Cat Chasing

[watchmaker]

Our 10 month old APBT is fine with most of the cats in the house. However out of the house she keeps chasing them and while she usually listens and comes, she seems too amped up by the chase to listen. How do we train her to ignore the cats outside and how do we snap her out of it when she starts to chase one of them?

[ChrisNJudy]

Hello Watchmaker,

We will let one of one of the dog trainers reply as well, but as an owner of 2 APBT's and 2 cats myself and going through the personal training with both of them as well, I will provide some advice based on my experience.
With Pitbulls, they will always have the drive to go and chase something or go and play with an another animal. It is the bread and you really will not able to just stop their want to go and play with other animals. However, you will be to chanel that drive by playing with them before you go out with them. They are very high energy dogs and will easily get restless spirit if you do not provide a way for them to release some energy. I have 2 cats as well, so my Pitbulls like to chase them around and even though they mean no harm, it still stresses the cats out and they run away. I find the best game for pitbulls is tug.. They LOVE it.. Mike refrenences some good tug games in another forum under aggression rehab and management which he goes into some good tugs and ways to play tug with your little buddy. The more tired out they are, the better chance they will not take off and chance another animal and also will listen to you more.

Some ways to control this yourself as well is by working through the phases of training that they have on this website. Some good ones that will help you with your current problem is the "come" command, just make sure to work through the phases here and don't skip steps. you will need patience here, but it will definitley payoff. My younger pitbull loves to play with other dogs and before we started the traning, if she started to play with another dog or something, she would never listen to me. well I went through the phases and have recently just got to phase 3 "comes" with her and the other day she was playing with 2 other dogs and the smaller one was starting to get scared and cry, while the other guy was calling his dog, I called mine and she immediatley stopped what she was doing and came right over to me with one command. I was actually very amazed myself as we just started to breach phase 3, but it definitley works.
Another command that will help you down the line is the "leave-it" command which I don't think those videos are up yet, but it is the same concept and chain as other command. you know" name - command - no - comand+correction" with this though make sure to start slow and start with the phase one collar and make sure the dog understands what is happening before you move up. Also, make sure that you start light in a low distratcion area with like a treat or something where if they do get it, it will not be the end of the world. also in the begining, don't freak out if they get the treat, they are learning, just start over and keep doing it. remember consistancy and poise is a key here. Maybe when Mike replies in will go into more detail about this, just remeber when it comes to traning a dog it takes patience, it will not be an overnight fix. but in the end, it will definitley pay off.

I Hope that Helps!!

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

I 100% agree with Chris and Judy. Having a dog do a "come" when chasing after a cat (especially a terrier) is a very advanced exercise and isnt going to happen easily, but with patience it is not an imposibility.

In the meantime I would definitely consider this a management issue and dont let her off the leash outside.