[Orinoco]

Hi

We have had Brooklyn (standard black and white poodle, female), for about 6 weeks now and she is still obsessed with chasing the cats particularly the one that runs, i am worried she will grab the cat (she caught a baby rabbit and I couldn't catch her to save it the other day), she is such a poppet most of the time but i have tried making her sit when the cats are around and squirting her with water when she barks at the cats but not sure i am making any headway.

Any ideas

 K

[shygirl]

its a b*gger if the cat runs, im sure someone will advise you.
our terrier pup is really good with cats as luckily they dont run too much, but also we did alot of clicker training with him from day 1, teaching him leave - hes love training and loves food so it was easy - and then introduced the confident cat carefully, making sure he did his leave command. now he is trustworthy with cats. all our dogs are good so im sure he learnt from them.
however i havent managed to teach the same thing with poultry, the hunting instinct is very strong there.
il follow this thread and hopefully learn a few pointers...

[jaykay]

One of the things being recommended to me are compressed air canisters. Apparently you can buy them from pets at home sort of places (I haven't investigated yet). You use them to make a distracting and slightly scary 'whoosh' whenever the pup even makes half an inch move towards a cat/chicken/.....timing is critical and stops the reinforcing fun of a chase too.

In the meantime, cos my new pup hassles the cats too, I have used a baby gate to give the cats their safe space, just off the kitchen where we all live most of the time. They are fed here and litter trays are here, so they can choose to venture forth or stay put. Seems to be making them feel safer.

[in the hills]

Jaykay, how good is her general obedience?


You know your stuff anyway but will just say that retrievers can usually be taught to leave poultry alone once there obedience is at a good level.


Once all her basics are there, you can do more direct exercises such as having her heel off lead through your birds. Sit, stay and recall in the middle of them etc.


Does she carry? Some dummy work is a fun way of getting the obedience you need.


Use a lunge lead so that you have more physical control initially.


You have her at a difficult age in some ways because she may have "bad" habits and will probably be feeling her feet once she feels settled and secure but she is the right age to start more formal lessons. That's fun    Personal choice but I'd probably try lots of obedience before the canister, squirting water, noises etc options.


She looks a sweetie. Know you will get her right and have fun with her. 


Sorry don't know much about terriers. Their draw towards poultry is a bit different!!!! Guess lots of obedience could help them too 

[Orinoco]

We already have an Airdale who was 6 when we got the cats at 5 months old and it only took 6 days to go from wanting to kill them as intruders in her house to walking past them and ignoring them then another 2 weeks for them to sleep together.  All we did was restrict her movement when the kittens where around with the lead, ignored the cats and made a fuss of her when she was sat calm, then using 'no', 'leave' and 'gentle', which she knows.

I suppose I expected to be able to do the same with the puppy but her training is still on-going and her instincts are currently winning.

The cats do have a safe space which is where they where restricted to when we first got them but they can't come and go from it so doesn't really count.

Would love to have this young pup under complete control but I think I will need quite a bit of help with that (I need training) and I remember from last time there are many different training methods, any suggestions?

Thanks

K

[doganjo]

Poodles are basically gundogs, so she may be trying to retrieve them    I'd possibly go down the gundog training route - so she only retrieves what you send her for and she only hunts when told to.

[shygirl]

why not get a home visit from a good local trainer? we did when we first got our puppy as at 9 weeks (!) old he bit my daughter aggressively over a bowl of pasta. 
our instructor was very good, and for £20 reassured us we were doing things right and corrected what we were doing wrong.we had trained dogs, including agility, before but never had a terrier. the problem was solved just by a bit of juggling and hasnt returned. (touch wood)
getting it right early on is best with a puppy.

[jaykay]

ITH, she's got nothing at all, didn't even react to her name. Basically she ran in and out of the garden and round the house with the kids. The family had never had a pet, let alone a dog, so didn't know how to teach her.

Plus she has serious resource guarding issues, turns into a snarling, biting monster round food or favourite toys.

She arrived back with me on Sunday evening.

So far I am working on:
The resource guarding, as recommended by Jean Donaldson. That's going well.
Her name and a recall - as recommended by Karen Pryor. Recall now in place in 'easy situations' ie no distractions  and not miles away.
Today I just started on 'pulling on the lead, also with the clicker. She hadn't been on a lead much, if at all. We made some good progress I thought.

So I will get to the poultry but haven't done yet, those ideas are good for the future. For now I'm keeping her away from them, so at least I don't a) traumatise the birds and b) reinforce what fun it is to set everything squawking and flapping 

She is a sweetie and we will get there - she learns quite quickly.

[plumseverywhere]

We are on a course at the moment which is all about breaking the eye-stalk-chase-catch-kill cycle ( I appreciate not all dogs go as far as the latter 2!) we have spent 6 weeks on this intensive course starting with learning food refusal (so dropping treats at their feet using the command 'leave' and heavily praising when they do etc etc) we are now into a field of sheep, other loose dogs, plates of sausages, ducks etc some of which run but our dogs are no longer chasing) IF you can find a 'sheep safe' course near you, I'd really really recommend it to anyone as its not just sheep it keeps safe. My worry with my dog was him chasing a cat or something into a road one day...
We have gundogs on our course too and I'm loving learning about their training methods 

[in the hills]

Ahhh Jaykay .... very early days then !


Sure most things will resolve when pup understands that maybe she is not top dog. Probably no guidance when she started feeling her feet and you don't know how she was treated when eating and with toys.


If she doesn't readily respond to even her name, then there will be not much chance of any respect towards the chickens .... yet.


Let us know how you sort the problems ....... always good to hear of tricks that work.

[Orinoco]

Hi

I will look for a sheep safe course this sounds fab and worth taking both our dogs as Megan (airdale) barks at the sheep and would chase given a chance.

I am soo proud of one of our cats, Sasha, she trusted me enough not to try and escape when I went for the shove it in your face approach with the puppy, I tapped the puppys nose when she was snapping at the cats feet and tail trying to grap her and then Sacha did the same but with claws out this time, puppy was a little taken aback but I insisted she sit then lay down with us and sat the cat on her back, so there was lots of smelling and touching, it seemed to change something as the when I let the cat wander off she didn't run and the puppy didn't chase but followed slowly.  I suspect its just another chip at the problem but something will eventually work if we are consistent.

Just started thundering, dogs don't seem bothered so off to get tea.

K

[ScotsGirl]

I'm surprised the cat doesn't bop the pup on the nose. My cats used to make sure they sorted the dogs out straight away so no messing. Usually just a bit inquisitive. My cocker pups have been milling around the ducklings and hens now for several weeks and hardly bother. They know its wrong but every now and again they can't help but want to try and play and can't understand it when the hens are not impressed! They only show interest in a couple that squat down, never the others.


They love to sit in the hen house door and watch them scratching. They re only 12 weeks so a long way to go but hopefully this will help their steadiness when they are old enough to start working.