Okay, so we've had our first dog trouble. Minor and expected, yes, but still bothersome. Zoë is, unsurprisingly, chasing Basia the Girl-Cat. What's odd here is that she was living peacefully with the cats for five full days before she started this behavior; we came home last night and found Basia crouched behind the furnace, tail like a bottlebrush and completely freaked out. What we think is going on is that the cats get ignored until they start moving fast, and then they get interesting. Brodie is so old and creaky that he pretty much never moves fast. Basia, on the other hand is still full of spunk (and piss and vinegar, too) and can go pretty fast when she tries. We figure she darted past Zoë, who thought she was playing, and gave chase. She does fine when we're there to supervise, but apparrently when we leave, any behavior is fair game
We're hoping that we can break her of this habit; I'd prefer not to crate the dog. I know it's not inhumane, and that some dogs actually like being in a surrogate den, but for whatever reasons I'd prefer to just have them all get along and not have to worry about penning the dog in while we're gone.
Zoë is also raiding the catfood. Also totally expected -- this we solved by getting a baby gate for the laundry room and cutting a cat-sized hole in it. Most people just put the catfood on the dryer, but Brodie can hardly make it up to the couch, so we had to find an alternate solution.
Humph. I hope we can get Zoë better acclimated to the rules of the house, and soon; cat-chasing is pretty much the only thing that could force us to give her up. Before anybody freaks out, we got her from a no-kill shelter, and the woman who adopted her out to us emphatically told us that if she didn't work out, we were to bring her back and that she'd happily find Zoë a new home -- she said she's done it many times before. Sending her back is an absolute last last resort, but we have it as an option.
We really want to make this work. It's easy to see that Zoë is an outstanding dog; we just have to get her trained up.
Also, she's got her first vet date tomorrow for a checkup, Rabies vaccination and hopefully some antibiotics. She came to us with a leaky nose; we figured she just had a bit of a cold from the kennels she's been in for the last couple months, but it's gotten worse. She was so full of energy and vigor that we didn't think it was a real problem, but now she's got an earache; she whines when you touch one ear, and keeps leaning her head to one side like she hopes the hurt will leak out. I hope we can get that cleared up in a hurry.
As a veteran of many pet-wars, one suggestion that I have is to shut the pets in separate rooms when you're not home -- like, say, leave Zoe in your bedroom while the cats have the run of the rest of the house. It gives the isolated pet more space to run around than a crate, but prevents the bad behavior. And you don't have to do it forever -- just until she gets used to interacting politely with the cats.
As well as using this method to keep apart pets who fight when they're unsupervised, I've generally found it very useful for breaking all kinds of bad habits in dogs -- simply make it physically impossible for them to do the bad thing until they forget about it ... generally a few days to a couple of months, tops ... then go back to the way things were before. Dogs are very much creatures of habit, and in my experience usually making them stop doing a "bad" behavior is just a matter of making it impossible for them to do it until they become habituated to a complementary "good" behavior. (In this case, playing nicely with the cats.)
Oh, because I forgot to say it in my last post -- congrats on the dog, by the way! She's adorable!
Just please be careful that this is not a "prey" reaction.
If she does not bolt at squirrels etc. on walks should just be a matter of keeping her on a training lead while in the house and correcting her when she sees the cats.
Takes awhile but it will be worth it she's a doll.