My dog & the cats!

[pb]

Hi,

I have a rescue dog who is about 1 who is great with dogs but not use to cats! I have been careful and introduced her slowly and I've found that stroking the dog whilst seeing the cat calms her down. She appears to me to be scared of the cats and so I've tried to make 'being' with them quiet and calm with me ignoring the cat/s.  If I go towards the cat or talk to the, cat the dog goes stressed - barks, hackles up, lunges etc. Hence me just ignoring the cats when I bring the dog in or take the dog in to see the cat.

The cats are all around 10 and are not use to dogs, so my aim is not too high! I would just like the dog to not go charging in to a room where she knows a cat is and to learn to just ignore them or at least be polite. She would therefore need to not be scared of them! I'd like the cats to learn the dog isn't so bad and so they don't need to run off, which makes them seem exciting to the dog, or be aggressive, which makes the dog scared.

Things have been generally going well and getting better but we just had an incident where one of the cats was hissing, growling and prowled towards the dog, which scared the dog and she snapped so I had to pull the dog away.

I'm just wondering if I'm doing the right thing now? Is there still hope if the dog has shown aggression towards one of the cats?

Any help/tips would be good as I just can't see it working at this stage now..

Thanks

[alexandsteve]

When you took the dog from rescue had they Cat tested her first?

[pb]

Yes, she was 5 months and they said as long as she was introduced correctly she should be fine. We saw her with a cat that was used to dogs and she just sniffed and left alone. The cat didn't respond or do anything that would have made her scared.

I think the biggest problem is us and our lack of experience in this area and possibly also the fact the cats are not use to dogs.

[alexandsteve]

I think it maybe worth you calling and chatting with the rescue to see what advice they give.

I've had cat friendly hounds and they were fully cat tested, they didn't show interest at all, totally ignoring the cats.

I don't really have advice but as you already are, always supervise and never leave them alone and call the rescue to see what they say.

Xxx

[vickyb]

Please be very very careful and don't leave them alone together as it does not sound like a cat friendly hound and tragic accidents happen in the blink of an eye. Hopefully someone will have more advice very soon.
I agree with Alex, the rescue you got her from should really be advising you.

Has she raced? if so how long has she been off the track?