I want to preface this by saying I am going to be contacting a behaviorist.
My dog is a herding breed. Very sweet. She is 3 years old and has grown up around other dogs and cats. At around 1ish years old she started displaying "aggressive" behavior with my cat. Whenever he would come into the room, she would go crazy barking – before she was completely fine with him. They would sleep together and hang out. But one day she started flipping out on him for coming into my room.
She wasn't like this with any of the other cats (4 others in total). When my partner and I moved in together, we brought my cat, my older (12 years) dog, and my younger dog. The behavior has progressively gotten worse.
She is obsessed with watching the cat room and barking at the slightest hint the cat is in there. If she can't get to him, she redirects onto my older dog who is in the other room sleeping. They get into a fight and she doesn't back down. Additionally, if there is thunder she'll go after him, and sometimes when he is just sleeping, she'll stand over him and then attack him if he moves the slightest bit.
The weird thing is that she won't act like this at other homes or if I am not at home. When I am gone and my partner is home or we have a pet sittier, she is calm, polite, and will even hang out with the cat on the couch or bed. She doesn't even attack my older dog.
She's a great dog, and I love her dearly, but I am starting to get frustrated because I can't relax unless she is locked away in the hallway or her crate at night. I miss our cuddles and TV time.
We do scent work, obedience training, run, sniff walks, and hike together, but I am starting to lose motivation because it isn't getting better and when she starts getting ramped up it's like I don't exist. I don't want to keep getting frustrated and ruin our relationship, but I don't know why she is doing this.
Obviously it's a me issue, since it only happens when I am home and she's fine with everyone else.
Does anyone have an inkling why she might be doing this?
submitted by /u/cynwriggles
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