Are your English Setters scared of cats?

[Sheree Parrish]

I thought my old lad was a one off, whenever we went out for walks and he saw a cat he would stop dead in his tracks, terrified to move.  I either had to drag him across the road so we could carry on our walk, or turn around and go back in the direction we had just come in.  If we did the latter then he would walk with his tail between his legs, his eyes wide and scared, and keep looking behind him incase the innocent cat was coming after him!

 

I didn't have Henry as a pup, we bought him at 13 months so have had him just 6 months now, whenever we have seen cats he has also stopped dead but then pulled on his lead so I thought he wanted to make friends.  The cats in question so far have run off the moment they caught sight of us lunging towards them.  I'm assuming, like my previous dogs, he had also never had anything to do with his cats for the first year at his breeders.

 

Last night I had Henry at the vets, he had made friends with a little girl and her dad and was all waggy tailed and kissy kissy, suddenly the vet nurse came out of the door with a cat in a basket, Henry took one look at the cat and jumped into the air and straight into my arms...all 30kg of him...he was a quivering wreck, bless him.

 

At that moment we got called in by the vet and I tried to put him back down but he just clung on, so I had to stagger into the room with him in my arms...much to the amusement of everyone.

 

I am now wondering if I have just raised another wussy dog or if this fear is quite common in dogs that haven't had the opportunity to mix with cats.