come naturally if you allow it. So, condition the way your dog responds to chasing anything. Start by rewarding only the dog’s respect of the kitty safe zones.
The Cat In The Crate Method to Training a Dog Not to Chase Cats
This method uses a cat crate to teach your dog limits. Use either a large, super-comfy and fun cat crate, or a smaller, more affordable one, where you will first put your cat when your dog is nowhere to be seen.
Once your cat is in the crate, allow your dog to enter the area. Your pup will likely become interested in the cat, upon spotting kitty inside the crate. As soon as your dog begins to sniff, stare, growl or simply react to the cat in the crate, sternly attempt to get your pup’s attention.
If you succeed at distracting your pup and it looks away from the cat toward you, then reward with a treat and praise, preferably use an especially tasty treat variety to help the training make a more significant impression.
Repeat this process until your dog looks more distracted in the presence of your cat’s crate than before when there was nothing to distract its attention away from the cat in the crate. Use your best judgement, and when you think your dog is ready, let your cat out. Bring the dog back in and repeat the same process when your dog seems interested in the cat. If you need to restrain your dog with a leash, do so and insist in distracting it away from the cat and reward the distraction.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If your dog begins a chase, STOP THE CHASE IMMEDIATELY! If your dog is rewarded naturally for this undesirable behavior, the high will nullify all your training effort! If you don’t break the chase, it’s back to the drawing board.
The ‘Come! Sit! Stay!’ Methods of Training Your Dog to Leave Cats Alone
The following methods aim toward a common objective, which is to replace the natural chasing behavior in a dog with a conditioned distraction response upon the dog seeing a cat. We’re redirecting the undesirable hunting instinct with a more desirable don’t-pay-attention-to-the-prey instinct because there is no gain in it, using commands and treats.
We will now use stern, consistent vocal commands, paired with alternate expectations of behavior fulfilled by a reward to condition the response we’re after in your dog. For instance, instead of embarking on the chase when your dog sees your cat, we are going to teach your dog to come to you or to sit or to stay on command, thus, to avoid the cat.
Read our article on how to train your dog at home to learn how to obedience train your pup to come, to sit, or to stay on command by you. It will need to know one of these obedience exercises well before you can teach your dog to leave the cat alone.
Allow your dog to be in the same room as your cat. Again, never allow it to initiate a chase. The thrill will make the situation worse. Just wait to when the dog begins to grow alert, showing interest for the cat. This is when you must act. The moment your pup shows interest in the cat, use a firm vocal command to get your pooch’s attention. Follow this real case scenario on how to train a dog not to chase cats. We start by you calling your dog’s name.
Then, command your dog what you’ve taught already. Let’s say, you chose to teach it ‘Come!’. The dog enters the room, sees the cat. Ears perk up. Back tenses. The dog’s name is Butch. What do you do?
“Butch!” you call. The dog readies to bark.
“Butch!” you firmly call again.
The dog briefly, barely turns to see you for an instant. What do you do next?
“Come!” you order.
Butch turns to the cat. So, you start again.
“Butch!” you call. He turns.
“Come!” and you point. “Butch! Come!” you repeat. Do it firmly. You’ve been practicing commands, right?
Butch approaches you. This is the obedience that you reward with plenty of juicy treats and praise.
Having taught sit and stay next, repeat the training above until your dog listens, comes, sits and stays every time that the cat draws its interest. If you can achieve this, then your dog will be desensitized to your cat whenever its spots your feline around the house, and they should be able to coexist.
By the way, this same type of training works if you’re facing a challenge with your dog becoming overly excited about visiting squirrels, raccoons, the neighbor’s cat walking your fence or the local postman dropping mail into your inbox.
The idea is to desensitize your dog to the apparition, by conditioning a different response and behavior through command and reward while your cat is safely behind a cage. Be diligent. You will get results.
Leave the Cat Alone Retractable Leash Method
You will need a retractable bungee leash for this particular exercise. It’s a step ahead of the one above that will be necessary to undertake once you need to start testing whether your dog will leave your cat alone, if your cat is no longer inside its kitty safe zone.
Use a bungee leash because there is a lot of energy in a dog that suddenly darts off to the hunt, and you will avoid a bone jarring shock on your wrist, arm and shoulder using the elastic leash to lessen the impact.
Don a harness on your dog and fasten the retractable leash to it. Start out the exercise with a very short extension of leash reaching no more than a 1 foot (30 cm) long and lock it in place. Enter the room where your cat is caged. Let your dog exhibit its interest in your cat.
Now use a vocal command, such as your dog’s name and lightly tug, if necessary, on the leash to gain attention. Ensure your dog has heard you. When your dog attempts to or indeed does look your way, feed it a treat and a praise. Repeat to reinforce that your dog is listening and responding to you.
Leave the room. Extend the leash by another foot (60 cm) and lock it in place. Walk into the room and let the dog become alert to the cat again. Call the dog and then tell it to sit. The dog may look at you. Tell it again to sit. If necessary, tap its behind to remind it of that earlier command. Once it sits, reward your dog. Repeat until the lesson imprints in the dog’s mind and obedience is immediate.
Leave the room, lengthen the leash and lock that distance in place. Each time your dog gives the cat attention, repeat the procedure above, never allowing a chase! If the dog lunges, lead it by the leash out of the room. Return and call the dog’s attention, tell it to come and sit next to you. Practice the positive reinforcement technique of reward every act of obedience.
Slowly elongate the leash, letting your dog further and further from you and closer to your cat. Each time your dog shows attention to the cat, call its name, command it to come and sit next to you for a treat. By offering your pooch more and more leash freedom, you are making it independent of your presence and able to deal with the cat in proximity during your absence, essentially by avoiding it the moment the dog sees it.
When you can remove the leash and the same result occurs, you have succeeded in training your dog not to chase your cat.
How To Train A Dog Not To Chase Cats Produces Best Friends
Your dog and cat can live in peace. How to train a dog not to chase cats is preferably done through positive reinforcement that keeps the energy centered around distractions, such as you calling the dog’s name, commanding its actions and rewarding obedience, all done while your cat remains safely caged in a kitty safe zone that your dog must learn to respect. Learn these tips and be patient.
Patiently apply these methods and understand that your dog is just being a dog if it wants to go after your cat. It is instinctively wired to see the cat as prey, but this does not mean that a dog cannot learn to make friends with your cat. In fact, dogs and cats can be best friends. It just takes practice and conditioning.