Hi everyone,
After some words of wisdom if possible please.
We have a 7 month puppy (female) and have been looking to get a second dog as company for her, and because we felt we have the time, space and love to give another dog.
We brought home a 1 year old rescue last week after looking for a few months. No significant issues raised by the rescue - he is soft as punch with the kids, loves other dogs, travels well in the car, happy to be left alone for short periods. The only issue raised is that he doesn't like cats or squirrels (normal for a dog I'd argue). They said he could pull on the lead if he sees a cat, but a figure of 8 lead over his nose resolved that and they've had no issues.
Sounds great, right?
Problem is he doesn't just pull, he is FIXATED on every cat he sees on the walk. He pulls so much he ends up standing on his back legs, even with the figure of 8 on (and he's not a small dog). He also yelps/whines until we're a significant distance past.
He also yelps/whines when he sees another dog because he wants to play, but we can't let him off lead because he has no recall. (We hire a secure field once a week so he will get off lead time in a safe environment).
It's really affecting our walks with our young pup, because people are avoiding him/us/her because of his behaviour and we can't let her off lead now as much as we used to because of him.
He's also causing chaos at home. He's been partially crate trained, so he does get put away to rest when he gets a bit much (treating like an over-tired toddler) and will go straight to sleep. He gets 2 good walks a day (45 mins each), he gets enrichment in the form of stuffed kongs, antlers and yakkers, but when he's not in the crate he's just constant. Our pup also thinks it's constant play time when he's out, but he's a lot bigger than her so play often ends up with her yelping (we supervise play and stop it when it gets too much).
I don't think we anticipated exactly how much supervision/constant intervention would be needed. I feel like we're neglecting our kids, I feel like our 7 month pup isn't getting the attention she was before.
After the walk this morning with both dogs DH wants to take him back. They saw 7 cats, he said it was a nightmare.
I haven't had to walk both dogs by myself yet as we've had a few days off together, but back to work this week so I'll have to walk them both myself (with kids in tow) and I'm worried. I don't have time to walk both dogs separately as I have work and the kids/dinner/bedtime to sort (DH is a shift worker).
I'm not sure if these are just normal feelings, but it feels like we've made a HUGE mistake.
We used to love our walks with our girl, they were a great source of stress relief, but since bringing him home we're dreading them.
I have an appointment with a trainer booked for later this week, so I'm hoping to cover some of these issues with her, but I know it's not going to be a quick fix and I don't want DHs mental health to spiral in the mean time.
I'd really appreciate some reassuring stories if you've been in a similar situation and how it worked out for you.
I know it's still early days and he's settling in, but it's impacting everything and not for the better. We feel awful for even having thoughts of taking him back, but feeling pretty low about it all.