Hi everyone,
My puppy is forever chasing our cat, Any advise ???

You need to stop this behaviour asap which means you need to train your puppy to know that he is not allowed to annoy the cat.  It doesn't really help if your cat is a runner.  Mine is a mean old tom so stands his ground which soon sorts the pup out but our other cat was a runner.  We had to be consistant with this but it work within a couple of days.  We would keep the puppy on a long line when in the living room so we could correct unwanted behaviour quickly.  When the pup pays too much attention to the cat, use your command, I used 'leave'.  If the pup ignores, repeat the command pulling on the line.  If you are consistant, it works really well.  But the line saves hours of chasing the pup who is chasing the cat and making a whole new game for the puppy.  Sometime it depends on the breed too.  Hundreds of years of instinct is telling your pup that the cat is breakfast!!lol.

Limit the pup's access to the cat. Make sure the cat has plenty of escape areas (baby gates that the cat can get through, but nit the pup, are a great idea). If you're puppy's lucky the cat will give him a swipe across the nose and he'll learn to respect the cat. If he's unlucky the cat will swipe him and damage one or both of his eyes. So take this very seriously - your cat doesn't deserve to be terrorised in his own home.

this is a tuffie, my lab understood that the cat was out of bounds but when the FCR came along i had no chance she just couldn't grasp to leave the cat alone :( in fairness she was just trying to lick and be friends but in the way that only FCR's know and consequently the cat has now moved out  (of her own accord - i escorted her to all her fav places and she had her own double bed in her own bedroom lol), at 14y i think she just wanted to be a lady of leisure x

One of the the baby gates I have even has a version with a  catflap. http://www.bettacare.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Pet_Gate_plus_Cat_Flap.html

baby gates are a boon for this. My cat goes through the bars leaving the dogs on the other side looking very puzzled. :-p

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Some very good advise so far from the others.

I think for us luckily we also had cats who have always stood up to the dogs, they have always been here before the dogs.
All mine have wanted to do is snuffle their noses in the furry stomachs..Only one cat(RIP Dylan) would ever allow this on his terms, the other would swipe the dogs.. The one remaining cat still does rule the roost over the dogs.. Hilarious.

Each dog is different in how they react to cats and being a puppy they love to play and chase :-

A lot depends on the size of the puppy -unfortunately if you have a puppy smaller than the cats, a baby gate does not work! The pup will get through it as well. (As I discovered!! That puppy is now fully grown and still smaller than all my cats.) But for all larger pups, yes a baby gate is an absolute essential. And teaching a puppy not to chase the cats or play rough with them is also essential -ask my Bobby who had one of his eyes punctured by a cat when he was just 10 weeks old..........The cat standing up for itself is great but not at any cost. This is one of VERY few times I will be very firm and tell off rather than go the soft route as it's so dangerous to chase cats, for both the animals.

>A lot depends on the size of the puppy -unfortunately if you have a puppy smaller than the cats, a baby gate does not work! The pup will get through it as well.

A very good point Marianne ;) My dogs are a large breed and couldn't go through the safety gate at 6 weeks but a smaller breed would be able to, something I didn't think of. :-p

> ask my Bobby who had one of his eyes punctured by a cat when he was just 10 weeks old

Oh Marianne thats awful, poor boy.. No I agree its a consideration with cats..

My youngster now even tries to get the cat to interact with him by barking and play bowing - yeah that'll do it.. lol..

>My dogs are a large breed and couldn't go through the safety gate at 6 weeks but a smaller breed would be able to, something I didn't think of.

Chicken wire is wonderful stuff! ;-)

My cat made it clear that enough was enough when I started taking dogs in for people who work etc. He has now moved next door and is living the life of Riley (whoever that is) He is thoroughly spoilt. This actually happened when next door had just had to have their beloved Samoyed put to sleep so it sort of was meant to happen. He comes back to see me at the front of the house, where my dogs are always on leads, and has a chat with me and his doggy sisters but will not cross the threshhold.
You have good advice from other posters. Good luck with your puppy.

Surely a cat can't get through chicken wire any better than a puppy could?

The baby gate I posted has bars closer together than many, 5cm.

Just had a look at  that pet gate and I'm impressed, the price is good too.

I used to spray my dobe with a water bottle everytime he went near the cat, it worked for me. Or you could keep the puppy on a long line & correct it.

> Surely a cat can't get through chicken wire any better than a puppy could?

An adult cat can jump the entire stairgate in the blink of an eye, it does't need to be able to go through the bars :) A kitten is a different story and would be better off with a ground-level escape route as they can panick & have not honed thier agility skills like an adult cat (IME).

My sisters boxer pup had the same thing happen as Mariannes poor pup and around the same age. She lost her eye (surgically) after the cat gave her a mild warning swipe. It was only a tiny scratch, but, despite ABs, the infection from it caused irrepairable damage to the inner part of the eye :(

good luck with sorting this out. My other dogs had no problem with the cats in fact I have pics of one cat snuggled up with my gsd fcr just ignored. Not so lucky with current dogs. Its fine if I am in the room and and can give the leave command but if they cross paths anywhere else they both willl still chase the cats.
Even though a friends cat punctured Mias eye when she was about 3 months old with a warning swipe before we could do anything. Fortunately our wonderful vet was able to save the eye and as far as we can tell her vision is fine.
The cats do have their escape routes ie high places and over the baby gate but its horrid seeing them chased in their own home
 

My dogs have always been ok with our own cats - but keen on chasing/barking at others...caused by neighbours cats 'teasing' them I'm sure.  Then I had a different problem - one was completely mesmerised by the cat and couldn't take her eyes off her!  It was really irritating after a while, but nothing would stop her, even when the cat wasn't in the room, she'd be looking for her.  When she was in the room she'd be sat almost touching her all the time.  Sadly the cat has died, but it took a while for the dog to stop looking for her...very weird.