How to Train Your Border Collie Dog to Not Chase Cats
Introduction
Your Border Collie is probably tenacious and full of life. These high energy dogs have a lot of steam to blow off. Needless to say, their confident and eager nature sometimes lands them in trouble. Your street has several cats that call it home. Your Border Collie loves nothing more than chasing these cats. His tail may be wagging, but they look nothing short of terrified. It was amusing to start with, but now it’s starting to affect relations with the neighbors.
Training him not to chase cats is essential if you want to keep the peace. It’s also important because you don’t want anything more sinister to take place if he catches a cat. If he causes a cat any harm you may find some hefty vet bills land in your lap. Worse still, if he continues to chase and attack animals he may have to be put down.
Defining Tasks
Training a dog not to chase cats is never easy. It can be even harder when you need to tackle the behavior in Border Collies. That’s because they naturally enjoy chasing animals. It’s in their blood to herd livestock. However, with the right incentive, you can channel their energy into something more productive. You’ll also need to use a number of deterrents to make them think twice.
If he’s a puppy he should be a fast learner. You could see results in just a couple of weeks. If he’s older, stubborn and this habit has been developing for many years, you may have your work cut out. You could need up to a month. Get this training right though, and you’ll never have to panic when you hear a cat screech, or your dog disappears.
Getting Started
Before training can begin you’ll need several items. For one of the methods, you’ll need baby gates and a water spray bottle. You’ll also need some toys and a long leash.
Stock up on high value treats that he can't resist or break your Border Collie's favorite food into small pieces. Set aside any time for tackling the problem and be on hand as much as possible to react to any situations.
The only other thing you need is patience and a can-do attitude. Once you have all of that, you can get to work!
The Distraction Method
The Environment Method
The Deterrence Method
Written by James Barra
Published: 12/20/2017, edited: 01/08/2021
More articles by James Barra
Success Stories and Training Questions
Training Questions and Answers
Koa
Koa keeps chasing our cats: Arlo and Barbados. Arlo is a big cat and is very strong willed and bossy so he doesn’t tolerate Koa pouncing towards him. Spray bottles don’t work, baby gates don’t work, the ‘leave it’ command doesn’t work, we don’t want to be violent with him at all. Barbados is very shy and hides from Koa nearly all the time so it’s hard for us to get them aquatinted. My cats keep growling at Koa when he does get anywhere close. We’ve had the dog for two weeks and nothing has changed no matter how hard we try. Please help. Email me @kaitibug71@gmail.com if you have info. I’m begging.
911 Dog owners recommended
Hello Kaitlyn, First, know that this takes time to improve, especially with a dog that has herding or strong prey instincts. Self-control is a skill pup has to learn over a couple of months generally. Check out the videos linked below for teaching calmness around cats. Mild cat issue - teaching impulse control: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWF2Ohik8iM Moderate cat issue - teaching impulse control using corrections and rewards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dPIC3Jtn0E Work on impulse control in general with pup, by teaching things that increase impulse control and calmness - such as a long Place command around lots of distractions. Practicing the command until you get to the point where pup will stay on Place while you are working with the kitten in the same room. I recommend also back tying pup while they are on place - safely connecting a long leash attached to pup to something near the Place just in case pup were to try to get off Place before you could intervene. Make sure what the leash is secured to, the leash itself, and pup's collar or harness are secure and not likely to break or slip off. This keeps kitty safe while practicing and reinforces to pup that they can't get off the Place. The leash should be long enough that pup doesn't feel the leash while they are obediently staying on the Place because it has some slack in the leash. You want pup to learn to stay due to obedience and self-control, and the leash just be back up for safety. Place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omg5DVPWIWo Below are some other commands in general you can practice to help pup develop better impulse skill/self-control - impulse control takes practice for a dog to gain the ability to control herself. Down-Stay: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/train-your-labrador-to-lie-down-and-stay/ Leave It: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bite Out - which means leave the room: https://www.petful.com/behaviors/how-to-teach-a-dog-the-out-command/ When you can't supervise pup with the cats, you can either crate pup or place pup in an exercise pen with a dog food stuffed kong, or tether pup to yourself with a hands free leash. It's important for pup's chasing to be managed so that pup isn't sometimes chasing the cats and other times not, while pup is learning how to be self-controlled around them. When you can't supervise to train, I would keep them separate by confining or tethering pup or putting the cats in a different area of the home, so pup's not able to practice chasing. I also recommend checking out James Penrith from take the lead dog training on Youtube. He specializes in animal chasing behaviors. Many of his methods won't apply until pup is at least 6 months old however. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
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We have an 8 year old border collie who we share between ourselves and our daughter. We have just acquired a beautiful kitten (surprise birthday present)!!
The border collie chases cats and showed aggression when we tried to introduce her on her lead to the kitten.
Any advice greatly received.
Tracey
911 Dog owners recommended
Hello Tracey, Check out the videos I have linked below. Mild cat issue - teaching impulse control: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWF2Ohik8iM Moderate cat issue - teaching impulse control using corrections and rewards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dPIC3Jtn0E Severe cat issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MLJV5PBh7Y More e-collar work with cats with the same dog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8lkbX0dhT0 Work on impulse control in general with pup, by teaching things that increase impulse control and calmness - such as a long, Place command around lots of distractions. Practicing the command until you get to the point where pup will stay on Place while you are working with the kitten in the same room. You can also back tie pup while they are on place - connecting a long leash attached to pup to something near the Place just in case pup were to try to get off Place before you could intervene. This keeps kitty safe while practicing and reinforces to pup that they can't get off the Place. The leash should be long enough that pup doesn't feel the leash while they are obediently staying on the Place because it has some slack in the leash. Place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omg5DVPWIWo Below are some other commands in general you can practice to help pup develop better impulse skill/self-control - impulse control takes practice for a dog to gain the ability to control herself. Thresholds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-w28C2g68M Heel article - The turns method: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-poodle-to-heel Down-Stay: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/train-your-labrador-to-lie-down-and-stay/ Leave It: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bite Out - which means leave the room: https://www.petful.com/behaviors/how-to-teach-a-dog-the-out-command/ Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
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Definitely meant to only put border collie!!!!