My dog attacked my cat. Is my dog safe around my young children?

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.

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.

That is a decision only you can make. She may have acted out since it was not her familiar environment and it was a new, different cat. She may like yours because she is used to them and comfortable. I would not call it normal for a dog to attack a cat or anything else, but stress and uncertainty and cause this behavior. If you do not feel you can trust her at your house, then you will have to tell her new owners that she did attack a cat and she needs a home with no other ones to be fair.

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.

Hi there. Without being able to evaluate Oreo in person and watch her behavior with the cats, it's hard to say why she is doing this. It may be play-related behavior, fear-based aggression, or predatory aggression. Specific treatment recommendations will vary depending on the underlying cause. This is a very dangerous situation for your cats because Oreo is such a large, powerful dog, so I would strongly recommend getting in touch with a veterinary behaviorist or a good reward-based trainer who can work with you in person. You can search for one here: www.dacvb.org or here: www.ccpdt.org In the meantime, I would recommend keeping the cats physically separated from Oreo (in another room with the door closed) at all times to prevent any further problems until you can get a professional in to help.

Oh dear! This is potentially a very dangerous situation for your cat, so I would definitely recommend making an appointment with a veterinary behaviorist if you want to keep both pets - he/she can evaluate your dog in person to help determine the level of risk involved, and will put together a detailed training plan to work on the problem. Generally, treatment for this problem would involve rewarding the dog for calm behavior around the cat, while also managing the situation carefully to ensure that there are no injuries - this may mean that the dog needs to be on-leash at all times around the cat, or they should be separated using a baby gate or some other physical barrier during training sessions until things are calmer. You can search for a board-certified veterinary behaviorist in your area here: www.dacvb.org

Oh this is horrible. I'm sorry, you will not like this answer, but a dog who deliberately kills other animals is not safe and needs to be put to sleep. If Doggy can do this to a cat, imagine what he could do to an adult or even a baby. He is a dangerous animal, and I strongly urge you to take him into a vet now to discuss putting him to sleep. I'm sorry.