Help Me Manage My Expectations!

[SpotTheDog]

Hi guys

I'm looking for someone to help me manage my level of expectation of my pup.

I adopted Gus, aged 12-14 weeks, from a shelter at the end of July. I haven't owned a dog since I was a kid. We already have pets - to be exact, we have six cats. The cats are relatively well socialised (for cats) and get on well together - eat from the same dish, they have a room to themselves in our house that's set up with litter trays and they get put to bed in that room every night. (We have no kids - ha, obviously).

When I took Gus in, he was advertised as a staffy-x, but my vet confirmed my suspicions that he's a bull arab (in as much as any dog is a 'bull arab' per se; he's a tan and white dog who's putting on about 1kg per week in weight).

Then a few things went wrong. We discovered Gus, under the dirt, had ringworm - pretty much chronic ringworm, covered in patches. Immediately all intentions of socialising him in the house went out the window - he had to be separated from the rest of the house because he was funGus puppy. (See what we did there?) Anyway - he was put in the family bathroom with a babygate across the door, so relatively similar to crating him in a way.

Then 48 hours after I adopted Gus, my father died and I had to go back to my home country for four weeks to help my elderly mother. In the meantime, my husband had the underweight ringworm-riddled flea-ridden puppy to mind, along with our six cats. Hubby isn't a dog person - he doesn't have the patience for them. He did a determined job while I was away, got the ringworm and the fleas under control, and fed the pup back up to a good weight, also coped with the lack of toilet training and so on. He also taught the pup to sit, go to his bed, and generally behave.

However ,while I was away for my dad's funeral, hubby took very much the approach of allowing the pup and the cats access to the yard at the same time, on the basis that the cats would clatter the pup when he bounced at them, and he'd eventually learn not to bounce at them.

Naturally, that hasn't happened. What HAS happened, is a foundation stone of animosity in the dog for the cats, especially one cat. The dog's been scratched in the nose a number of times. It also appears that the pup, who seems to be pretty clear that the house is the domain of the cats, has claimed the yard as his own and will rush any cat he finds out there. Five out of six of them run away - Sas goes bald-headed for Gus, front paws wheeling like a kitty-ninja. Gus also totally ignores me if I order him to leave the cat. (Which is unsurprising really - I'm sure the cat rates very highly on the list of distrations that can interefere with obedience!)

I've implemented a rule from last week - no simultaneous unsupervised time outdoors for all animals AT ALL. Either the cats are out there, and the dog is in his bed in the bathroom, or the dog is out there and the cats have the run of the house. It took me 10 days after getting home to do it because hubby had more of a bond with the pup than I did after my time away, plus he's a firm supporter of the 'let them sort it out' thing. However to my mind, the dog is getting more aggressive with the cats, and more boisterous, and one of the cats split the tip of his ear in response recently, so it had to stop. The only contact the dog now has with the cats is seeing them through the babygate, or when I allow him into the living room in the evenings to lie on his bed with the cats on the couch. He will still chase the cats indoors if he gets the chance, but if closely monitored he'll behave.

I recognise that we haven't done the right thing by the dog by not setting the proper boundaries up from the get-go, but as I said, things couldn't have gone much worse than they did for me personally, and within days of us getting him too.

I've a trainer coming over for a personal consultation in the next few weeks and we're starting puppy classes in October with the same trainer, to run through the school term - 10 classes total I think. I'm hoping the classes help me learn to control Gus more authoritatively, and he also learns self control (inasmuch as any puppy can learn self control!)

He's also been fully vaccinated finally since Friday last, so he's been out for his walk every day since and he's pretty good on his walks - he doesn't spend the walk jumping up to the height of my head or strangling himself with his collar, for instance. However I'm a little fearful of our first meeting with another dog - partly because of his interactions with the cats for the last month and partly because, well, just because!

So any advice for me? Any tips, pointers, recommendations? I have no friends with pets, so socialising Gus with other dogs before his puppy training starts is nigh-on impossible.

[persephone]

You have your hands full!!

Shame on the shelter for releasing a pup full of ringworm tho

Your cats don't have an outdoor enclosure? That might be an idea... then everyone is safe, and there are no nasty encounters .

having a good professional trainer come around is a wise move - especially if they are a private trainer, and not one of the many franchised 'quick-fix' type ones

Try not to be fearful of meeting dogs- as this will transfer itself VERY easily to Gus- and make him uncertain... his 'leader' is fearful- so he may either also be fearful.. or try and be the protector ... it must be hard with no dog-owning friends. perhaps there are some DOL people who live near you?

What does Gus do when chasing the cats? What is his body language ? perhaps he is playing.. chasing like he would a puppy?

Do you have a pic of him to shpw us? he sounds an interesting boy !

[SpotTheDog]

You have your hands full!!

Shame on the shelter for releasing a pup full of ringworm tho

Your cats don't have an outdoor enclosure? That might be an idea... then everyone is safe, and there are no nasty encounters .

having a good professional trainer come around is a wise move - especially if they are a private trainer, and not one of the many franchised 'quick-fix' type ones

Try not to be fearful of meeting dogs- as this will transfer itself VERY easily to Gus- and make him uncertain... his 'leader' is fearful- so he may either also be fearful.. or try and be the protector ... it must be hard with no dog-owning friends. perhaps there are some DOL people who live near you?

What does Gus do when chasing the cats? What is his body language ? perhaps he is playing.. chasing like he would a puppy?

Do you have a pic of him to shpw us? he sounds an interesting boy !

Thanks for the reply

The bodylanguage when he starts up with the cats is very like two dominant dogs meeting - ears up, nose pointed down, some whites showing in the eyes, tail erect and wagging stiffly, he sort of draws himself up. It isn't what I'd associate as being a 'puppy bounce' - you know, front legs on the ground, bum in the air, bounce forward, bark, run away, come back again - he CAN be like that sometimes, but others it's a bit 'uh-oh, what now, are you the boss or am I the boss...' To my mind, there's been more of the two-dogs-meeting body language recently than the bounce-n-play language.

Saying that, I've just had him in here in the living room for the last hour. Funny story - liver treats. The ones made from pure beef liver, machined and dried in a slab and then broken into pieces, quite a brittle treat. Gus loves them.

...but so do the cats. And the cats know the sound of a liver treat packet. So I just had Cleo, a lanky tabby whose mother was a siamese cat, come in and do her treat theft thing - she pilfers the whole bag, carries it into the middle of the floor and crunches at the plastic to either put holes in it or open it - then she usually shakes the bag to scatter treats for everyone. (If she ever learns to open the fridge, I'm redundant.)

Gus is lying in his bed watching the cat open HIS bag of liver treats. I intervene, and then proceed to give the cat a treat first, then the dog. But the cats have all heard Cleo's dinner bell, as it were - so they all gather around, and I'm feeding each of them a treat, then Gus, and he lying on his bed - we're all in a space about five feet square on the floor - so that proves it, there's still hope. I think the plan is definitely not to let them out together, because Gus behaves a lot better, supervised, in here than he does out in the yard (what a surprise eh?). If I can get the cats used to him so they stop running, I'm hoping he'll stop chasing - because lets be honest, I can't really expect a pup like Gus to NOT chase a cat that's darting away. Hopefully them getting used to him will coincide with the training classes so he'll relax.

Thank you very much for the tip on meeting other dogs - I knew that piece of information, about my nervousness transferring it to the dog, but had totally failed to apply it to my situation!

[huski]

Sounds like it could be prey drive... I would personally be getting in a trainer who knows how to work with drivey dogs and would be building a cat run to keep kitties safe

[Shmurps]

I agree with the cat enclosure. Then everyone is safe.

At least you are having a consult with a trainer.

What's with the pup being re homed with ringworm

[SpotTheDog]

I agree with the cat enclosure. Then everyone is safe.

At least you are having a consult with a trainer.

What's with the pup being re homed with ringworm ;)

Don't start me on the ringworm thing.

You may well be right on the prey drive. The first thing Gus does if you give him something like a rope toy is wool it - I vaguely wondered if every pup does that because it's so long since I've had a dog, but I also thought '...erm' when I saw the gusto with which his tiny, skinny, underweight frame was shaking a stuffed toy when we got him first!!

An outdoor cat enclosure will be a problem. Husband is joining the army and we've no cash. I'd have to hire someone to do it - no DIYers in this house - can't even get hubby to build a deck! Plus in about 12 months we'll be moving out of this house when himself gets stationed somewhere. The cats aren't allowed roam - when we moved in and had our fences built, we did a lot of cat-proofing so our kitty enclosure basically IS the yard - it's about 800m2 of yard and they can't get out of it - fences, fence caps, gaps underneath blocked up etc. They're used to being indoor cats during the day when nobody's home as it is - though circumstances mean there hasn't been a case of nobody home for any extended period of time since the pup arrived.

Come the end of October, when himself leaves for Kapooka, it'll just be me, the hound and the kitties. I work eight hours a day three days a week - usually the cats would be home alone for the 9 hours I'm out (including the drive to and from work and my half hour lunch break). Our normal routine was get up in the morning around 6.30am, let the cats out for a run in the morning for about 90 mins, then bring them in for the day and leave for work. When I get in, I let the cats out straight away and they have full access to the yard from just after 5pm to just before it gets dark, then in for the night.

I thought it might work if I can bring myself to take the dog for a walk in the morning and leave the cats with their yard access - so in other words, up at 6.30am, release the cats into the yard and take dog out of bathroom and bring him for a walk. Back from walk, feed dog in his 'overnight' bed, which is the family bathroom (until he's toilet trained - that overnight bed will undoubtedly change to my ensuite when hubby goes away.)

Anyway - back from walk, feed dog in bathroom while rounding cats back into the house. Then let the dog into the yard after the cats are in, and he'll be out in the yard, with a kennel, food, water, so on, while I'm at work. When I get in, I'll bring the dog for a walk and again let the cats into the yard while he's out with me, then when I get home I can do a bit of juggling with them - feed the dog indoors, bring him out to the loo on a lead so he can't chase the cats, and have him free in the house with me in the evenings, bringing him out for toilet every hour (that's what I do at the moment). The dog can lie on his bed in the living room with me while I work on the computer and the cats stroll about the place - that works okay at the moment. Then bedtime, the cats go in their room and the dog goes to his bed, all indoors.

The nine hours in the yard three days a week isn't great; but I work about 8 minutes from home in the car. I might see if I can stretch my half hour lunchbreak into one hour so I can get home lunchtime and play fetch (or rather, get the ball and then refuse to give it back to me) with him.

How does that sound as a solution? A pup with a strong prey drive isn't ideal in our situation, but that wasn't the original plan (neither was ringworm, the sudden death of my father and my husband having an early midlife crisis and joining the army and leaving me for months on end, but life's a bitch sometimes!!)

[SpotTheDog]

Just to add: the dog is never shut in the bathroom with the door closed. There's a baby-gate across the bathroom door and he can see and hear the whole house while he's in there - from his bed in the family bathroom he can see me sitting at the kitchen table - just in case anyone worries I'm utterly isolating the dog in the bathroom for hours at a time.

[SpotTheDog]

Pics of the Gus Puppy!

Okay....

Here's the state of what I brought home with me. When I opened this photo tonight and looked at it I gasped - I'd forgotten what a bag of bones he was - and guys, this is AFTER I washed him so he looks better here than he did when I brought him home.

This is him about two days later, toilet training in the yard, poor bag of bones.

This is him this evening, in my kitchen:

And finally, here is is this evening in his bed in the living room, watching telly. That's Turbo Diesel the cat on the couch - so as you can see, they can exist this closely to each other without a major problem as long as the cats are standing their ground. We don't allow him on the couch, which is helping to establish them as masters of the house. I really hope this all works out - he's a really great dog and the cats are pretty excellent too.

[Shmurps]

He looks great.

I can't believe he was adopted out in that condition.

Having said that you have done well

[SpotTheDog]

Thank you. He's really a great dog - honestly, he's biddable and friendly and cuddly, and a real 'dog' dog, if that makes any sense. :p You can see a dark patch on his side in the tv-watching picture - that's the remains of one of his ringworm patches.

[luvsdogs]

I can't offer much more, that has not been said already. I have one cat & from day one she tormented the pup to chase her & over 2 years down the track Tilba still likes to chase Blossom. But then Blossom has been with us from 3 weeks old, long story, & always thought she was a dog being brought up with 2 of them.

One thing with cats, when they don't want to be bothered with a dog they can just get up high away from trouble.

Keep up the good work, it will always take a lot of dedication on your part.

[Guest belgian.blue]

My Belgian Shepherd is a cat charger and herder. I have one cat who has never stood her ground but over time, they all live in harmony.

Though as she matures she does it less and now I know how to stop her doing it. My cat isn't allowed in the backyard and this has stopped most of Ivys urge to herd the cat. She does it in the house but gets firm no and gets put outside.

All the best, Gus is very sweet!

[tez]

Nothing to add except to say that he is a lovely looking pup and I LOVE LOVE LOVE his name