As some of you might remember, our biggest obstacle (besides bark bark barking) with Osha has been integrating her with our cats.
If our cats were more protective of their own boundaries I'm sure Osha would simply respect them naturally but unforetunately, they usually run, she chases them (or tries to) and we started to get concerned at what might happen if she caught one of them.
We can see that she's just trying to play but she can be rough. One day while treying to get me to play she nipped my thigh - it ripped a hole in my pants and almost broke the skin. That was sort of the last straw for me.
We had been doing positive reinforcement with her in re: to the cats and working with her daily to do a down-stay when the cats were nearby. She was on a leash all the time too but she was just too intent on chasing and playing with them as she does with dogs at the park.
I had seen someone on here mention Pet Corrector spray and so we bought some for this purpose and I have to say that so far it's worked very, very well.
As soon as she starts to run at the cats, we use it - it's just an intense blast of air- and she stops completely and just sits.
Because of this, she has become less manic around the cats which has prompted our older cat to feel more comfortable creating boundaries, which has made things a lot calmer around here.
I think that it would be helpful for counter surfing too. Just wanted to mention it since it's a pretty effective method for behaviours which could be potentially dangerous.
If our cats were more protective of their own boundaries I'm sure Osha would simply respect them naturally but unforetunately, they usually run, she chases them (or tries to) and we started to get concerned at what might happen if she caught one of them.
We can see that she's just trying to play but she can be rough. One day while treying to get me to play she nipped my thigh - it ripped a hole in my pants and almost broke the skin. That was sort of the last straw for me.
We had been doing positive reinforcement with her in re: to the cats and working with her daily to do a down-stay when the cats were nearby. She was on a leash all the time too but she was just too intent on chasing and playing with them as she does with dogs at the park.
I had seen someone on here mention Pet Corrector spray and so we bought some for this purpose and I have to say that so far it's worked very, very well.
As soon as she starts to run at the cats, we use it - it's just an intense blast of air- and she stops completely and just sits.
Because of this, she has become less manic around the cats which has prompted our older cat to feel more comfortable creating boundaries, which has made things a lot calmer around here.
I think that it would be helpful for counter surfing too. Just wanted to mention it since it's a pretty effective method for behaviours which could be potentially dangerous.
