Cats!

Having a REALLY big issue with Leroy and cats, he's like a dog possessed if he even gets a glimpse of one and trying to get his attention back and calm him down is impossible!
He can spot one when he goes out for his morning pee, get literally dragged back in the house, play about with Diesel inside, get his breakfast and when you go back out 20mins later he is STILL looking for the cat!
The other morning he done a bunk, let him off down the hospital where we go every morning (its the only place i let him off) he usually just follows Diesel round her routine way (she goes the same ways every mornin/night she could walk herself round it) but this time he went on the other side of the grass...i gave him a shout....rubber eared, tried again rubber eared then all of a sudden he just bolted on a head and round one of the buildings!! My oh went on ahead continuing to shout on him, then all we saw was a ginger cat come bolting away from where Leroy was. I got Diesel back on her lead and headed up. When i caught up Leroy was pacing up and down a fence, noise stuck to the ground running around the big patch of grass with a crazed look in his eye! Tried shouting on him and getting his attention,,,nothing! He was like total feral unaware we were even there just focusing on the smell of the cats (apparently there had been 3) eventually my oh managed to catch him.
He got put back on lead and marched home in silence, and then left down stairs to sleep so he understood he'd done wrong. But he was wound up to the max all the way home.

Ive tried wafting dried liver in front of his nose when he sees cats when we'r out, shouting him, squeaking toys...nothing takes his focus away. If i do manged to get him to pay attention and tell him to sit the min u set off he bolts to the end of the lead and starts all over again! I spent 30mins almost in the same spot one day trying to get him to calm down - the cat was long gone but still he was looking for it.

What can i do???

I can't help but i know your pain.

Chance has a mahoosive prey drive and he despises cats and nothing will stop him trying to get at it.

If one gets in the garden whilst he's out, he will not leave it or come in when called so I go and physically pick him up and bring him in, as that's the only thing to break his focus!

But as i say not much help sorry!

I'm beginning to wonder if he's been trained to kill/chase cats in his previous life, he's not overly bothered by birds or rabbits (unless Diesel spots on and chases it first) but with cats hes on a SERIOUS mission!
Diesel just wants to play with them when she sees them but will come away from them.
Leroy almost killed my mother in-laws cat one day, didnt realise she had came down the stairs and he went right for her quite violently and took all my might to drag him away - luckily he still had his harness on so could get better hold on him. The cat is like 17yrs old and very frail dunno how she didnt have a heart attack!

He may just be one of those dogs that hate cats!

Harv was introduced to them at a very young age and so is fine, but Chance wasn't so that and his prey drive just don't mix

Darcy hasn't actually seen a cat, we've not got many round here, she does like to pounce on the birds though, perhaps she was a a cat in a previous life trying the watch me training to distract her from birds, not sure if teaching hi this would make a difference, perhaps he just don't like them

As Ella says, he may just detest cats.

Dempsey's like Chance, if he sees a cat he goes completely single-minded. No amount of shouting etc will break his focus. Luckily, he's a lazy sod, so after a short chase he tends to give up as long as he can't still see the cat!

Tommy and Tilly are exactly the same , I feel your pain (normally in my over extended arms )

I've always had cats and dogs myself so all my dogs have all been fine around cats. Only thing I can think of is to teach the leave command and slowy build in distractions until maybe years down the line with even the distraction of a cat he might leave it
Like already said some dogs prey drive is very high and it's mission impossible in stopping them going for anything small with fur

I feel your pain, maxi has an extremely high prey drive as well. I think this is extremely hard to train out of them. I'm very cautious about where I let her off lead and aware of the fact that if a cat shows up she will run after it (so stay away from traffic etc). I think managing the behaviour and hope that one day her 'leave it' will be strong enough to ignore even cats lol

Well, we all know that dogs and cats are sworn enemies since history began. I put it down to the fact that in primeval days they were both in contest for the same prey food.

My first dog was brought up with cats for the first 3 months of her life, and regarded them as friends, which earned her many a scratched face when she met cats who were brave enough to face up to her.

But mostly the little so-and-sos
will run and then the chase drive kicks in for the dog. And then the dog will go deaf to commands.

Age old problem and I don't have a solution.

well once again he went away chasin cats tonight! Luckily we were near him when he done it so got him straight back on his lead an marched home, hopefully to show him its not exceptable behviour an his walk will stop if he does it! (hopefully)
I dont even know where the cats have come from, we'v walked Diesel down there since jan last year an its never been an issue! Dunno if the nice weather is bringin them out to sunbathe? Either way think we might find somewhere else to go for just now!

Roxie has a very high prey drive and chases absoluately anything that moves. We very luckily live surrounded by lots of open landscape but this in itself brings the usual problems, ie, foxes, deers, rabbits, you know what I mean.

We have two cats. It took many, many months of training to teach Roxie to leave our cats alone (she was a rescue dog) and regrettably, one of our cats had to have extensive surgery to her jaw after Roxie chased her into a cabinet. Anyway, 4 years on it is peaceful at home but if we see a cat whilst we are out, it is game on. Thankfully, cats are very few and far between down the canal and in the fields but she has chased one into a canal and it swam across to get away from her??

She does have a really good recall UNTIL she spots something fluffy. I know this is not much help but we do try and manage the situation. Body language automatically tells me when she can sense something so I put her straight on the lead. But sometimes something runs out in front of us and she just goes and can be gone for about 10 minutes???

I have tried all sorts of distraction methods but to no avail, unfortunately. Just now accept that this is how she is.