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Warning: This will be a long thread.
Springtime is puppy and kitten season at our local shelter, and every day they get more than 200 animals, most of them young strays. Three months ago they took in three 4-month old Siberian Husky mixes rescued from an abandoned puppy mill – they were up for adoption for about 20 minutes until one of them almost bit a 10-year old boy.
The shelter put them in their “behavior modification program” where each day a shelter volunteer would slowly socialize them day by day by playing with them in the yard, training them, basically trying to get rid of their initial aggression/shyness. All three huskies were very smart and responsive to training and graduated from the program about two weeks ago – one of them is completely deaf but still was able to be trained.
The next step was to do the “dog compatibility” test: they were very social and playful with dogs of their equal size or bigger than them, but were very aggressive with small dogs (on the verge of attacking them). It definitely has to do with the fact that they were never socialized with small dogs (as they had only seen other Huskies as puppies) and the strong Husky predatory instinct that was bred into them many years ago.
Now it’s just the “cat (and small critter) compatibility” test. The shelter volunteers were too afraid to try the introductions with one of the cats at the shelter for fear of injury (if one of the huskies attacked the cats). Therefore, they wanted the huskies, now 7 months old, to stay in a foster home with cat(s) that’s had experience with high-prey-drive dogs and see if the test is successful in any way.
I heard about these 3 dogs when I was visiting the shelter yesterday morning to drop off materials. The shelter volunteer asked me if I could be able to provide a foster home for these dogs while I introduced them to Smitty and Gracie (my 2 resident kitties) – both are dog-social. I was very hesitant initially as I have heard more than many stories of “cat-friendly” Huskies killing or severely maiming cats.
After meeting Luna (female – deaf), Sparrow (male), and Aurora (female – alpha), I decided to give it a try. My husband and I have socialized (all fosters) Irish Wolfhounds, Greyhounds, Alaskan Klee Klais, and Salukis with our resident cats (Gracie’s been socialized with the Greyhound/Saluki, Smitty’s only been socialized with the Saluki.) All have been very successful (nevertheless, a long process).
Yesterday afternoon, I brought all three home and put them in our “fur-guest” room (previously the sunroom). It contains a Comfort Zone diffuser, two doggy doors leading to the backyard, several stuffed animals/rope toys/chew toys, food/water bowls, three large dog crates (with three beds), and an old sofa for them to hang out on. Other than some barking yesterday, all three have been extremely well-behaved (no accidents) and calm (I’m taking them on 3 separate hour-long walks/hikes every day. Yes, they have that much energy to burn.
)
This morning I took one of the large quilts that both cats frequently sleep on and brought it into the dogs’ room. I also ejected two of the plastic doggy chew toys (basically covered in the scent of the dogs’ saliva and fur) and put them in the living room. The dogs were VERY curious about the blanket, circling and sniffing it several times. In the end, Sparrow, the male Husky, ended up taking an afternoon nap on it.
The cats actually pretty much ignored the chew toys. Smitty sniffed it for a couple of seconds and then walked away indifferently – they’re already familiar with the scent of dog.
Aurora, the alpha female, has already started sniffing the bottom of the door separating the cats and the puppies. She’s definitely very interested, probably a little too interested at this point, in the cats’ scent (probably taking it in as the scent of prey). DH and I already know that these scent-to-scent introductions will take at least two months before we can even safely introduce them.
The reason why I agreed to foster these dogs and attempt to socialize them is because I think there’s hope. All three, if exercised well enough, are incredibly sweet and gentle dogs, though I DO know that this is how they behave with humans, whom they see as “bigger” and more alpha creatures, and not smaller creatures (they’ve already shown this with the small dog test). We’re just looking to possibly ease some of that initial aggression out by getting them so used to the cat scent that they start familiarizing it with “the pack”.
Thank you for reading through this long and repetitive thread. Any advice and additional tips and/or vibes on the scent-swapping process would be appreciated.
Springtime is puppy and kitten season at our local shelter, and every day they get more than 200 animals, most of them young strays. Three months ago they took in three 4-month old Siberian Husky mixes rescued from an abandoned puppy mill – they were up for adoption for about 20 minutes until one of them almost bit a 10-year old boy.
The shelter put them in their “behavior modification program” where each day a shelter volunteer would slowly socialize them day by day by playing with them in the yard, training them, basically trying to get rid of their initial aggression/shyness. All three huskies were very smart and responsive to training and graduated from the program about two weeks ago – one of them is completely deaf but still was able to be trained.
The next step was to do the “dog compatibility” test: they were very social and playful with dogs of their equal size or bigger than them, but were very aggressive with small dogs (on the verge of attacking them). It definitely has to do with the fact that they were never socialized with small dogs (as they had only seen other Huskies as puppies) and the strong Husky predatory instinct that was bred into them many years ago.
Now it’s just the “cat (and small critter) compatibility” test. The shelter volunteers were too afraid to try the introductions with one of the cats at the shelter for fear of injury (if one of the huskies attacked the cats). Therefore, they wanted the huskies, now 7 months old, to stay in a foster home with cat(s) that’s had experience with high-prey-drive dogs and see if the test is successful in any way.
I heard about these 3 dogs when I was visiting the shelter yesterday morning to drop off materials. The shelter volunteer asked me if I could be able to provide a foster home for these dogs while I introduced them to Smitty and Gracie (my 2 resident kitties) – both are dog-social. I was very hesitant initially as I have heard more than many stories of “cat-friendly” Huskies killing or severely maiming cats.
After meeting Luna (female – deaf), Sparrow (male), and Aurora (female – alpha), I decided to give it a try. My husband and I have socialized (all fosters) Irish Wolfhounds, Greyhounds, Alaskan Klee Klais, and Salukis with our resident cats (Gracie’s been socialized with the Greyhound/Saluki, Smitty’s only been socialized with the Saluki.) All have been very successful (nevertheless, a long process).
Yesterday afternoon, I brought all three home and put them in our “fur-guest” room (previously the sunroom). It contains a Comfort Zone diffuser, two doggy doors leading to the backyard, several stuffed animals/rope toys/chew toys, food/water bowls, three large dog crates (with three beds), and an old sofa for them to hang out on. Other than some barking yesterday, all three have been extremely well-behaved (no accidents) and calm (I’m taking them on 3 separate hour-long walks/hikes every day. Yes, they have that much energy to burn.
This morning I took one of the large quilts that both cats frequently sleep on and brought it into the dogs’ room. I also ejected two of the plastic doggy chew toys (basically covered in the scent of the dogs’ saliva and fur) and put them in the living room. The dogs were VERY curious about the blanket, circling and sniffing it several times. In the end, Sparrow, the male Husky, ended up taking an afternoon nap on it.
The cats actually pretty much ignored the chew toys. Smitty sniffed it for a couple of seconds and then walked away indifferently – they’re already familiar with the scent of dog.
Aurora, the alpha female, has already started sniffing the bottom of the door separating the cats and the puppies. She’s definitely very interested, probably a little too interested at this point, in the cats’ scent (probably taking it in as the scent of prey). DH and I already know that these scent-to-scent introductions will take at least two months before we can even safely introduce them.
The reason why I agreed to foster these dogs and attempt to socialize them is because I think there’s hope. All three, if exercised well enough, are incredibly sweet and gentle dogs, though I DO know that this is how they behave with humans, whom they see as “bigger” and more alpha creatures, and not smaller creatures (they’ve already shown this with the small dog test). We’re just looking to possibly ease some of that initial aggression out by getting them so used to the cat scent that they start familiarizing it with “the pack”.
Thank you for reading through this long and repetitive thread. Any advice and additional tips and/or vibes on the scent-swapping process would be appreciated.
