Struggling massively with rescue pup

[Benji13]

Your views are welcome please on the mess I feel we are in with rescue pup.

We took on a 4.5 month old rescue pup exactly 2 weeks ago. We lost our own dog aged 13 in January. He was a really golden placid lad. Great with kids, our cats, dogs, people , you name it ( except squirrels!)
We miss him every day and life had lost all the joy.

We took this pup on accepting the work that comes with a puppy but not expecting the issues that have also come. Pup is very nervous of people and barky, reactive. Wants to chase the cats and we are trying to follow text book introductions. Dh had fallen in love and pup LOVES him but I feel indifferent to her tbh and massively stressed out. I’d be quite happy for her to be returned tomorrow and don’t know if I have the resources for this piece of work.

I just don’t know if we should persevere. Last 2 weeks have been full of stress. We have sought behavioural advice from 2 sources and they have been reassuring that she’s a nervous pup with no nastiness but boy can she be snappy.

We see my parents a lot - dad has Alzheimer’s and I help support and they love dogs - but I’m so bloody nervous of her around them.

I spend all night worrying about this and dh and I are not on same page at all.

I am not sure what issues you are facing which are any different from normal pup behaviour. Every puppy I have had has bitten, chased cats, barked at everything and been a real pain in the neck.

Perhaps if feel like this after two weeks, you should return the pup as it is definitely not going to be easy for a while - pups are hard work and lovely when they are asleep.

If you want to send her back then do it otherwise you'll always be resentful of the work it takes to train a pup. If you want to put the effort in then start with giving her some ground rules and basic puppy classes. What breed is she?
Did the rescue give you any background at all?

What breed is it and which rescue did it come from? They should have cat tested it and should be offering support and advice about the issues

She’s a medium size crossbreed- poss collie x. Dumped pup. Not cat tested but told by rescue young enough to cat train. Yes we have had some advice and support from the rescue.

We have her registered for puppy classes but been advised to wait 3 weeks or so as currently too nervous and it will be too much. We have started basic training but she isn’t listening 🙈 at all.

Has anyone successfully cat introduced? We did with our previous dog but he was a younger pup and it worked out within a month or so. He was fine with our cats thereafter.

We adopted a very high energy dog who we were told was at least two, but was later confirmed by our vet as still being a pup. We were told categorically that he wasn't reactive with other dogs, had low prey drive etc etc.

Did he fuck.

He chased anything that moved, terrorised our other animals, pulled constantly, stole every single scrap of food he could find anywhere and gave himself the shits by eating all manner of crap off the street (he was genius at grabbing it before we could pull him away).

We spent six months and over a thousand pounds on behaviourists, because despite all that he stole our hearts. But in the end we had to give him to a friend of a friend who had a rural home and a bloody massive field where he could just romp all day to his heart's content, eating voles or whatever, and coming in for fuss and to sleep and eat. He's living his best life 24/7 now.

He wasn't a family dog. And we weren't the family for him.

(Btw our rescue dog had some border collie in him too, he was crackers!)

Every single ddog owner has initial Take It Back moments.. Even with our 4th dpuppy!!
Make sure everyone is using the same key words.. We us a sharp 'aa' for undesirable behaviour.. Ddog actually hides her face with a mahoosive paw at this!!

@Benji13

She’s a medium size crossbreed- poss collie x. Dumped pup. Not cat tested but told by rescue young enough to cat train. Yes we have had some advice and support from the rescue.

We have her registered for puppy classes but been advised to wait 3 weeks or so as currently too nervous and it will be too much. We have started basic training but she isn’t listening 🙈 at all.

Has anyone successfully cat introduced? We did with our previous dog but he was a younger pup and it worked out within a month or so. He was fine with our cats thereafter.

Do get in touch with a 121 trainer. Yes your dog may find a class too much but there is loads you can start to do at home. Even a zoom call would be really beneficial to you at this point.

Re cats initially prevent them from meeting . Prevent rehearsal of chasing. When more foundations are in place you will then be able to move this forward.

Don’t introduce her to the cats... just make sure she can’t chase them and work on basics.

My puppy (I really need to stop calling him that, he’s had a birthday) was basically either in a closed room the cat had no way of getting in or tied to me for weeks after adopting him.

A one to one trainer will be much more worthwhile than classes...

When you say she isn’t listening to basic training.. what do you mean? How are you trying to train her? How are you feeding her?

Also... 2 weeks is nothing, no time at all, she’s not even going to feel like she’s home yet. I adopted mine at 5 months, he’s just turned one and it’s only now that we’re really making big advances in training, the first few months were very very hard going because literally everything needs working on all at once and there’s only so much you can do, plus some of it needed him to feel settled.

3 days 3 weeks 3 months

You are only 2 weeks in and she has a lot of settling to do.
I currently have an 11/12 yr old lab. Placid doesn't describe him. I can't imagine the shift to take on a pup.
You may need to work on getting yourself and your DH on the same page first.

It takes a good 3-6 months for rescues to settle into a home.

However most of the issues you describe sound totally normal for young puppy - chasing, biting, barking - it's to be expected and it'll likely continue on and off for a good 12-18 months yet. Puppies and adolescent dogs are nightmares - it's why they're so cute

I would invest in a 1-2-1 trainer if you're really struggling but it will likely be a long term thing, especially managing him around the cats.

I also think that although you have adopted a 4.5 month old pup you need to treat them exactly as you would an 8 week old pup as you really don’t know what they’ve been up to in the last few months . We adopted a 4/5 month old patterdale x from Battersea just over 11 yrs ago , he literally knew nothing and we started from basics .

2 weeks is not long enough, you've got a long way to go with her.

“I also think that although you have adopted a 4.5 month old pup you need to treat them exactly as you would an 8 week old pup”

I actually found it harder, because there were “normal” puppy knows nothing issues and also rescue dog issues to deal with too.

And as the bigger issues got resolved he did more and more arsehole puppy things instead, which I suppose is nice in a way, because he felt able to do them, but it does mean he’s well behind how well trained I’d usually have a dog by now.

I also think you need 1:1 trainer help. I think having strategies that you’re all working on consistently will go a long way. I also think you need to do it sooner rather than later for your (and your cat’s!) sanity, while he’s young but also because if ultimately it doesn’t work out you will know you did your best but he’ll also be young still and have the best chance of adoption again. Zoom session can actually work really well and it might help to get some videos of him now, showing (for example) his behaviour before the cats are near him and then what happens.

I think the ‘oh shit what have I done’ feeling us normal regardless and j had these feelings with a prior puppy of ours while my husband was happily bonded! He went on to pretty much become the love of my life (still talking about the dog here!), so it can work.

Benji13 PMd you.

It's such early days. Our rescue has changed so much over the past year we've had her. Took her at least 6 months to settle, but she's still a WIP. There's no way you can tell at 2 weeks what's what with a rescue. BUT for the most part it's worth the (hard) work you'll need to put in. Had rescues all my life, so know it's a pain to begin with, plus you've the shock of going from old, laid-back lovely dog to total nutter puppy! Keep going, good luck .

It takes months for a rescue to settle. Yours is pretty young. My advice is make sure the behaviourist is actually qualified. Google the qualifications of the behaviourist there are many charlatans that will do more damage. My rescue was almost 8 month old and was petrified of his own shadow as he spent 7 1/2 months of his life locked in a crate totally unsocialised. Rescues like any other dog need daily training. If your nervous a dog will pick that up. Mine wasn't cat trained I have cats. You can train your dog to live with your cat. Your dog sounds like a normal pup which are hard work. If you have the time stick with the training if not give him back to the rescue while he's young enough for someone else to train.