# E-collar for "Aggression" towards Cat?



## HarleyTheGSD (Feb 13, 2012)

I recently got a kitten, and Cookie and Harley do well with it. Both were raised with small animals. Varick, on the other hand, was not. He wants to kill it. He doesn't bark or growl when he sees the kitten. He just watches intently and waits. I've tried to teach him to leave it and redirect his attention. It doesn't work. He wants that cat. 
I'm thinking about the e-collar. Has it been an effective tool for this situation?


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Rehome the kitten. The dogs that don't make a sound are the ones I worry about.

Yes, I used an e-collar on a foster to stop this but he was never trusted around the cats because he would kill them.


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## scarfish (Apr 9, 2013)

he's only interested. watching the cat is OK. he'll get over it soon. no E collar in this situation. if he starts chasing it and doesn't listen when told leave it then i would use time outs over the E collar. that's just me.


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## HarleyTheGSD (Feb 13, 2012)

Jax08 said:


> Rehome the kitten. The dogs that don't make a sound are the ones I worry about.
> 
> Yes, I used an e-collar on a foster to stop this but he was never trusted around the cats because he would kill them.


Yes, I was worried it would come to that.  
I currently keep the kitten at one end of the house (living and dining rooms). We have a gate separating these rooms and the kitchen, which is where Varick and Harley stay. I'm thinking about how I could Keep the rooms completely blocked off? I don't know. Maybe I should just start thinking practically and re-home the kitten. That's gonna be tough. But the cat's safety is a priority.


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## HarleyTheGSD (Feb 13, 2012)

scarfish said:


> he's only interested. watching the cat is OK. he'll get over it soon. no E collar in this situation. if he starts chasing it and doesn't listen when told leave it then i would use time outs over the E collar. that's just me.


I was also thinking this...that maybe he would just get used to it. It was like that with my rats. He was very interested at first, then they started to get boring because he could never have them.


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

My grandparents had a dachshund that was extremely cat aggressive, we would lock the cat in the basement when they came over and the dog would lick the door obsessively and leave gobs of drool. She was smart and outwitted him multiple times but he cornered her once and there was literally fur flying. All it takes is *one* mistake, thankfully they both survived but until the day the dog was put to sleep it was a constant stress on our family whenever they visited. To live with that everyday...I wouldn't do it. It's not good for either the humans or animals in the family

Rehome the kitten before something bad happens and you have to live with the consequences, that's my only advice


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## scarfish (Apr 9, 2013)

no, don't jump the gun and re-home the kitten. there have been days where i had to keep my dog on leash with prong while introducing a kitten. the curiosity died down within 2 weeks and then they became best friends. these things don't happen overnight. keep a keen eye, correct as necessary and think about re-homing if it doesn't work out after a couple months. simple watching the cat doesn't look like an immediate sign there is a catastrophe here.


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## VTGirlT (May 23, 2013)

Kittens are a lot easier to find a proper home for than any cat over 9 months. 

Try your dog with this, if it doesn't work and you think its gotten to an unsafe point. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R88X9VhTBSw
Rehome the cat. Or you can live like me and we have the cats in their own little space with food, water, liter pan, and cat door to outside while my dog is out. Or the cats our out while Zelda is not in the house or in her crate. We have had several incidents where it could have gotten bad, Zelda got the worse of one of them where she got bit in her mouth and it was bleeding. (People always told me that Zelda needs one good whack from a cat and she would stop) Actually, she was more into the drive, that cat bite didnt stop her one bit, not in the moment and not later. 
I am going to try a different approach to training her to leave the cats and well basically to have an off switch. But that takes time and lots of work. 
Also, even if that was achieved 100%, doesn't mean i will trust her 100%, when i move out. I want no more cats. Or the cats have to always be in a separate room if i move in with a roommate. Because its just too stressful and unsafe.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Look up Lou Castle's crittering info


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## VTGirlT (May 23, 2013)

IF you do decide to do e-collar training. Be sure to fit it correctly, introduce it correctly, find the working level correctly. 

Here is the "How to" from Lou Castle:
How To...

And here is the Crittering section (For the cats):
Game Chasing (Crittering)

Lou Castle is a really great person, who has a lot of experience with training and e-collar work. You can e-mail him and also he has a Forums that you have to sign up for, but that has a lot of valuable information in it as well. Lou Castle is very kind when it comes to getting extra help with the e-collar- he seems always willing to answer my questions!


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## scarfish (Apr 9, 2013)

don't rehome the **** [email protected]@@@!!!!!!!! give it a try. it most likely will work out with some work. why rehome the cat 'cause your dog watches it, wht the whole thing is new? you people are [email protected]#[email protected]$#$


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## VTGirlT (May 23, 2013)

Scarfish please remain calm 

The OP says the dog wants to kill it. (those are the words of the OP) And if that dog is giving the look my dog gives to cats, i believe it! So i just gave advice that was helpful for me and my dog or advice maybe i would have wanted to know if i were in the OP's shoes. 

And basically I am saying is, if in the end, the cat is going to get rehomed anyways. Do it sooner rather than later. Kittens are a lot easier to find good homes for than adult cats. 

But i am all for the OP keeping the kitten, if they are willing to work with it, thus i gave the ideas and sources. The click/treat youtube video, Lou Castle, etc.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Settle down there captain happy



HarleyTheGSD said:


> Varick, on the other hand, was not.* He wants to kill it. *He doesn't bark or growl when he sees the kitten. He just *watches intently and waits.* I've tried to teach him to leave it and redirect his attention. It doesn't work. *He wants that cat*.
> I'm thinking about the e-collar. Has it been an effective tool for this situation?


That is a little more than "just watching". IME with evaluating dogs, it is the ones exactly like this that will kill a cat. They never make a sound. AND by the OP's own post, she states "he wants to kill it".


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## SunCzarina (Nov 24, 2000)

Kittens are best trained to one room in the house when they're small anyway. A safe room the dogs can't go into without a leash on. When they're really little, they have no fear and won't run. 

Leash and a prong collar when Varick is around the cat. Many corrections until he learns that looking at the cat is unacceptable to his master.


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## jafo220 (Mar 16, 2013)

It is extremely hard to override instinct. I think that is probably the number one thing you have to keep forefront in your thoughts. Don't be angry, disappointed or unfair to the dog for following their instincts. But it can be done. Persistence and consistency are important. I finally broke Cruz of lunging at cars. Just through corrections with the e-collar. He exhibited much the same behavior with the cars as he does with the cat. Stare down the car coming, muscles tighten and timing the jump. It didn't happen over night. But, it did happen. 

I think an e-collar would work if following a proven method. From reading the critter page on Lou's site. You come to understand that even staring down the "critter" is a big no no. The dog is sizing up the cat and how rewarding it will be to catch the cat. If I understand it correctly, the point is to get the dog to do it themselves instead of you doing it for them through correcting. It's a little different method than what I did with the car lunging. I think the end result is the same, but Lou's method may turn out to be more reliable because the dog is doing it themselves. Just my thought process. I could be way off.

I plan on following the critter method as soon as I get the appropriate collar. Until then, I keep Cruz and our cat separated. 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

HarleyTheGSD said:


> I was also thinking this...that maybe he would just get used to it. It was like that with my rats. He was very interested at first, then they started to get boring because he could never have them.


I gave up my rats. D's OCD fascination got worse and worse, no matter what training I used. Once he attacked the cage, I decided that I didn't want all this hype and rehomed the rats to a snake-free home. It wasn't worth all the stress. No kittens as long as D is around.


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## Blanketback (Apr 27, 2012)

OP, if Varick was able to accept your rats, then I think he'll be able to accept your kitten too. How do you know he wants to kill it? And, when are you interrupting his stares? You'd have better results if he wasn't allowed to fixate on the kitten at all - redirecting him when he has the very idea to stare at the kitten, not after he's already doing it.


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