Two weeks ago, we adopted an 11 month old female heeler/terrier mix from the Humane Society of North Texas. We named her Samantha (Sammie) and introduced her to our home we share with 3 cats and a cockatiel.
Sammie is excellent on a leash. During walks, she maintains a position right along my left leg. When I stop, she sits. She doesn't pull, or sniff at all while on a walk. She waits until we arrive back home, and does her business in a designated area of our fenced back yard. Also, she appears to be housebroken, and willingly enters her crate when we request her to. She's obviously had some formal training, and we wish we knew why anyone would surrender her to a shelter (though we're delighted they did!).
Sammie shows obvious interest in the cats, when the actually come out of hiding. Her interest explodes when a cat gets spooked and makes a fast exit. Sammie appears to take that as an invitation to chase. If cornered, the cat starts to swat, and we've witnessed Sammie's attempt to bite (mouth?) the paws. There hasn't been ANY growling, teeth-baring or other overtly aggressive behavior at this point.
Our 5 year old cat Tululah readily roams around, hissing when Sam gets too close. Our (2) 1 year olds, Rascal and Callie, were in shock for the first week, spending most of the time under a bed or on a shelf in our walk-in closet. They're just now venturing downstairs to the kitchen, and seem to recognize when Sam is contained in her crate.
Our primary concern at this time is teaching Sammie to ignore the cats, or at least not jump into action when they choose to flee the scene. We would welcome any and all comments/suggestions from people who have successfully worked with this situation.
Once we get this behavior aligned, I look forward to training the cats with the clicker as well.
Regards,
Skip
