Cat obsession

Hi we have a staffy called des who is coming up for two years old. We got him from battersea about 5 months ago and he has been doing well, he had a slight problem recently with weeping in the house recently but we think we have cracked that (fingers crossed). He is friendly with people and dogs, the only thing we are working on now is cats.
We were told by battersea that he doesn't like cats, which isn't too much of a problem in the house as we don't have any small curries. We have tarantulas and geckos and he ignores them, in fact I can sit on the sofa with Millie the leopard gecko and he will not be bothered at all.
We have found out that he is not aggressive with cats (no growling) but wants to play, but obviously we don't want him to be rough or hurt the kitties. When he sees them on the lead he shakes and will pull (normally he will be fine on the lead) he will check under cars and even the leave it or watch me command he ignores
He has chased cats in the past and will ignore all calling etc til the cat has run away or in one case the cat turned round and batted him one ( at which point he stopped and looked confused).
Has anyone else had this problem? We have loads of cats in our street. We have neighbours who have suggested we bring des round and he sits and watches. Will this help? Or stress the cat out too much.
My parents both have cats so we can't take des round without constant retraining on the lead.

If I am anywhere residential where cats may be Moo has to stay on lead as I think she would most likely kill it, she has a very high oprey drive so thats all I can suggest really!

I'm not much help either. Dempsey hates cats & we've not been able to do anything at all to stop him. Like Moo, Dempsey would kill a cat if he got to grips with one.

I wouldn't worry about stressing the neighbour's cat too much, because they do tend to know when they're safe & will stay just out of reach - as soon as your dog has gone they'll revert to normal.

We haven't solved this either I 'm afraid. We just keep her on lead around cats.

Thanks for your comments guys, it sounds like staffys just don't like cats ! Well we are careful about des off the lead but sometimes he can slip out when I do the gardening in the front garden.
However so far it's the shaking thing rather than aggression, he's the same with horses too!
I will take my freinds advice and take des round on the lead, and see what happens, she has loads of other pets too - including ferrets (v cute).
We will keep des on the lead, she has two dogs who he gets on really well with so he may end up cuddling up with them :-)

Just keep working on the leave it command. My dog has killed a few cats (my own yard ones) but only when i'm not there. If i am there she would let the cat walk right past her.

I dont think all staffies hate cats, but if they havent been brought up with them then they will not be used to them. We dont have cats, but there are a few where we live. Buster has chased one and his recal went out the window. The cat ran up a tree to get away. Im not sure what he wouldve done if he had caught it, but it is something I would rather not find out. I now keep him on a long line because his recall around other dogs isnt 100% and this is helping if we see a cat as I have control of him and can teach him his leave command better. My mum has cats and if I take Buster round they just go upstairs out the way. It is a shame because my mum used to have a cat that would never run away from a dog, she would stand her ground, and tell the dog off if it got too close. She was great for teaching dogs to leave cats alone! It oftrn confuses a dog when the cat doesnt run, I think most dogs prefere the actual chase

Tyson does co-exist happily with two cats in the home. Most of the time they ignore each other bust sometimes he will attempt to play and the cats scatter. Bedtime is all peaceful.


Outside cats or cats that enter the garden are not so lucky though. He sees them as prey.

My 2 live with 2 cats and are great with them, my mum has 3 and when we visit there Maz ignores them but Kodi chases to play except with black cat (yep thats his name lol) who wil just sit there and kodi dont know what to do so walks off

out or garden is totally different Maz has "got" a cat before but I wasnt quick enough to help it, it managed to get out the garden but blood was everywhere so I doubt it survived BUT in her defence the cat was attacking one of mine so im not sure if she was helping mine as such, cos on walks she ignores cats, kodi out wants to chase and searches for them