we have an 12mth old springer whos main aim in life it would seem is to chase cats. we have tryd most things we have read.But its the same old story every time we take her for a walk. we also own a cat 17 years who now thinks His old age is being ruined by this
dog. When we are in the house an uneasy truce take place and other than that she is fine. Will she grow out of this ?

In a word? No. Sorry, but they don't 'grow' out of it. You have to let them know it's not the accepted thing. Doesn't always work, unfortunately. Even having a cat doesn't help, as the cat is part of the pack, so doesn't count as 'prey'. There is no easy way to stop a dog from chasing. Hopefully someone else with experience of this should come along to help you. I've not had a serious problem with any of my dogs, but then they have all been taught that cats are not for chasing. They still chase them out of the garden, but I blame my own cat for that, he thinks it's a game

I agree they don't grow out of it, they have to learn to live with it. When I got Copper he really detested cats and would have done damage. Now 18 months on he's a lot better as I've tried to teach him he can't chase/kill cats. He still barks at them in the street and chases them out of the garden but that's as far as he goes now. They just wind him up on purpose anyway, he finds it's no fun if they don't run away :D

CG

What you need to ask yourself is what will you do if she takes off after a cat and becomes lost or is hit by a car?  :(
You need to let your dog know that chasing cats is not acceptable and the only way to do this is training.  Trouble is, chasing the cat is self rewarding so it will now take some serious hard work and patience to change this behaviour ;)

Good Luck tho - as Copper says, it can be done :D