My dog killed my cat !

Question
Hello, i have two dogs and 8 cats, I have a Labdrador and a Rottweiler, the labrador was allways Ok with the cats but we never trusted the Rottweiler (Cesar) to let him play or be around the cats without surveillance, so wa have the cats in the second floor and the dogs in the first, and for 4 years we never had a problem with this, until yesterday my baby cat (7 months) was playing and she felt from the window and he bit her and he didn't want to let go, we yell at him No No No No and we tried our best but he didn't let go of her, finally he let her go but it was too late she was dead ! this rottweiler is the sweetest dog ever and he always do what we tell him, we trained him ourselves to sit to not move to let go of things he want to play with, but yesterday i didn't recognize my dog, he was like a beat, and God forgive me i hated him, i know it's not his fault, i know it's his instincts but i cant help it i hate him, i don't know what to do i m scared that he will do this to another cat or to a human maybe, i'm scared, please tell me what to do, i m in morocco, there is no trainer for the dogs here, i m scared that they will beat him to teach him to obey, what can i do, please help me. i lost my baby cat, it broke my heat, and now i will also loose my dog. i don't know what to do !

Answer

Hi Ghizlane,

I'm very sorry to hear of the loss of your cat.

Unfortunately, even though we think of our dogs like our babies or family member, they are animals, and we can't know what's going on in their heads. You are correct, either of your dogs may go after one of your cats again.

Beating your dogs of course won't teach them anything. You can work on training your dogs some basic commands which will help you to control them, though if you aren't around, you can't trust the dogs. Some commands to teach would be "Leave it", "Drop It", and "Stay". You can read about teaching these commands here:

http://dogs.about.com/od/basiccommands/a/leaveitcommand.htm

http://dogs.about.com/od/basiccommands/ht/dropitcommand.htm

http://dogs.about.com/od/basiccommands/ht/staycommand.htm


Aside from supervision, a good way of ensuring that your dogs can't attack either your cats or a person would be to have them wear a muzzle. A basket style muzzle is the most humane, it allows the dog to pant and drink water while it's being worn. Your dogs need to be trained to wear a muzzle, and will need time to get used to wearing one. Read about muzzle training here:

http://selfhelpdogtraining.com/wordpress/?p=198

You didn't say how old your dogs are. If they are young or middle aged and healthy, they might require more daily exercise. Without the correct levels of exercise, a dog will be more likely to find ways to use up their excess energy. Left to their own devices, some of their methods can be dangerous, unwanted, or unsafe.

Best of luck,

Patti