I have a beloved pembroke corgi. He is 4 1/2 years old, and we have had
him for nearly 2 years.

Very quickly, one of the cats established dominance over the dog. But
the other poor cat is chased so much, he rarely comes down stairs
anymore. This is breaking my heart as he is a beautifully natured cat.

We have tried growling at the dog, establishing dominance, putting him
outside, having time out - all to no avail. Once he sees the cat, he is
off and nothing will stop him from chasing him. We paid for $400
training for the dog, which worked to a point. But it did nothing for
the cat chasing (the whole reason for getting the training). The only
thing that works a little is if the dog is on the leash in the lounge,
he then ignores the cat. But once he is off the leash, the chasing is
on again.

I am getting ready to rip my hair out. I don't expect them to be best
friends, ignoring each other would be great. But this is driving me
crazy. It bothers me so much that the cat is so scared in his own
house.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Jo

On 31 May 2006 23:50:30 -0700 Jo whittled these words:
off and nothing will stop him from chasing him. We paid for $400
training for the dog, which worked to a point. But it did nothing for
the cat chasing (the whole reason for getting the training). The only

You paid $400 for training the dog - how much time and effort did you put
into learning about training the dog? The problem is that if you don't
understand how dogs learn and how to work with the dog then you can't do
anything different than the dog was taught. And very likely you are
making all the common mistakes that untaught people make and undoing all
the training you did pay for. Start with reading a couple books. Instead
of learning to train specific things you will do better to learn about
training. Try Smart Trainers: Brilliant Dogs by Janet R. Lewis, or
Excel-Erated Learning: Explaining in Plain English How Dogs Learn and How
Best to Teach Them by Pamela J. Reid A little heavier going but more
complete would be How Dogs Learn by Mary Burch & Jon Bailey

Then take a class. A good one. Most training failures happen because of
things people do unconciously. And a book can't help you there because
-DUH - since they are unconcious behaviors on your part you don't know you
are doing them. People will, for example, swear up and down that they
don't repeat commands, but an instructor will observe otherwise.
Simply having someone there to call your attention to late timing,
repeated commands, conflicting body language, inattention, inconsistency
and other common problem areas will make all the difference for you - if
you decide to make it work.

From your description once you understand how to train, and you
consistently apply it, you should be able to get the control you seek.

--
Diane Blackman
There is no moral victory in proclaiming to abhor violence
while preaching with violent words.
http://dog-play.com/ http://dogplayshops.com/