Hello fellow Cocker owners,
We've got a lovely 18 month old Cocker called Ozzy, we've also got a 2 year old yellow Lab called Casper and three elderly cats. All of our cats are used to dogs as we had a Border Terrier (which we lost in 2017) and a Choc Lab (which we lost in 2016).
Casper never really bothers with the cats, he'll happily lie on the sofa with them. Ozzy on the other hand will just bark and bark at them. The worst time seems to be when we're feeding them. Casper and Ozzy are never fed in the same room as Casper has got food aggression (which we're seeing a behaviorist to address). We shut Casper in the kitchen via a baby gate and feed Ozzy in the living room. The cats are ushered out into their cat run before we feed the dogs (they are indoor cats). The real problem arises once we let the cats back in so that they can be fed, we put both of the dogs in their pens in the living room (is necessary to put them in these during feeding times and when we're out of the house due to Casper trying to eat the house before, this works well and the dogs don't seem to mind). We manage to keep Ozzy quiet for a while with activity toys (he's currently got three) while the cats are eating in the kitchen, however, once he's mastered the activity he gets almost hysterical when the cats come back into the room, we do our best to pacify him. What is making the problem worse is our neighbor has complained about his barking, although she admits its only ever in the mornings and evenings (around feeding time) and never during the day.
Does anyone have any brilliant ideas on what we can do to shut him up or at least limit the barking? Any suggestions/tips will be very much appreciated. He's a lovely dog and has no behavior issues apart from barking at our cats..!!
Many thanks
K & Ozzy the naughty Spanner..
