Aggressive With Cats

I have a quick question about my 5 month old female american eskimo. Just recently shes started growling at my 2 cats at night whenever they try to come in the bedroom. She sleeps beside the bed on the floor or in the bed with us. Are there any suggestions as to how to stop this behaviour. We've taught her leave it and no cat and she knows what those mean (doesn't mean she listens all the time though! :p ) The poor cats don't know what to do! They just sit outside the bedroom door waiting for one of us to carry them in. She doesn't growl when we do that. Any help you can give me would be appreciated! THANKS!

Female named Phil? :confused: Anyway, 5 months old and trying to rule the bedroom already :p Does she take an aggressive stance while she is growling? If not, I would say just give it some time. She is new to home, and from my experiance will soon get use to sharing things with the others and later enjoying their company as well :) Usally punishing a kitten for being threatened may cause him/her to become skititsh. Cat's and kitten's alike, have a way of "working" things out. :D Good Luck

Your dog sees the bedroom as HER territory and domain. You need to stop this now, as she may one day seriously injure a cat who comes in.

Start having her sleep someplace else once in awhile and bring the cat in the room instead.

She must learn that YOU own the bedroom, and everything else in the house, and that you may have whoever or whatever you please in there!

Katy - hopefully I won't crash out again here. As you know, I have a one year old Eskimo and a cat. My Eskie loves the cat, but as you know, Eskies play VERY rough. And sadly, think of cats almost as squeaky toys. Our cat weighs 22 lbs.; the dog 19 lbs. - but the dog is much stronger. When we adopted the Eskie at 11 lbs. - 13 weeks, strength wise they were more evenly matched and played quite a bit together. But as Eskie developed more strength the cat started to move to increasing higher levels in the house - but the pup's legs and jaw grew as well - right now the cat is on the washer - on a towel - but the dog can grab the towel. To be fair, the cat does like to start things and does not recognize anyone's pain but his own - has been like this for 14 years - so has met his match. The difference is that our Eskie does not growl at the cat when he comes into the bedroom - he will bark to get the cat to play or jump down from the dresser, and will play very rough, but not to intentionally hurt. He ignores my "ouches" as well - thinks someone else must be hurting Mommy. I agree with Lucky in that you will have to set the ground rules, but Eskies are very determined. As you no doubt no by now, they do not respond well to yelling - but to a calm, firm voice. They like respect - my husband can't seem to grasp this so I am the favourite - heck I am always the favourite. There is an Eskie board but I LIKE THIS BOARD MUCH BETTER, even though there are few Eskies. There are many posts about cats wanting to move away from home. Even the most Alpha of cats will eventually start to retreat. When our cat passes, we will not get another one. I am not planning on getting another dog either, but if we did, I would not get a second Eskie, it would be a dog of similar size to hold its own, but of a different temperament. My Eskie is very sweet natured for which I am extremely grateful. He loves to play with the other dogs at his weekly socialization - the socialization is VERY important with these dogs. He was neutered at 7 months - which did not affect his temperament and switched to adult food at 9 months. Like many, but not all, Eskies, he is sensitive to corn and wheat based foods. He "alert" instincts really started to kick in at about 6 months - but definitely more "alert" than "protect and alert" - but does love to bark - so I always have cookies on our walks and do the "sit pretty", "no bark" command when I see people coming - after putting myself between puppy and the ongoing person. My Eskie's jaw and teeth strength is well beyond that of a normal 19 lb. dog. I can recommend a few almost Eskie proof toys. Sorry not to be able to tell you that Phil and your cats will live in bliss under your roof - they might well love each other, but the play will be rough.

I agree with Lucky in that you will have to set the ground rules, but Eskies are very determined

This just means that you have to be even more consistent and never let things slide. Stubborn dogs need to know that they will never get away with a behavior- if they get the idea that sometimes it is ok, you will have a very difficult time training.

SnowDancer,
Phil is the exact same way with our cat she loves him to pieces during the day but she is VERY grumpy at night (just like her mom) She doesn't hurt the cat but she does play rough.

We'll try to make her sleep in another room tonight. We're thinking about starting to crate train her but we would like to wait until we move into our new house because she right now we live in an apartment and she barks so much when we put her in the crate.

Thanks for all the advice. Keep it coming. I need all the help I can get. LOL

Katy

Katy, What worries me is that Phil is growling when the cats enter the room at night if you are not carrying them. At my house one of 2 things would happen - the cat would MEOW very loudly as soon as he thought there was peace in the valley to get the pup up and running to play and basically cause trouble, OR the pup would anticipate the cat's arrival and gleefully pounce on him first. But no growling. She may be trying to assert her right to the bedroom at night. I will be most interested to hear how your night goes - personally I think Phil will loudly object if not allowed to sleep next to or in the bed. Mine would - a real snugglebunny - with me, that is. It is good news though that she does happily play with cat during day - rough though she is - just the nature of the breed - I am sure you have been hit with flying paws with those nails that do not wear down on the pavement. Bad news is is that as Phil gets bigger so will those flying paws. We have a few crates - one being really big - the very odd time my pup goes in it he stands at the very back, one little paw raised. I don't know what happened at the breeder's, but he is terrified of the gate - is getting over it but unfortunately does consider the crate a punishment. The vet tested him in a crate and agreed so we have been working on it gradually for emergency purposes. I can certainly understand why in an apartment the crate would be difficult due to that Eskie bark. How are you doing with leashes? Has Phil grabbed his by that little section that loops around right into her mouth and without really trying eaten through 12 - 3 being guaranteed for life? We are now working on a leather one which is working out much better - along with his Safety Harness. I have super strength toys as well. Look forward to next report. Too bad you don't live in Toronto - the little devils with angel faces could give each other pointers.