[MaisieVizsla]

Hi there,

I have an 11 month old Vizsla, Maisie, she is the first Vizsla we have owned. She will be 1 on 3rd March.

She is a very sweet dog, extremely loyal and loving and has never snapped or shown any aggression towards myself of my husband. We also have a 2 year old Dalmation, Dylan whom we have had from a puppy and a cat. Maisie and Dylan are best of friends and rarely fall out. However, I am becoming a little concerned about a few aspects of her behaviour. She's not aggressive towards other dogs, usually, she merely gives them a wide birth and would rather run back to me than go and investigate and say hello, which is strange, because from being 14 weeks old we have socilaised her in the exact same way we did Dylan and he loves other dogs. We generally see the same dogs when we go for walks, some of them she 'likes' some of them she doesn't and just avoids, but any new dogs she's just not interested! However, whilst out walking this morning, we saw a very fussy cocker puppy and Maisie was really nasty and aggressive towards the pup. She has behaved the same towards this puppy before, which worried me and I don't like to see her behave like this. I am totally unsure what to do or whether this means anything!?

The other issue that is bothering me is that she is obsessed with our cat, Tina. I know that to some extent this is natural to her, the cat is a little fluffy animal that she wants to point and hunt, but the cat was there when Maisie arrived and I would have thought she would be used to her by now. Lucky for Maisie that the cat is quite placid and has never hurt her, because she does intimidate the her quite often and does get the odd slap from Tina. In addition and, probably the thing that concerns me the most is, when letting the cat into the house, if Maisie is also outside, she will stand behind the cat as I'm letting her in and snap at the her as she is coming through the door. A couple of times she's nearly bitten the cat's tail!

If anyone has had similar experience and found a remedy or if anyone has any general advice I would be very grateful.

 

[jp]

After almost two years Penny is still not used to our cats. Let me rephrase that: After almost two years, our cats are still not used to Penny. We chose not to force-integrate them, allowing the cats full reign of the top floor of the house using baby gates. The cats are older, one is very timid and the other is moody, and both have claws so we thought it was best. We're to the point now with other issues that I wish this wasn't the case and we could all be together upstairs. I also would love to hear if people have gotten cats and V's to become friends, or at least tolerant.

 

[Crazy Kian]

Kian was introduced to Marley from day one. He was afraid of her because he was so young...see below

Well, now that he's 11 months he will chase her and try to bite her tail. Most of the time she just sits on the rad in hte living room and if he notices her there he will stalk her, point and go over to her. Then we get worried cause his tail starts to quiver at high noon and she starts to hiss and groan at him. She has given him a few paw swipes across the snout, I just hope her claws never come out because he will be one blind Vizsla if that's the case.

 

[gunnr]

We got Gunnr at 11 months old, and Tika at 22 months old. Both were introduced to our cat, DC, under close supervision. It took awhile but they all seem to have worked out their own relationship. Just this past weekend DC was actually playing with Gunnr.
Our last Vizsla, Rush, was filled with total disgust for DC. He couldn't stand to be in the same room with him. It was kind of funny.

Everyone seems to be worried about the Vizsla more than the cat, and cats can do some serious damage for certain. However, every one of my Vizsla's has taken a cat in the same manner, or at least attempted too before I got ahold of them. No they didn't kill them, or hurt them.
They'll work the cat on the ground constantly circling it to pin it in position and rushing it broadside, while doing figure 8's around it. They will then lower their chest and accelerate into the cat. At the last moment they will fold back their front legs, put their nose and eyes high, and bulldoze the cat into the ground. They'll very quickly roll over the cat and do it again from the opposite side. Eventually they'll pin the cat on the ground, collapse on it and pin it with their weight.
This happens so fast it's incredible, and they will catch a cat on the ground in the open very easily.

I don't think there is any way a cat could fend off two Vizslas, so they are always supervised with DC.

 

[Lisa]

Gunnr - any chance you have that on video? I would love to see the interactions between the cat and V.

 

[gunnr]

Gunnr - any chance you have that on video? I would love to see the interactions between the cat and V.

Nope, not on video.
I was just trying to get to them as quickly as possible.
I understand the nature of hunting dogs, but I don't want mine to get the idea that going after, or killing cats is acceptable. Living in a rural area, cats provide a beneficial service in keeping the mice and rodent population in check.
The first time it happened, my first Vizsla ran the cat down from about 30 yards out, knocked it to the ground and before the cat got up again he got his nose under the cat and flipped it in the air. When the cat landed he pinned it, with the cats head between his two front paws. All I saw from the back was his head and jaws working the cat. When I finally got there maybe 20 seconds, he had the cat's head trapped between his paws and was licking it. That was one wet, mortified cat, poor guy.
Another time it was my two males. They both kind of hit the cat at the same time,and luckiliy for the cat they took most of the brunt of the collision. They were still on the cat really fast. Luckily the cat didn't run and tried to stand it's ground but they pinned it just the same.

The girlz, Tika and Gunnr,get along with DC, our cat, fairly well. Gunnr will point him and chase him around a little bit, and if he's sleeping she'll go up and mess with him to get him to play. Tika just kind of watches him and mostly leaves him alone. I still don't leave them unsupervised though. Sometimes dogs can get a little rough.

 

[Mercutio]

We got our kitten and puppy in the same week so I think we've avoided most cat-dog problems. I'm convinced that they both think all four of us are the same species only different sizes as I've seen them trying to communicate with their own body language. Unfortunately however hard Merc tries to entice the cat into playing she won't and he just does not get her "go away" signals until the claws come out.

Although they generally are good together Mercutio still sometimes points and stalks the cat yet if she walks up to him on his mat he will get up and let her have his place. I don't worry about it indoors as the cat has plenty of places she can either jump up onto or get under that he can't reach and maybe that is something you could try with Maise and Tina - just making sure Tina always has a safe place? I don't let my two interact outdoors as the dog is way too boisterous and I'm afraid that he will squash the cat without meaning to (she is quite small).

I don't know what to say about the puppy she doesn't like though, that seems a bit odd. Merc loves to play with other dogs but now and then something passes between him and another dog and they just don't like each other. Now that he is a bit older if that happens I can just walk the other way and he will come with me. Without knowing exactly what you mean by being nasty to the other dog it’s hard to know why and that might be important. If you’re using reward based training you could start rewarding her when you first see the other dog and before she has a chance to think about reacting to it – but you have to be quick. I would just be giving her lots of praise – whether it’s vocal or food or attention or whatever whenever you come across another dog and she doesn’t react so that she starts to think that good things and fun stuff happens when dogs are around. If it really starts to bother you try and find a good trainer – that saved my sanity and I can’t say enough good things about her.