# How best to introduce my new GSD to cats?



## JHK III

Hi everyone,

I adopted a 1-2 year old German Shepherd, Abby, about a month ago. While I have adopted other dogs, this is my first GSD. She is an amazing dog and seems to embody every positive attribute I have ever heard or read about w/ GSDs. I hardly remember what life was like before her!

I have several newbie questions but I believe this one belongs in this section of the forums: my girlfriend has two cats and we want to introduce the dog and the cats to one another. We started slowly by bringing Abby over to my girlfriend's apartment and "introducing" them to each other with Abby on a leash and my girlfriend holding the cats at a respectable distance. We tried this a couple times but the cats were kind of scared and freaking out so we decided to just keep all parties separated by a closed door so they could smell each other and get used to the idea of the other animal(s) being around. Generally, Abby will hang out with us in the living room while the cats will be in a bedroom. When we do this Abby sits transfixed and stares at the door. She'll literally sit like a gargoyle outside the bedroom door for hours. I'll call her over to us but she hardly seems interested. She's all about the cats on the other side. When we have them in the same room Abby sits by my side and stares at them like they're a can of Taste of the Wild. She doesn't move, doesn't pace, or growl or really do anything. She just sits like a statue, as if under some spell. The other night my girlfriend noticed that she was actually DROOLING. This cannot be good. Actually, it's kind of disconcerting. Especially if you're the cat!

Abby exhibits the same sort of "fascination" with squirrels. She doesn't lunge or bark or growl but she certainly "locks on" these animals and refuses to move until I say something to her to snap her out of her trance. The fact she treats the cats the same way is . . . discouraging.

I was present when the rescue "tested" Abby out with some cats on the premises, as I knew I would ultimately be introducing her to my girlfriend's cats. At the time Abby seemed somewhat interested in the cats in the room but she wasn't exhibiting any aggression or prey drive. What's transpiring now with the current cats looks like something else entirely.

I have had dogs all my life but this is my first GSD. My prior dogs were for the most part good with cats and if they weren't they were too really too small to harm them. Abby is a sweetheart with small dogs, large dogs, and people. She seems to relish responding to commands and is phenomenally smart and obedient. But when these cats are around she won't listen to me.

Is this situation as bad as I think it is? How can I tell if these animals will be able to co-exist w/out serious injury? And in case anyone is wondering, I'd rather die before I return Abby. If they can't co-exist I'll have to one day just separate the house "War of the Roses-style." Abby is absolutely the best thing that's happened to me in years.

Any suggestions? Any experiences that you could share? Random thoughts?

Thank you in advance. These forums look like a fantastic resource!


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## Fodder

first, welcome to the forum!
its late, and i was supposed to be in bed by 11pm tonight, so i'll keep it short. i really just wanted to compliment you and say that....
this:


> Originally Posted By: JHK IIIAbby is absolutely the best thing that's happened to me in years.


...is absolutely the best thing that i've read in awhile. because she's a gsd, specifically your first gsd, and because she's a rescue. she sounds really special.

on the cat front, i'd say that the way you describe her reaction - she's definitely got some prey drive in her, but may be confused as to what to do with it (will she finally lunge if the squirrels run?). i definitely would not give up hope... your situation sounds workable and at worst, she'll probably just be okay around YOUR cats, and still attempt to want to get at stray cats & squirrels, etc.

when i adopted my male he was more than interested in my kitty - the only difference is that i was sure he only wanted to play with her. i still took the same precautions in training and acclimating them. you have to also keep in mind that it will take the cats some time (and work) to get used to the dog too, not just the other way around.

anyway, thats all i got for now. i'm sure others will chime in by morning!


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## Adhara

First off youll love her gsd are great ive always wanted one after my sisters died of old age years ago. and thank you for rescuing a gsd ^^ With my gsd and all dogs I rescue I just keep close watch as they investigate each other. My cats are used to dogs so they tend to know how handle themselves but my GSD that I just rescued wants to play with em even if they scratch her nose lol shell sit back and whine at em or do a half growl half whine to tell em to "come out of their n play!" lol But Yea it sounds like a prey instinct which is ok if trained to do use it in a constructive manner. Keep a close eye introduce one at a time and if she exhibits bad behavior correct it and you should do fine ^^


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## JHK III

Thank you for the responses! She really is amazing. I'm such a big fan of GSDs now that it's only a matter of time before I adopt a male from the same rescue... 

A quick follow-up question: What's the best means of "correction" when she exhibits prey drive towards the cats? Also, should I try to redirect her interest when she stares at the room where the cats are located or just let her do whatever so long as no one is getting hurt? 

While I worry that she might hurt one of the cats, I also worry equally that she could get hurt (like her eye scratched) as one of the cats is pretty feisty.

Thanks again!


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## Fodder

> Originally Posted By: JHK IIIA quick follow-up question: What's the best means of "correction" when she exhibits prey drive towards the cats? Also, should I try to redirect her interest when she stares at the room where the cats are located or just let her do whatever so long as no one is getting hurt?


i try not to correct my dogs, but sometimes its unavoidable, so i give a verbal "ah ah" to get their attention and followed up with a tug at the leash (if the leash is attached) if i don't get the desired response/attention from them. the key i think is to get them BEFORE they're locked into a subject... and work at keeping their attention. if i'm walking Tilden and he sees the squirrel before i do and gets 'locked in' i usually write it off as my mistake instead of pulling/calling/waving/bribing him (since i only want to give a command once). but if i see the squirrel or dog or duck or whatever first - i start with FUN training exercises right away. sometimes he still notices them but the game/treats are more important so he'll only glance then continue focusing on what i'm doing...

if the cats are afraid of her and will stay in the room - i'd work on training and focus exercises with her in the living room while the bedroom door is closed, then work up to doing it while the door is open, then closer to the door, then in the room, etc. if she's food motivated - this will help... call her to break the trance and reward her immediately for looking away.

i was really relaxed in first bringing my cat home to a dog who'd never lived with cats, then again when bringing Tilden home to a cat (although my cat was already used to dogs for a year at that point). i basically bought a cat tree with an enclosed box at the top as her "safe place", put her in, and basically let the animals run about. if the dogs showed too much interest in the cat tree (looking, sniffing, jumping) i gave a verbal correction then distracted them with something else (tossing a ball or whatever). eventually they ignored the cat tree, the cat moving in the cat tree, then the cat climbing down the cat tree. 

i'm not expert, i just know what has worked in my home thru trial and error. there are definitely more than 1, 2 or 3 ways to achieve the same goals.

......and, i wanted to ask last night, where you got your girl? both mine are rescues, i have a burbank girl and a westside boy.


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## BowWowMeow

I've shared my life with dogs for 22 years now. In the past I used a lot of physical corrections and negative reinforcement to train my dogs. What I've found is that counter-conditioning, positive reinforcement and redirection works so much better. What changed me was rescuing a dog who had some severe behavioral issues due to past abuse and neglect. He blossomed using the above methods and so I started using them for all of my dogs. What a difference! 

It may be that your dog is just interested in the cat because she can't interact with her. My Rafi (who has VERY high prey drive) exhibits similar freezing behavior with bunnies, outside cats, squirrels, etc. He is also a rescue and I adopted him at about the same age as you did your dog. What made matters worse for him was that he was a stray and was hunting for food. I was able to train him by figuring out how to redirect his prey drive. I can now walk him off leash past bunnies, squirrels, other dogs, cats, etc. and he will not leave my side. 

What kind of treats does your dog really, really like? Raw chicken or liver? You need something that she goes wild for. First you have to teach her a focus command like "Look" or "Watch Me" away from exciting directions like the cat. For that you can use medium value treats. Once she has that rock solid I would reintroduce the cats and use that command combined with the most delicious, high value treat on earth. Then I would add a second component which is another command that makes is incompatible with chasing the cats. So it could be a down or it could be redirection to a toy or whatever. Then reward her again with the super high value treat. If you do that enough she will automatically down or redirect herself.


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## kshort

We adopted Sammy at about 9 months. I have four cats. Sammy has prey drive. It was a very long first year. 

My vet gave me some good advice years ago. He told me to let the dogs and cats work it out between themselves. I guess what he was saying that is if one person holds the dog and one person holds the cat, it doesn't always work. The cat feels trapped, puts up a fight, which then makes the dog even more excitable. Plus you're putting them eye to eye, which is usually a disaster.

My cats had lots of places to escape to if Sammy decided to give chase. We never left him in the house unsupervised (we do now). Once he learned the word "no", we were able to use it effectively to stop him from running after them. Months later, he and my oldest cat were finally interacting. Taz has no claws, but he has always ruled the big dogs. They are now the best of buddies. My other 14 year old male cat and one of the 4 year old females have no use for him. If he comes close, they swat. But they don't run from him anymore either. As a matter of fact, they'll sleep next to him (with one eye open!). My littlest kitty is also 4 and it took her well over a year to even come out when he was around. Now she not only comes out, but rubs up against him, he licks her head - they have formed a truce and even become friends.

Sam's biggest problem is that the mouth is always going and he's very vocal. The kitties were quite intimiated by that at first. They're now used to him talking all the time!

It takes a lot of patience and in our case, a lot of time, but it has worked out just fine. Sammy is still very interested in chasing squirrels and he will bark at cats that he sees outside. We're still working on that...


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## BowWowMeow

There is more than one person on this board whose dog has killed their cat. The last time I tried that with my cat, Cleo, who is very dog savvy, she ended up getting picked up by my friend's german shepherd. We were right there and were able to get him to drop her and she wasn't injured but she was scared and did stay upstairs for the next 3 days. And my friend and I were really shook up by the whole thing and it changed my whole perspective. 

For these reasons I would never let them work it out if the the dog is showing too focused of an interest in the cat. I always keep the dog on a leash around the cat until I am absolutely certain there won't be a problem.


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## Fodder

> Originally Posted By: BowWowMeow For these reasons I would never let them work it out if the the dog is showing too focused of an interest in the cat. I always keep the dog on a leash around the cat until I am absolutely certain there won't be a problem.


I agree. It does not work for all dogs. And for the OP, I'd rather be safe than sorry. The three times that I was able to let the animals work it out on their own - Gia was a silly/goofy 9mo puppy who attempted to lick the first cat she saw out of excitement, when the cat hissed and ran off, Gia ignored it and scanned the room for something else fun to do. Budd was 15 when he met his first cat, and didn't have the best traction on my hardwood floors. Even if he attempted to chase the cat, he couldnt. And with Tilden, he was cat tested before I brought him home, I witnessed the test and saw that he had no reaction to the cat (for me that eliminated aggression as a possible issue), however once home, he definitely wanted to play and chase my cat - but again, there were no signs of aggression. I knew my cats personality, I knew her speed, and I knew that she knew all of her high/safe places and several ways to access them. Of course this doesn't truly eliminate the chances of something negative happening, but I had an overall good sense about it all. Tilden now knows that cats outside are for chasing, and inside are not... and we've visited several friends with indoor cats which he loves.


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## Steffanie

Welcome to the forum!

One thing that I've found that has always helped dog/cat intros is safe areas. Here we use babygates to block the doorway so that the cats can go in/out of a certain room easily and comfortably, but the dogs can get past it(at least not easily/sneaky). For example, our basement is a cat-safe zone, the dogs are never down there and have no reason to be. We have a baby-gate in the doorway, about 8-12" up off the ground. The cats can easily slip under the gate, but the dogs can't fit under and it's too high to go over.

With a set-up like this, the cats essentials(litterbox, food, water) can be in a room and safe from bother by the dogs. The cats can hang out at the front of the gate to see the dogs, or come out, but can safely retreat if desired. I've found this helps gain comfort on both sides, the dogs are less interested and the cats feel more comfortable both coming out and have an area to get away de-stress if the dogs are barking or being annoying. The cats are also free to jump on shelves/tables/etc. which are out of reach.

This is just the method that has worked for us, that I feel is safe for both sides, but there's quite a few different ways out there.


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## JHK III

Thanks to everyone for such thoughtful responses! I'm encouraged that this will ultimately work out, I can see that it'll just take time and diligence on my part. I'm definitely going to carefully incorporate these techniques.

On a side note, this probably belongs in another post, but generally speaking are GSDs the easiest dogs to train of all time? Today I was just playing around with Abby and decided I'd teach her to "shake." It literally took me ONE or TWO (at most) attempts. After less than 10 seconds she had it down. I almost feel like she must have known this command before, but I have a hard time believing that anyone who would take the time to train their dog to any extent would then abandon the animal or be "unable" to find her. And between the shelter and the rescue she was in the system for about a month, so someone would have had plenty of time to find their beloved pet.

Camerafodder: Abby is from Westside German Shepherd Rescue. She was originally a stray from Bakersfield and a volunteer brought her down from that shelter to Westside. I had a really good experience with them and met some very kind people. I can't wait to adopt my next GSD from them!


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## mrsartz

If the OP is still an active member of this forum I would love to know the end results. We just rescued a female cat from the local saw mill here this past Friday night. She is finally used to "Luke" our 2 year old GSD and our 10 year old cat and realizes that no one is out to hurt her. Since we had her spayed Tuesday she no longer feels the need to compete with my other cat. All of them are finally eating, drinking, and sleeping right and voluntarily hanging out in the same room.

Now, with that said...the following problem is a problem that I have and have had with my other cat and my husband and friends when they give me hugs as they're leaving.

My dog "Luke" loses it when I give any kind of affection to one of the other pets or my husband or even get hugs from friends. He doesn't bite but he barks and wines and whimpers and jumps up and lunges his nose at them. Not me...them.

My husband and friends know him so they just push him away as we tell him "NO" but of course it freaks out the cats. We do hold him back when it comes to having to pick up the cats or give them any attention but none the less he still wants to lock a gaze, lunge, whimper and whine like crazy no matter how much we tell him to sit, be quiet, lay down, etc. I'm not sure if removing him from the room all together is the best thing to do in this situation or not.

As long as the cats move around slowly he doesn't chase them but what he does do is lock a stare on the new cat and watches her every move. Sometimes he'll whimper and whine while he's watching her and lay in a spot where she has to go past him to go anywhere. The old cat goes about her business. She was in our home 1st and knows how to get around the dog.

I'd love to hear from more forum members who have had success introducing new pets and breaking these habits.


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## pets4life

JHK III said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I adopted a 1-2 year old German Shepherd, Abby, about a month ago. While I have adopted other dogs, this is my first GSD. She is an amazing dog and seems to embody every positive attribute I have ever heard or read about w/ GSDs. I hardly remember what life was like before her!
> 
> I have several newbie questions but I believe this one belongs in this section of the forums: my girlfriend has two cats and we want to introduce the dog and the cats to one another. We started slowly by bringing Abby over to my girlfriend's apartment and "introducing" them to each other with Abby on a leash and my girlfriend holding the cats at a respectable distance. We tried this a couple times but the cats were kind of scared and freaking out so we decided to just keep all parties separated by a closed door so they could smell each other and get used to the idea of the other animal(s) being around. Generally, Abby will hang out with us in the living room while the cats will be in a bedroom. When we do this Abby sits transfixed and stares at the door. She'll literally sit like a gargoyle outside the bedroom door for hours. I'll call her over to us but she hardly seems interested. She's all about the cats on the other side. When we have them in the same room Abby sits by my side and stares at them like they're a can of Taste of the Wild. She doesn't move, doesn't pace, or growl or really do anything. She just sits like a statue, as if under some spell. The other night my girlfriend noticed that she was actually DROOLING. This cannot be good. Actually, it's kind of disconcerting. Especially if you're the cat!
> 
> Abby exhibits the same sort of "fascination" with squirrels. She doesn't lunge or bark or growl but she certainly "locks on" these animals and refuses to move until I say something to her to snap her out of her trance. The fact she treats the cats the same way is . . . discouraging.
> 
> I was present when the rescue "tested" Abby out with some cats on the premises, as I knew I would ultimately be introducing her to my girlfriend's cats. At the time Abby seemed somewhat interested in the cats in the room but she wasn't exhibiting any aggression or prey drive. What's transpiring now with the current cats looks like something else entirely.
> 
> I have had dogs all my life but this is my first GSD. My prior dogs were for the most part good with cats and if they weren't they were too really too small to harm them. Abby is a sweetheart with small dogs, large dogs, and people. She seems to relish responding to commands and is phenomenally smart and obedient. But when these cats are around she won't listen to me.
> 
> Is this situation as bad as I think it is? How can I tell if these animals will be able to co-exist w/out serious injury? And in case anyone is wondering, I'd rather die before I return Abby. If they can't co-exist I'll have to one day just separate the house "War of the Roses-style." Abby is absolutely the best thing that's happened to me in years.
> 
> Any suggestions? Any experiences that you could share? Random thoughts?
> 
> Thank you in advance. These forums look like a fantastic resource!



lol never ever hold a cat while introducing to anything, it is the best way to get hurt, wow that would kill me lol keep the dog on leash in the apt the cats go where they like they will come around slowly, if the dog lunches at them give the dog a strong correction, dont let the dog give them the predatory stare, cats learn to not fear animals that don't treat them as prey, once the cats know they are not prey they will come out and be normal. She cannot lock on the cats. IF she listens to the word NO! Then yell that at her that is your harsh correction. It is enough for some dogs to get the point. You cannot force a c at to not be scared they just stop being scared when predators stop showing interest in them. When they are not the targets.


Remember puffing up, hissing, spitting all that stuff when a cat does to a dog is usually fear unless they are friends or know each other well. The dog is a coyote/wolf monster.


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## TxQuax

I just read a VERY good training article on this subject just this morning on Leerburg's site. Lots of good info and wish I had been researching their training info as soon as we got our puppy 10 weeks ago if not sooner! Go to www.Leerburg.com and look under training articles....it does state you should NEVER let them work it out on their own. I also read the Q&A section at the bottom that has made me realize I personally need to definitely increase my supervision of our pup and the kitty. Big congrats on your new furbaby...!!

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## pets4life

Introducing Dogs to Cats


video very good


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