Possum
Well-Known Member
Probably going to get shot down for this...but here goes...
We've had our girl for about 8 months. She's an absolute sweetheart, walks beautifully, great with kids, other dogs and the cat but we are having a serious problem.
She is tiny (about the size of a Yorkie, weighs less than 5kg) and the most hyperactive energetic dog I've ever met - I've got friends with boxers, springers and the like and my mum has terriers, they've never seen anything like her.
Outside she's lovely. She gets at least 2 walks a day, lots of garden ball-throwing, is rarely left and generally busy doing something with us. But no matter how much she's done during the day, she's still buzzing in the evening and anytime during the day when you might want to sit down with a cuppa.
This generally manifests itself by her annoying the cat. Generally she and the cat get on very well, the cat enjoys playing with her up to a point but he's got a medical condition that means he can't jump up out of her way, and he also likes to be around us so doesn't just take himself upstairs to our room where the dog's not allowed.
We can call her away from the cat, she comes straight away when she's called, but the second we turn back to what we were doing she's back trying to wrestle him again. We've tried giving her bones and chews (that she doesn't normally get) at the worst time, but she'll chew it for a bit and then start pestering him again.
He's getting very stressed, and we're not sure what to do. Her basic obedience is good, no issues with recall or basic commands but I am trying to find a club to go to for agility, flyball, obedience or anything really that will help tire her out. My OH runs with her a few times a week, but as she's so tiny it doesn't seem right to take her further than 3/4 miles at a good pace.
So we're trying to think of other options, and one of the things we've thought of is getting another juvenile dog that she could play with during the day, hopefully wear herself out even more and bother him in the evenings rather than the cat. Is this ludicrous or might it actually work?
I'm expecting people to say that we should just train our current dog better and I do agree , so any further ideas of things we could do are also welcome.
Thank you all
ETA - should probably mention that we've just moved house which has triggered a definite worsening in the behaviour. In our old house the cat was there first, then we introduced the dog and she hardly bothered him at all. Since they both moved here together, the cat has generally been a lot more wary, and the dog more inclined to mess with him.
We've had our girl for about 8 months. She's an absolute sweetheart, walks beautifully, great with kids, other dogs and the cat but we are having a serious problem.
She is tiny (about the size of a Yorkie, weighs less than 5kg) and the most hyperactive energetic dog I've ever met - I've got friends with boxers, springers and the like and my mum has terriers, they've never seen anything like her.
Outside she's lovely. She gets at least 2 walks a day, lots of garden ball-throwing, is rarely left and generally busy doing something with us. But no matter how much she's done during the day, she's still buzzing in the evening and anytime during the day when you might want to sit down with a cuppa.
This generally manifests itself by her annoying the cat. Generally she and the cat get on very well, the cat enjoys playing with her up to a point but he's got a medical condition that means he can't jump up out of her way, and he also likes to be around us so doesn't just take himself upstairs to our room where the dog's not allowed.
We can call her away from the cat, she comes straight away when she's called, but the second we turn back to what we were doing she's back trying to wrestle him again. We've tried giving her bones and chews (that she doesn't normally get) at the worst time, but she'll chew it for a bit and then start pestering him again.
He's getting very stressed, and we're not sure what to do. Her basic obedience is good, no issues with recall or basic commands but I am trying to find a club to go to for agility, flyball, obedience or anything really that will help tire her out. My OH runs with her a few times a week, but as she's so tiny it doesn't seem right to take her further than 3/4 miles at a good pace.
So we're trying to think of other options, and one of the things we've thought of is getting another juvenile dog that she could play with during the day, hopefully wear herself out even more and bother him in the evenings rather than the cat. Is this ludicrous or might it actually work?
I'm expecting people to say that we should just train our current dog better and I do agree , so any further ideas of things we could do are also welcome.
Thank you all
ETA - should probably mention that we've just moved house which has triggered a definite worsening in the behaviour. In our old house the cat was there first, then we introduced the dog and she hardly bothered him at all. Since they both moved here together, the cat has generally been a lot more wary, and the dog more inclined to mess with him.
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