Hi I have a 8 month old chocolate male who is totally obsessed with our cat, we kept them apart in the summer when he was a little puppy, partly to give them time to get used to each others smells but most because the cat is out a lot. Now the are indoors a lot of the time the dog is obsessed with chasing the cat or his scent either around the house or garden. If the fo get to each other the cat will swipe the dog but he just sees this as playing and gets more excited. Any help welcomed
Hi Helen, Welcome to the forum If the cat is nimble enough, it might be enough to make sure that they can always get away to somewhere the puppy can't follow. For example by using a baby gate to restrict the puppy to one part of the house. Make sure that the cat doesn't have to get past the puppy to access to food, water, or the outdoors. If the cat isn't agile enough to get away, you might need to take a more active role in keeping them apart. For example by keeping them to separate parts of the house with two doors between them, so you can work an airlock system. You can also practice making calm behavior around the cat more rewarding than chasing the cat. Keep a pot of treats on hand, and reward your puppy whenever he notices the cat, but doesn't chase it. You'll need to be very quick to mark the moment before he decides to give chase at first - if you use clicker training it might help! If you can mark and reward good habits, then hopefully combined with getting older and more mature, you'll start to see an improvement!
