. My fiancee and I rescued a 3 year old Boxer about five months ago. She has been happily living in our apartment, basically running the place, ever since. We live in a very dog-friendly city, so she goes everywhere with us; she goes to restaurants, for car rides, to the dog park, walks around the neighborhood, etc. For the first few months we had her, she was the only pet. She is extremely well-behaved, does not chew, bark, bite, and can hold her bladder for a ridiculous amount of time. About 2 months ago, we decided to get Abby a kitten to keep her company while we were at work. We believe that she has had some puppies in the past because she seems to have a mothering instinct (she is spayed now, of course.). When we first brought the kitten home, it was rough. Abby was very anxious about this little creature, but it only took a few days for her to begin "mothering" the kitten, and now they get along great. She allows him to bite her face, ears, nose, everything, and takes it all in stride. I now feel no anxiety leaving them alone together as they mostly do their own thing now that they are used to each other.
Over the weekend, my fiancee and I got a female Rhodesian Ridgeback pup, 10 weeks old (Neo) . She is crate trained, which has been nice since we both work, and does already know a couple of commands. My first question is regarding further housetraining. I've never had a dog that was crate trained, so I'm wondering how to make the transition from the crate to the rest of the house, if that makes sense. I understand that crate training is based upon the idea that dogs generally do not want to make a mess in their crate because then they'd have to sleep in it. When/how do I make her understand that the rest of the house is not "outside"? She does hold it for about 5 hours max, and my fiancee does come home on his lunch break to let her out of the crate and play with her. We have been making sure to always supervise her when she's out of the crate, and watching for her signs that she needs to do her business. As soon as we see the signs, we put the leash on, say "outside" and encourage her to "go potty" in her spot outside, always rewarding her when she goes outdoors and never punishing her when she's had an accident. I think we're doing all the right things, but I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do to help her "get" that the whole apartment is "our" crate and she still needs to go outside to pee. Maybe I'm projecting thoughts on to her that dogs are not able to have, and she will get this on her own with time, I don't know!
I have not had to housetrain a puppy, as my last dog lived outside and our Boxer was already trained. Our Boxer, Abby, is our world. My fiancee and I truly treat her like she's our child, and we would never want to do anything that would make her unhappy or cause her stress. The puppy has definitely caused all of us a little stress, and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips to help us make everyone feel at home. Of course, I have not and will not force them to play together, as I know this can be dangerous; I let them both do their own things, and mostly they're ok with each other. Each dog also gets their own separate time with each of us, whether it's a trip to the park or some playtime outside. Sometimes Abby growls at the puppy, but I assume this is just to let her know that she's in charge. I feed them at the same time to avoid problems with food aggression, though neither has shown any signs of it. Is there anything else that I could be doing to make both dogs more comfortable?
Neo (Rhodesian pup) is overly playful with the kitten, who is a large 5 month old DSH. I can see that she's just trying to play, but she outweighs him by quite a bit at this point, and is only going to get bigger. I don't want to discourage her from playing since I know this is how puppies learn, but I obviously don't want kitten to get hurt. What we have been doing up to this point is letting her nose and lightly chase him, but watching to make sure she doesn't get too rough. If she does get rough, we tell her "no" and distract her with one of her many chew toys. When she's playing and chewing on her toys, she does get rewarded. I just don't know if this back and forth is confusing to her; should it be all or nothing (which at this point would be nothing)? Just keep them separated? I do want them both to be acclimated to each other, and have tried to do so gradually..we put kitten in "his" room when we brought the pup home so they could smell each other first, etc.
We are planning on getting her into training as soon as she is adequately vaccinated.
Last one-the puppy has the hiccups a lot--is this normal??
Thanks in advance!
