[Dailydrool] Dogs and Cats

[Saraberry at aol.com]

It is important to do a lot of research if you have dogs and cats, be a  keen 
manager of space for each, and watch for "red light" behaviors.
 
Some dogs experience what is called "predatory drift", especially if there  
is more than one dog in the household.  What this means is that everyone  may 
get along beautifully, no problems, and one day the dogs chase down the cat  
and kill it.  Sometimes they just break the neck, sometimes it is  worse.
 
Fortunately, most bassets are behaviorally frozen into the tracking and  
chasing aspects of predation, but this phenomenon is unpredictable other than it  
is known that having more than one dog in the household can cause this to be  
more likely (ie.social facilitation, one dog does something, the other dog 
joins  in and they get carried away).
 
I know someone who had a lovely old female golden retriever and a cat that  
lived together peaceably for many years and then one day she came home to a  
tragedy.  I have had cats and dogs for many years and never had a problem,  but 
as I am studying more, I realize that I may just be lucky.   Realistically, 
how different is a running cat from a bunny to my  dogs?
 
It is important to either separate cats from dogs or that the cats  have a 
vertical getaway area or a cat only door where they can easily get out of  reach 
from the dogs.  If my dogs are excited by my cats or chase my cats,  that is 
a red-behavior that tells me they are in danger and I need to do  something 
before tragedy occurs.  If this is going on in the backyard with  neighbor's 
cats, then I need to go talk to the neighbors and let them know their  loose cats 
could be in danger.
 
Best,
 
Sara



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