My dog attacked a cat at in-laws. Should I rehome her with my cats?

I'm so sorry you experienced something so scary last night. I'm glad your older kitty is doing OK. I certainly can't tell you that Ellie will ever be safe around cats. Often dogs that attack and shake cats in the way you described have a strong prey drive and will always be a risk to be around cats. If you are interested in keeping Ellie, I would recommend consulting with you veterinarian and consider consulting with a veterinary behaviorist ASAP. A veterinary behaviorist is a veterinarian who has additional years of training in behavior. They can also prescribe medications if needed. Hopefully you can find one near you here. http://www.dacvb.org/about/member-directory/ In the meantime, be sure that every member of the household (including your children) are committed to keeping Ellie away from the cats. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

You should not have her put to sleep just because she attacked your cat, don't forget this is a natural behaviour and death punishment is really not a logical thing to do. I would recommend contacting the RSPCA they will take her and rehome her.

As a dog trainer, I have a different view from previous answer given. Pit Bull types are terriers which means they have a high prey drive. The cat was possibly viewed as prey and I am very sorry to hear of your loss. For your other dog, due to the size it is possible your Pit may react the same at some point. I don't think leaving them unsupervised together is a good idea as I'm not sure what the actual trigger was in the attack of your cat. In terms of rehoming, you would need to find a very suitable home and with no small children. Because your dog mauled a cat does not automatically mean he will be aggressive toward people, but sometimes dogs are reactive toward small children, especially babies and toddlers who don't know the boundaries of a dog. I never leave my own child and dog unsupervised and my dog loves my son. I would recommend hiring a canine behaviorist and getting a behavioral assessment from them. Best of luck.

It may go either way but I would doubt she has an aggressive nature or the start of your companionship would have not been so well. It may have been too many changes too quickly without letting her adapt. A new environment, people and another pet was overwhelming. It is best to keep her quiet and away until she starts to trust you again and not act aggressive. Once that happens, slowly introduce her to new people and let her explore the environment then let her be around the other pet. She will be scared and stress to start so go slow and be patient.

The first thing you need to ask yourself here is whether or not you believe the bite to you occurred intentionally, or accidentally while you were trying to separate the two dogs. If it is the former, keeping a dog within your home that you only just adopted that is already ready inflict harm to you is going to be difficult if you don't have a ton of experience with dog behavior and training. While I love pit bulls (I have three), I readily understand that they are large, powerful dogs that can do some serious damage. If you live alone, or if you have children, my recommendation would be to relinquish the dog unfortunately, If the latter is what happened, there may be opportunities for addressing the issue. I would keep the dogs separated for at least the next 24 hours and let things cool off. I would reexamine the entire situation and try to identify what could have happened that brought about the fight the first time. Examine it from every single angle possible, in terms of people in the room, dogs in the room, items in the room, what the dogs were doing, anything at all that could be a variable. This is going to be the most important thing to figure out. You will ultimately need to keep Jazzy on a leash until you are completely confident that she isn't going to hurt your little one. The process may not be short and will definitely not be easy. Either way, I am going to suggest you hire a dog trainer and / or speak with a veterinary behaviorist. If this sounds like all too much, I don't blame you. I think that you have not had her long enough where you should feel terribly about having to relinquish her. I understand it is difficult, but this is not a great situation for you or your dogs. I do quite a bit of behavior consultation and I would be happy to talk some more if you'd like. Either way, I hope you are able to come to a decision. Stay safe.

I know this is a difficult situation and hard decision. Unfortunately, without seeing the conditions of the house and the health of all the cats, it is hard for me to make this decision for you. If you do not think their current situation is a good fit for a forever home, I would bring them home with you. If you think you will have to take them to a shelter, you can either try to find them a different home yourself or let the shelter do that. I hope this helps.

You'll need to supervise the kids when the play with her, explain she is nervous and tgst they have to be gentle with her and not jumpy. If you start of gradually and build up their contact with her she should get used to them. However if she is in real danger of hurting your children you should find her a new home, it is not worth the risk to your kids.