Wife’s housecat gets loaded up on catnip and thinks he can put a whoopin’ on our Rottweiler.The dog has strict standing orders not to hurt the cat so nobody ends up at the vet’s office.
A friend told me a story about her cat, that she had had for over ten years, being killed by her rescue dog. Evidently the dog was fine with the cat in the house but the first time she let the cat outside, the dog attacked and killed her. The vet told her that dogs think in context and in context the dog had learned that cats in the house DON’T KILL but that didn’t transfer to cats outside. We have one rescue dog but both of my dogs have been totally alpha wolfed to learn that they are at the bottom of the pecking order. I would worry most about my dachshund and actually held him down in a closed area so that our cat could sniff him. The dog had to lie there, on his back, perfectly relaxed, while Bob sniffed his butt. We still have some chasing but not as much and only when Bob asks for it. Seriously, when he’s bored, he’ll go bop one of the dogs on the head and run.