# prey drive and cats?



## pets4life (Feb 22, 2011)

Does prey drive have anything to do with how well a dog is around cats?


Here is the thing my friends really high prey drive gsd wont even chase the cats when they are running in front of her but shes good at shutzund and flyball


While another person has a low prey drive BYB gsd that will rip a cats head off if it comes close

Kinda confusing


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

It is confusing because there are two different types of prey drive: one for chasing things like a ball and the other is for chasing animals and kids. My GSD has the first type of prey drive and lives for his ball - totally cat safe. My greyhound has the second type and lives to chase any small animal that moves, except for my indoor cat - outdoor cats are another story.


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## RockinIt (Jan 29, 2011)

Millie kind of chases cats. Haha...that's confusing. She used to REALLY chase cats, but when we got our two cats we figured out it was because she'd never had a chance to actually check one out (they run before she can and her prey drive kicks in?). She still chases our two boys around the house playing with them (enters the kind of chases cats), but they know to stop and drop and she chews on them a bit then everyone goes back to doing what they were doing before. She's very good now about leaving stray cats alone...although she also knows "leave it" now as well.


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

what elaine said. Our boy Riley will chase anything that runs or is thrown like a ball. He learned early on that cat chasing is not acceptable. He's good with our cats and he's good with other cats at other peoples houses. outside anything that runs is fair game. Zena, never a chaser. She'll run a ball down faster than you can blink but never once have i ever seen or heard about her going after cats. Shasta wants to play so she'll follow to sniff and try to have fun but she knows the cats are off limits. Havent encountered any strays outside recently so dont know how she'd react. Shelby showed a great deal of interest but she'd never been around cats before. Once she got a chance to sniff and realized they werent all that interesting she didnt care they existed. It all depends on the dog really. also training comes into play as well


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## angelaw (Dec 14, 2001)

Denial has prey drive for ANYTHING that moves. Live or not, lol Still working on breaking her from chasing the cats. Even cats nailing her hasn't deterred her. So leash work in the house.


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## DCluver33 (May 27, 2010)

we have to keep my cat and Doeger sperate as he wants to kill her. we tried introducing them but he just stared her down and wanted to take her head off. I'm practicing in petsmart next to the kitties in the cages to see if I can get him to not focus on the cats, but he will probably never be safe around cats so after my cat goes we're not gettin another one while we still have Dodger. we do let my cat in for an hour or two while Dodger is either in his crate or outside, but she never wants to stay in for very long


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## Chicagocanine (Aug 7, 2008)

It depends on the dog. If a dog is raised with cats (or trained to leave them alone) they may have a high prey drive but not consider cats to be prey. Bianca has a pretty good prey drive and she never tries to chase my cats, even when the cats are chasing each other through the house like maniacs-- she sometimes lays in the hallway, and if the cats are playing chase they will just jump right over her if she's in the way. She doesn't even blink if they jump over her and land directly in front of her nose.
However she wanted to eat my friend's caged rabbit when we went to their house, and is very interested in chasing rabbits and squirrels. She shows interest in toys but is not insane about it, so I'd say medium "toy" drive.

My Golden Retriever Ginger loved to chase rabbits or squirrels (or mice!) but she was also very friendly with my cats and every other cat we met (except ferals who run, she wanted to chase them) and also friendly with small pets like ferrets, rabbits and never thought of chasing those. She was best friends with one of my friends' cats, they would groom each other whenever I brought Ginger over. She had a medium ball/toy drive, unless there was a body of water nearby-- she lived for water retrieving.
I am not sure if she would have done anything if she actually caught an animal though, because she once chased a skunk and the skunk did not move. When she got up to the skunk, she stood there wagging her tail and looked like she was going to try to make friends with it until I called her away. I think the skunk was too scared/surprised to try to turn around and spray her!

My Rat Terrier mix had a REALLY high ball/toy drive. He would do anything to get a toy/ball, he'd even climb a tree if you put a ball up in it. However he had zero prey drive, absolutely no interest in chasing small animals or cats. I saw squirrels run right past his nose a few feet away and he did not even look twice at them.


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## Jake71 (Feb 2, 2011)

Our Daisy only chases cats. So far she's cornered one cat in the open near a wall and all she did was bark. Also, she has spotted a couple cats hiding under cars and has gone to great lengths to get to them.

No eaten cats yet...

She also doesn't chase balls and doesn't chase bikes.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Jax has a high prey drive. Any cats other than her own, unless they run, are fair game to her. We started when she was a puppy and taught her "be nice". I didn't try to separate them as that would increase the attraction. I wanted her to look at the cat like a piece of furniture. 99.9% of the time she ignores the cat. That 0.1% contains the time I've come around the corner and found Cracker's head instead her mouth.


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## Chicagocanine (Aug 7, 2008)

Jax08 said:


> I didn't try to separate them as that would increase the attraction. I wanted her to look at the cat like a piece of furniture.


That's funny because my cats look at dogs (including strange dogs) like they're a piece of furniture.


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## mssandslinger (Sep 21, 2010)

Zero LOVES to chase my cats with a passion, he is the fun police, if they are playing he will break them up and chase them out of the room. But my cats aren't afraid of him so its a pretty good fight when my cats dont wanna move


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## pets4life (Feb 22, 2011)

LMAo i have seen that fight before the dog wants the cat to move the cat is not in a good mood and slaps him silly some cats really know how to knock some dogs around that are a lot bigger than they are lol They set dogs up sometimes and use their claws. I had a cat would crawl under a space where and then taunt a dog to get close to her while her body and back was hidden all that you could see was her BIG FACE and claws any dog that went in would get a lashing from her looll

my current cat is a special needs rescue with health problems and is medicated so i prefer little interaction as it is very important she does not get stressed.


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## Chicagocanine (Aug 7, 2008)

None of my dogs even bothered trying to make the cats move. 









This is what happened when I got Bianca a new bed


and later:












When I got a second dog bed for Bianca:


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