Jennsen, that is pretty extreme, but I honestly don't think your dog made the connection the way you might think. More likely, being "banished from the pack," a very basic instinct that dogs and wolves strive to avoid, made him deeply unhappy which made him look guilty. It could be he felt he was the alpha in the pack prior to that and that he needed to hunt. After being "banished" and then later accepted back, he may have accepted his place as lower in the pack and therefore his prey drive diminished. Or it could be something in the first cat triggered his drive and it never happened again. Kittens crawling over him, since they aren't running in terror , would probably have much less a chance at triggering his prey drive. Animals only have memories for the moment, and after a brief time, they no longer connect something that is happening to them with something they did the day before.

I realize you and your husband only did what you felt was right in order to protect the other pets, but I definitely would not recommend that method at all myself. It could serve to have traumatic and very negative effects, plus, dogs are not repelled by the odor of carrion like people are (in fact, my dogs seek it out if they smell a dead bird or fish etc, to roll in), so again it probably did not have the punishing effect you may have thought it would. He looked sad and guilty because he knew you were upset with him and he knew that he was outcast from his pack. I hope I am not coming off as lecturing as I don't mean to, I just want to explain so perhaps you can have a different understanding of the situation than you might have at first.

As for the original poster, I really cannot add any better advice than what you've been given. Your dog is not a bad dog, and he's not more likely to bite people. A smaller animal running can trigger that deep instinct to hunt and kill. I do hope you'll be able to fix your fence to keep him from getting out, because I believe that is the most vital step to make sure it doesn't happen again.