Two weeks ago, we adopted an 11 month old female heeler/terrier mix from the Humane Society of North Texas. We named her Samantha (Sammie) and introduced her to our home we share with 3 cats and a cockatiel.
Sammie is excellent on a leash. During walks, she maintains a position right along my left leg. When I stop, she sits. She doesn't pull, or sniff at all while on a walk. She waits until we arrive back home, and does her business in a designated area of our fenced back yard. Also, she appears to be housebroken, and willingly enters her crate when we request her to. She's obviously had some formal training, and we wish we knew why anyone would surrender her to a shelter (though we're delighted they did!).
Sammie shows obvious interest in the cats, when the actually come out of hiding. Her interest explodes when a cat gets spooked and makes a fast exit. Sammie appears to take that as an invitation to chase. If cornered, the cat starts to swat, and we've witnessed Sammie's attempt to bite (mouth?) the paws. There hasn't been ANY growling, teeth-baring or other overtly aggressive behavior at this point.
Our 5 year old cat Tululah readily roams around, hissing when Sam gets too close. Our (2) 1 year olds, Rascal and Callie, were in shock for the first week, spending most of the time under a bed or on a shelf in our walk-in closet. They're just now venturing downstairs to the kitchen, and seem to recognize when Sam is contained in her crate.
Our primary concern at this time is teaching Sammie to ignore the cats, or at least not jump into action when they choose to flee the scene. We would welcome any and all comments/suggestions from people who have successfully worked with this situation.
Once we get this behavior aligned, I look forward to training the cats with the clicker as well.
Regards,
Skip
herding dog
Dog play is in the chase. Cats of course don't appreciate that. Their play is hunt related and chase play is seen as a threat by cats. Not telling you anything you don't know, but a herding dog will want to keep those cats in line and will tend to be persistent in going after the cats. We have had herding dogs for years, and I can say that they can be a cat's best friend.
In your situation things might settle down on their own, but you do want to intervene when things get a little rough. My son often brings his Australian Shepard puppy for visits and for us to baby sit. At first our cat just hid when the puppy came, but gradually she started coming out, each time getting a little bolder than the last. They had to test each other's limits on their own terms.
Now they even play together, but it took some time. When the dog begins an unwelcome chase our cat just stops. Her body language is usually enough to stop the chase, but if the puppy is persistent, she hisses and raises a paw. That usually ends it. No one has been hurt yet. It is fun to see them sniff noses in greeting.
Our experience doesn't have much to do with clicker training, but you do want to reward (click) good behaviours from the dog, etc. The cats were there first. So, they deserve some respect. There are articles written about proper introduction of cats and dogs. I think you might find some on catchannel.com or elsewhere on the internet.
You will find it fun clicker training your cats, but follow the recommendations in Karen Pryor's book, Clicker Training for Cats, for multiple cat households. As you know herding dogs are very intelligent, but I will have to say that I have really come to appreciate the intelligence, memory and attention span of cats.