AboutLynn Houston Experience I have had a service dog since 1988. I do numerous presentations a year to schools, businesses, local clubs and other organizations regarding regarding SDs and through a small non profit I own, provide information and referral.
Education/Credentials There is no formal training for service dog education. I have 20 yrs of hands on experience and a necessity to learn the laws that apply to myself and my service dog.
Question Hi...I was amazed when I read the ? about if a dog can be trained out of attacking cats...I would have sworn I wrote it!! I too have a German Shepard mix from a rescue...and was not told he would kill cats...He has almost twice killed my 2 cats...He is awesome with us...even my 18month old...very gentle...does not jump or bark a lot...we love him but we are scared...He also goes after other dogs...he almost bit my neighbors dog...they said at the kennel he got along great with all the dogs!!? What do you think I should do? I called the rescue shelter and they seemed to think he was fine...and will be ok.....I am scared...Thanks, Ann
Answer Probably the best you can hope for is some desensitization, but I would never leave your dog and cats alone, unsupervised. It's sounds like your dog has a high prey drive and it is almost, if not totally, impossible to totally eliminate that drive from a dog.
The best you can hope is to desensitize your dog a little and the way to do that is to start at a distance, whatever distance from the cat where the dog is NOT reacting and reward him generously. Take a step in. If no response to the cat, reward generously. Continue this process until your up close. The thing is, when you take the step where your dog starts reacting, no response from you, no correction, certainly no praise, just back off until you're at a distance that he's no longer responding. Once he is calm again, reward generously. This process could take months and in cases like this, slower is faster. If you try to take big steps, you, and your dog, will fail.
Same applies for the neighbor dogs. The difference between the kennel and elsewhere is probably whether or not the dogs are on lead. When on lead, the dogs know they can't escape and therefore show aggression.
