#metafilterfundraiser2023 Why does our dog choose these specific cats?
August 23, 2023 6:16 PM Subscribe
Our border collie has picked two of our four cats to obsessively herd. The other two cats - she couldn't care less about them. It's as if they don't exist. Her desire to herd isn't a shock - but we can't understand what makes her choose these specific cats.
The cats look and act completely different, and were brought into the house at completely separate times. Even more befuddling, one of the cats she is obsessed with came into the house with a sibling at just a few hours old - and it's been like this since the beginning! The dog completely ignores the other sibling!
One cat she herds is a female cat who is timid, a little grouchy, and only likes the company of humans. The other cat is a male cat who is overly affectionate with nearly everyone, and because he's known the dog his entire life, simply ignores or evades her by playing the floor is lava. I cannot stress enough what little interest she has in the other cats. What makes her choose specific cats?
(As an aside, cats get plenty of dog free time, and dog gets long walks and other mental stimulation that doesn't involve bossing around cats.)
The cats look and act completely different, and were brought into the house at completely separate times. Even more befuddling, one of the cats she is obsessed with came into the house with a sibling at just a few hours old - and it's been like this since the beginning! The dog completely ignores the other sibling!
One cat she herds is a female cat who is timid, a little grouchy, and only likes the company of humans. The other cat is a male cat who is overly affectionate with nearly everyone, and because he's known the dog his entire life, simply ignores or evades her by playing the floor is lava. I cannot stress enough what little interest she has in the other cats. What makes her choose specific cats?
(As an aside, cats get plenty of dog free time, and dog gets long walks and other mental stimulation that doesn't involve bossing around cats.)
I'm wondering if the cats she likes to herd move differently from the other cats. If they're faster or more active I can see how that would get the dog more excited. Or maybe they play with toys more, or in a more active way, or they play with toys that are more interesting to the dog or even with toys that actually belong to the dog.
Or maybe it has to do with the way they respond to being herded. Are the non-interesting cats more likely to do something boring like staying motionless or jumping up onto something high up and staying there? Or is it possible that at some point in the past they each responded with some aggressive move that convinced the dog to leave them alone?
Has anyone ever scolded the dog for going after the cats? Is it possible that someone has gotten angry enough to make a lasting impression, but it's only happened with two of the cats? Or maybe other random scary things coincidentally happened when the dog was herding two of the cats that made her permanently scared to interact with them.
Do the interesting cats interact with humans more than the other cats do? Maybe the dog doesn't like the cats getting attention that should go to her and she's trying to get between the cats and the humans. Or are humans more likely to do things with the interesting cats like shoo them off the counter or pick them up or try to catch them? That could make it seem like you think those particular cats are more in need of herding.
Or maybe the interesting cats spend less time in the spaces where the dog hangs out, so when they show up it's more exciting?
posted by Redstart at 7:24 PM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Or maybe it has to do with the way they respond to being herded. Are the non-interesting cats more likely to do something boring like staying motionless or jumping up onto something high up and staying there? Or is it possible that at some point in the past they each responded with some aggressive move that convinced the dog to leave them alone?
Has anyone ever scolded the dog for going after the cats? Is it possible that someone has gotten angry enough to make a lasting impression, but it's only happened with two of the cats? Or maybe other random scary things coincidentally happened when the dog was herding two of the cats that made her permanently scared to interact with them.
Do the interesting cats interact with humans more than the other cats do? Maybe the dog doesn't like the cats getting attention that should go to her and she's trying to get between the cats and the humans. Or are humans more likely to do things with the interesting cats like shoo them off the counter or pick them up or try to catch them? That could make it seem like you think those particular cats are more in need of herding.
Or maybe the interesting cats spend less time in the spaces where the dog hangs out, so when they show up it's more exciting?
posted by Redstart at 7:24 PM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
My dog chases one cat and rarely the other. I suspect at some point he decided first cat was non-chaseable but the second was very chaseable because she ran away. And they’ve kept this behavior pattern for years.
posted by bluedaisy at 7:35 PM on August 23, 2023
posted by bluedaisy at 7:35 PM on August 23, 2023
Best answer: She has discussed it with each of them personally and those two cats have a sheeplike accent.
posted by Mizu at 7:36 PM on August 23, 2023 [33 favorites]
posted by Mizu at 7:36 PM on August 23, 2023 [33 favorites]
This question can't be answered without pictures of everyone involved.
posted by Alensin at 7:52 PM on August 23, 2023 [44 favorites]
posted by Alensin at 7:52 PM on August 23, 2023 [44 favorites]
Herding dogs just love to fixate on something and in my experience there is a logic behind it but the chain of weirdo associations, one fixation triggering the next, is only rarely discernible to the human. For instance my dog wants to herd and bark at any human taking anything out of an upper kitchen cabinet. Why? The original trigger was the hiss of a carbonated beverage being opened. Then the sight of the can, then the refrigerator door being opened to get the can, then the opening of the cabinet where I keep the glasses into which the fizzy beverage is poured, then any cabinet being opened. I just happen to know what went through his obsessive herding brain for this thing but there are many others that are opaque to me.
posted by HotToddy at 9:55 PM on August 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by HotToddy at 9:55 PM on August 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
Maybe it's the cat's names. I had a roommate once who had a border collie. Fun, fun times all around. The dog was 'Jude' from the Jimmie Hendrix song. She was wonderful. I was cat-sitting a cat for the summer....
Say "Hey Jude" and she perks up and is listening for 4 phrases. Ball, frisbee, leash, cat.
"Hey Jude, go get the cat" and off she would bolt out the door and a few minutes later the cat would dash in and Jude would sit there and look at you going "tell me I'm a good girl, can we play ball now?"
"Hey Jude, wanna play frisbee?", Jude starts jumping up the fridge where we keep the frisbee. "Jude, go get your leash" and off she goes and comes back with the leash, then you hop on a skateboard and she pulls you along to frisbee place. Then it's "Jude, time to go home" and she pulls you back home. "We play balls now?" Throw a handful of tennis balls out into the neighboring parking lot and wait for her to bring them all back.
Chick magnet Jude was, not even my dog.
Along with scent and maybe behavior.... I'd still think that it might be she knows the two cats by name really well and they are special that way. Border Collies tend to be way smart that way, maybe something subtle in how you treat the different cats.....
posted by zengargoyle at 2:31 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Say "Hey Jude" and she perks up and is listening for 4 phrases. Ball, frisbee, leash, cat.
"Hey Jude, go get the cat" and off she would bolt out the door and a few minutes later the cat would dash in and Jude would sit there and look at you going "tell me I'm a good girl, can we play ball now?"
"Hey Jude, wanna play frisbee?", Jude starts jumping up the fridge where we keep the frisbee. "Jude, go get your leash" and off she goes and comes back with the leash, then you hop on a skateboard and she pulls you along to frisbee place. Then it's "Jude, time to go home" and she pulls you back home. "We play balls now?" Throw a handful of tennis balls out into the neighboring parking lot and wait for her to bring them all back.
Chick magnet Jude was, not even my dog.
Along with scent and maybe behavior.... I'd still think that it might be she knows the two cats by name really well and they are special that way. Border Collies tend to be way smart that way, maybe something subtle in how you treat the different cats.....
posted by zengargoyle at 2:31 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
pics or none of this has ever happened
posted by hydra77 at 8:43 AM on August 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by hydra77 at 8:43 AM on August 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
Got a herder and three cats. Same deal. Bugs one of the cats incessantly, one of the cats occasionally, and one of the cats very very seldom. I think it's because of the way each cat reacts.
She gets scolded repeatedly and sworn at frequently (by the cat.) Obviously, we don't understand. She only trying to do her job. SOMEBODY has to do it, because the cat isn't complying to house rules, which none of us understand, and she obviously is ignoring to the detriment of the common good.
Fortunately for all of us, the cat has been staying here temporarly (a long long year, while her owner looks for affordable housing) Hopefully only a month longer, and sanity will return to the BlueHorse household. That is, such sanity as can be expected with a herding dog and two cats.
Cats are weird. Herding dogs even more so.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:55 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
She gets scolded repeatedly and sworn at frequently (by the cat.) Obviously, we don't understand. She only trying to do her job. SOMEBODY has to do it, because the cat isn't complying to house rules, which none of us understand, and she obviously is ignoring to the detriment of the common good.
Fortunately for all of us, the cat has been staying here temporarly (a long long year, while her owner looks for affordable housing) Hopefully only a month longer, and sanity will return to the BlueHorse household. That is, such sanity as can be expected with a herding dog and two cats.
Cats are weird. Herding dogs even more so.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:55 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
My (biased) experience is my dog chased the cat I didn't like of my roommate's 6 cats (he was an asshole).
Otoh, the most frail bitchy cat he absolutely loved (ancient calico with a litany of health issues). (She was my fav)
I'd look to the humans (/dog's perception of which humans are more important or higher ranked - could be either and they are often different) for clues as well as the cat's behavior.
posted by esoteric things at 11:13 AM on August 24, 2023
Otoh, the most frail bitchy cat he absolutely loved (ancient calico with a litany of health issues). (She was my fav)
I'd look to the humans (/dog's perception of which humans are more important or higher ranked - could be either and they are often different) for clues as well as the cat's behavior.
posted by esoteric things at 11:13 AM on August 24, 2023
I hope it's not a faux pas to reply to one of these #metafilterfundraiser2023 questions with a normal non-chatty answer like I did. I'm not clear on whether chat is allowed, encouraged, preferred or required.
Maybe I should add some border collie chat. They can be so weird! Mine enthusiastically plays fetch with 3 out 4 people in our household, but if my husband throws something for her she has zero interest. She'd rather have him flick leaves or pieces of bark for her to catch. At some point in her first year, she developed a huge fear of the word "up" or being asked/encouraged to jump up onto something even if that word was not used. (She didn't at all mind jumping up onto things if not asked.) I have a couple of hypotheses about why, but there was no clear reason, no big traumatic event. I've very gently and gradually been working on reteaching it with a different command ("get on") and she's about 80% over it. I still avoid saying "up" around her, though. I taught her "sit pretty" instead of "sit up" and "backwards" instead of "back up."
posted by Redstart at 11:39 AM on August 24, 2023
Maybe I should add some border collie chat. They can be so weird! Mine enthusiastically plays fetch with 3 out 4 people in our household, but if my husband throws something for her she has zero interest. She'd rather have him flick leaves or pieces of bark for her to catch. At some point in her first year, she developed a huge fear of the word "up" or being asked/encouraged to jump up onto something even if that word was not used. (She didn't at all mind jumping up onto things if not asked.) I have a couple of hypotheses about why, but there was no clear reason, no big traumatic event. I've very gently and gradually been working on reteaching it with a different command ("get on") and she's about 80% over it. I still avoid saying "up" around her, though. I taught her "sit pretty" instead of "sit up" and "backwards" instead of "back up."
posted by Redstart at 11:39 AM on August 24, 2023
Response by poster:
The fools in question
posted by OsoMeaty at 11:50 AM on August 24, 2023 [9 favorites]
The fools in question
posted by OsoMeaty at 11:50 AM on August 24, 2023 [9 favorites]
Is the male cat just incredibly tolerant of this? Does he just see it as another kind of affection?
posted by bluedaisy at 12:04 PM on August 24, 2023
posted by bluedaisy at 12:04 PM on August 24, 2023
Have the two cats that get ignored ever not been ignored and reacted badly, even once? It only took my dog accidently cornering my cat with the resultant hiss and swipe (no contact) to convince my dog not to bother her again. They lived in harmony after that!
posted by eloeth-starr at 1:00 PM on August 24, 2023
posted by eloeth-starr at 1:00 PM on August 24, 2023
Your calico is incredibly formidable.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:24 PM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 3:24 PM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by SaltySalticid at 6:41 PM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]