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New dog is jealous/aggressive when cats receive treats or is interested in our food.

741 views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  madari256 
#1 ·
Hi all,

My new dog of 3 months has been doing great with our cats until last week when we had an incident. Sadie (dog) attacked Nala but didn't hurt her. The reason for the attack probably lies in the fact that I had treats in my hand for Sadie and Nala was too close to them. This also seems to occur with human food. Nala was interested in ice cream I had and Sadie barked and growled at her.

When we first got her, we were able to have Sadie and Nala nose to nose over Sadie's treats and she didn't care. I had done the situation that caused the attack multiple times and Sadie hadn't cared. Now that Sadie has been with us longer (and more confident), she becomes extremely unhappy if either one of my cats gets something or has the possibility of getting something that she might not get.

Last night, my boyfriend had Sadie on a leash as I gave Nala her hair ball medicine to gauge her reaction (we weren't quite sure what had caused the attack), and she tried to lunge at Nala. My boyfriend took her out of the room and brought her back after she cooled down and we repeated the process, this time shoving a treat in front of her face as Nala licked the hairball formula and she ended up taking the treat, but it took her a little bit of staring at the cat before giving in and taking the treat.

Of course a temp fix of this is to just not allow the cats around any time Sadie has the possibility of eating treats or even when we eat our food on the couch, but this isn't something I'm willing to let continue as we are trying to train Sadie to leave the cats alone which involves treating her when they are near. As a side note, the cats and dogs are not around each other when eating their actual food. Sadie eats in her crate and the cats eat in our room. She does not seem to care about resource guarding her toys.

I've tried googling for advice, but have unfortunately not been able to come up with any way to get Sadie to stop. Most articles tend to focus on resource guarding against people/other dogs and against something she already has. Not against another animal getting something she isn't. Is taking her out of the room if she lunges/growls correct? Is giving her a treat at the same time okay?
 
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