This is a question from a reader of my website: 

Question:  I have a Labrador puppy who is 14 weeks old. We have a couple of cats that are not in the least aggressive. The dog insists on chasing and mauling the cats. We have tried everything to get her to stop. The cats will not fight back. How do we get her to stop?

Answer:  Regardless of the puppy or the behavior problems that may be present I always recommend that a puppy as young as yours is always under supervised control.  What I mean by that is that if you can’t be there the dog stays in a crate.

If you are home, however, I recommend you keep your puppy on a leash at all times.  This accomplishes several things:

1- It allows you to see every behavior.  Your job is to mold your puppy’s behavior.  If you want to mold it, you have to see it.  You can see everything if the dog is right next to you on leash.  99% of ‘bad’ puppy behavior is because it was simply allowed to happen.  If your dog is on a leash you are in control of what happens.

2- Keeping a puppy on a leash establishes the proper rhythm and tone of the home.  A dog can’t run around like a mad man if he is on leash.  A dog that is conditioned to being calm in the home pays dividends for years.  Too many dogs never learn how to just ‘be’.  A puppy on a leash learns this skill from a young age.

3- Most importantly for you the leash method allows you to correct bad behaviors when they come up.  When your puppy goes to terrorize the cats use the leash to give a correction as you tell your dog ‘no’ and then redirect him toward something constructive (a sit or down command, a toy, etc).  Through repetition your puppy will come to learn that chasing the cats never gets him what he wants.

Good luck with your puppy.