Sounds good to me. Get her busy training and working with and for you, looking to you for everything she gets or does and learning to look to her mommie for even a drink of water just until she gets the idea that she really needs to depend upon you. Once she gives in and learns that, learns you will always care for her and she must always trust you, she will start to relax and just be a little dog. Along with that change comes respect and the relinquishing of power. But along with good positive-reinforcement training, she will learn further you are in control.
Once you have a good 90 days under your belt of positive-reinforcement training, start to claim areas of your home from her. Claim your bed. Muzzle her and bring in a cat and reprimand her any time she starts to intensely look at or tries to focus on the cat. Watch her like a hawk and any focusing of her eyes on the cat - intense looking, ears coming forward, head a bit lowered, reprimand her and remove her from the room or give her a bit of a nudge with your finger to break that intense concentration and get her attention - or just place your clawlike hand across the back of her neck and hold it there just like a momma dog does when reprimanding one of her babies. Do not get angry or tense during this - she's just now learning a new way and having to learn to relinquish control when the cat is on the bed and she won't know how. She wouldn't have gotten this way if you all had known how to stop this from happening but most of us are not born with these kind of skills. So do not feel bad yourself because none of us are born dog guru's or anything. We all have to learn.
So when she flexes up on the cat, don't hold it against her or get upset, she's just being what she has always been - a little boss. So teach her
now that is not okay. Now we are going mommie's way and my finger nudging you or my hand across the back of your sweet little neck is just snapping you out of your concentration on kitty and showing you how we are going to go forward from here, sweet baby - nothing more. Mom's not mad. IMMMEDIATELY when she gives way to the reprimand, remove your finger or hand and smile, take a deep breath and relax. Good job!
If you removed her from the room when she focused on the cat, wait until she sits down and her ears come back or out a bit before taking her back in. That is very important and no small issue. She must relinquish her intensity and relax in the other room. Stand there patiently and breath slowly & patiently until she does. This is dog training - no way around the waiting, etc. Once that happens, walk her back into the room and indicate she may jump back up on the bed with the cat but direct her where you want her to go on it. Then resume watching her and any intent focusing showing she's about to go into territorial protection mode, remove her from the room, wait until she relaxes and return to the bed, directing her to the portion of the bed you choose.
Repeat for about a 5 - 10 minute session another time later, at least twice a night and more often on weekends until she learns that territorial moves toward the cat, however minimal, are no longer tolerated and she isn't in control.
Here is the success of training - you must keep doing this bed exercise and controlling her inappropriate actions
until she eventually learns to stop the protective, territorial attitude and accepts kitty being there as a matter of course. Remember, she's had years to act this way toward kitty on the bed so it will take a long time to retrain her reactions but if you will persist and be more determined than she is to prevail, you will.
Once she is cool with one cat, bring in a second and redo the whole retraining episodes, reprimanding territorial intensity. Once she's cool with two kitties, allow the third one and repeat it all until she's okay with all three cats. This could take a year but whatever amount of time it takes, you are either progressing toward a goal or going away from it so don't despair. If you keep it up, she will learn.
Best wishes to you for taking control and getting started so read and study all that you can about how to positively & lovingly train a dog and thus modify its behavior and curb the instincts that are upsetting the family peace. If you find a better way or ways, go with it/them. There are lots of dog training methods and you need to find the one that works best for you and your dog. You will be amazed at how smart a dog is once you learn how to work with it properly to correct problems and teach it to control its impulses and mind you. A well-trained dog is a happy dog and a loving family member.
