Hot Dogs for All!

March 31st, 2009
Filed in: Uncategorized

I accidentally created a monster on Saturday.

Former clients from five years ago invited me back to work with their new puppy, Jordan the 5-month old GSD. (Sadly, they lost their resident GSD in early February to a brain tumor.)

Jordan is a sweet dog …

…but she’s having issues with the four cats in the household. Jordan came from a shelter and was ok-ed to be placed in a home with cats, but that’s proving to be somewhat of a fantasy at this point. She’s rather … interested in the four cats in her new home. With her mouth.

While my clients took Jordan outside for a potty break, I stole a few moments to work with the very amiable, outgoing lead cat, Rocket.

Rocket was all about the action (”Hey – who are you? May I sit on your paperwork?  I think I’ll rub my face all over you!”), so I had a feeling that he’d be up for some clicker training.

Uh, hell yeah:

(Yes, he’s eating hot dogs.)

He was in it to win it, and caught on to the clicker in seconds. “Cool,” I thought, “We can train Rocket to do all sorts of cute tricks!”

Jordan came back in and we commenced with the lesson, only to discover that Rocket had caught on to the clicker all too well. He followed us around the room on counter tops with laser focus (”Hot dogs. Hot dogs. More hot dogs for me.”), forcing Jordan to choose between the fun of training and the lure of cat meat dangling above her. (Rocket was literally reaching out for the treats that we were trying to feed Jordan!)

We put Rocket away until the end of the session. I think Jordan was relieved.

We did some “there’s-the-cat-it’s-all-good” exercises at the end of the session, and Jordan did really well. That said, real life run-ins (four cats, people) will keep everyone on their toes.

Did you have a bumpy dog-cat introduction in your home? How did it work out in the end? Do tell.


3 Comments

Comments

On March 31st, Cat wrote:

Oh boy–you KNOW I’m going to comment on this. Athena (also a GSD) had a really hard time with impulse control around my cat when Athena was a puppy. I learned though, that clicker training with hot dog (glad to see my improvisational take on the idea is being validated by Victoria) focused both Athena’s attention and the cat’s, and overall made them think that being together was REALLY fun. Soon the cat was totally “over” Athena and Athena was like “Cat Shmat, hot dog hot dog!” Alistair, my current Somali kitten (and Athena’s third cat) picked up the clicker in no time, and now sits on command, comes when called, and is working on “shake”.

Jordan will get there once she gets a little older. Keep working them together with treats, distract Jordan if she goes into too strong a GSD “play and prey drive” around the kitties, and be sure the kitties also understand their boundaries around her. One of the most adorable things in the world is seeing the canine/feline bond develop and flourish.

On April 1st, Cheryl wrote:

Wow, Cat, Athena is gorgeous! We’re Jordan’s people and just found the Athena and Me page. Rocket really wants to play with his new little GSD–he and Zack were great buds–but she has to learn not to lead with her teeth! It’s good to know Athena and her kitty made peace.

On April 1st, Cat wrote:

Thanks Cheryl! Athena when she was a puppy tried to “make friends” with my first kitty Kashka, and she thought “making friends” meant “chase, corner, and bite”. They eventually became very close. GSDs are SUCH crazy mouthy puppies as you know :) Don’t you just love ‘em???

Leave a Reply




And Another Thing...

Subscribe to Life on the Leash

Get in touch