Ok, I don't know if I botched this or not...

Cole and I were on a walk (Lenny was home pouting) and he spies a cat across the street and down a few doors. The cat was obviously used to dogs and people, because s/he came walking right up to us. I stopped and put Cole in a sit to see what the cat would do.

It walked to our side of the road, on the sidewalk, four feet from Cole's nose... and laid down. And then meowed.

The whole time I was petting Cole and saying "good boy, good dog, it's a nice kitty saying hello." He was still, but not acting like he was going to rip the kitteh's head off or anything.

But then I think he reached his limit and tried to bolt. He was wearing a GL so he spun around and faced me instead. I gave him an "EH EH, NO" and pulled him away down the block.

Crap. And it was such a cute, nice kitteh too!

Don't sweat it, Liz. A lot of dogs who live with cats aren't good with them when they're outside. Cats are more like prey outside. My two go crazy when they see cats outside but are fine with them in our house.

I think it sounds like you did pretty well, and good for Cole handling it as well as he did too! I think it was great he let the cat walk up that close and get comfy before he reached his breaking point. Silly kitty should have kept on walking though!

My dogs will curl up and sleep with my dogs inside the house. Perfectly normal that they would go into predatory drift outside, my dogs do it with Oreo outside quite often.

Also dogs that are in predatory drift do not move and are basically stalking. I always watch for a dropped head at that point they are in predatory drift. So, I learned to get my dogs attention "before" they go into predatory drift as it's quite useless to try to give commands at that point depending how much drive your dog has.

My two both have outdoor cat issues. Inside they are usually fine with them (we don't have any cats, but our friends do) - well, Caesar may need a swat or two to take them serious. When we are outside, they tend to always see the cats before I do and C will lunge and April starts whining and making really loud, high pitched-sounds that sound like I'm strangling her.

I just tend to run in the opposite direction with them. I'm kind of impressed that Cole stayed still that long, although I bet, as Colleen said, he was stalking.

Nutmeg is also very interested in kittehs. There's one in the neighbourhood who will not approach, but certainly doesn't seem to be bothered by the presence of a dog. It's fun!

Colleen, could you explain predatory drift? It came up on a listserv I'm on just yesterday and I've never heard of it

My dogs think of my cats as part of the pack. Other cats, now that's another story. Makes them nuts when they run around on the other side of the fence.

Hmm - I don't think he drifted... he looked more confused that the cat didn't run in fear or hiss at him. The problem is I don't have a cat, so they are totally unsocialized to them in a normal environment. We only see cats on walks when they are leashed, and of course they freak out.

So this was the first time we encountered a cat that didn't run away.

I need to borrow a friendly, non hissy cat for training!