Fergus's Obsession with Didgie

Ok, so I just wanted to throw this out here to see if anyone else dealt with this and/or just different ideas.

Fergus is absolutely obsessed with Didgie as in he is almost constantly, if in the same room with her trying to drag her into play (literally). He'll walk over and just take ahold of her scruff and walk away with her, he'll back her into a corner trying to get her to play with him, he'll throw himself all over trying to solicit play and he won't back off no matter how many "Knock it off" signals she gives.

I haven't been just letting it go, when he starts doing it I separate him from her, body block or squirt bottle but it hasn't been making any kind of dent in his thick brain. Half the time we'll be on the couch and I'll look over and Didgie will be laying there trying her hardest to ignore the black and white doofus laying on the ground trying to gnaw on any body part of hers he can reach.

She doesn't mind playing with him but he's just incessant.

So ideas? I want to figure out a good system to hopefully be able to redirect and lead to him getting the idea of inappropriate molesting of Didgie. I'll be the first to admit I probably haven't been completely consistent in my handling of it. Sometimes it's me getting up and removing him completely, sometimes it's just me going "FERGUS! Let GO of her!" until he does and so on but it's just ALL the time and really getting annoying.

I have no advice but I can really sympathize! Cajun is really similar towards Juno. And I know Juno doesn't appreciate it but she sucks at giving warnings, she basically just tries to pretend Cajun isn't there. But they have SO much fun playing together when Cajun plays nice.

I've done a lot of the same stuff as you with no results. It's tiring! What's with these Craigslist dogs lol.

Tucker used to do this to one of the cats to the point where Willie was afraid to go on the ground. If he did Tucker would be on top of him in seconds, poking, picking up his legs, swatting him, etc. If he tried to get away Tucker would grab his front leg and hold on or make him fall over. We were able to stop it with body blocking and redirection to a toy (once he had completely given up, even once I was back to whatever I was doing) though. Persistence was super important, there were nights where I had to get up like six times during dinner to shoo him away and that's just annoying. I'd usually end up tethering him to my chair so I could eat in peace on nights like that. Unfortunately to make it work we had to make all cat playing off limits. I originally tried to allow him to play as long as he didn't grab any limbs or anything (so was just bouncing around in front of Willie basically) because sometimes Willie did want to play with him but this just confused him and we didn't get anywhere. So all playing was put off limits. Now, a few years later, I have relaxed that, if Willie is playing back then I let them go for it. Tucker is now easy to stop with a word and rarely attempts to make Willie play. If he does and Willie's not into it I just tell him to stop and he usually grabs a stuffed animal and asks me to play instead.

Pike is like this with Nola, and luckily she loves him and is an extremely playful dog. She does get aggravated with him on occasion, and I'm lucky she's bitchy enough to nip or body slam him if he doesn't listen. He backs off after that. No advice, sorry!

Can you send him to bed/Place when he's inappropriate? Or on a long down?

Keep him tethered to you to practice/learn how to ignore her in the house?

Squash can be like this with Maisy. When he was younger I started doing a verbal warning and interruption/redirect technique with him, the first two strikes ended play for just a few minutes and on the third strike he went to No Fun Land all by himself. These days he usually lays off by the second verbal warning, it's rare that I have to put him inside anymore and it's usually because he's worked up about something else and she happens to be the outlet of the moment.

No advice other than what you are doing and suggestions here, but I sympathize! We are battling this now with Quinn vs Fiona and Wesley.

Does it get worse if Didgie is "novel", or if he's not allowed access to her?

Besides what everyone else said (persistence, no fun land, etc., etc.), Abrams gets worse with his obsessions when it's a novel object, or he has restricted access. We just combat that with trying to make things...less novel. Helpful, I know.

Heavy exercise before letting them loose together, then perhaps working on impulse control exercises?

Indy (still) gets like this with Enzo sometimes. The ONLY thing that I have found that works is a physical correction. Removing her to No Fun Land just means every time she's let out, she comes back ten times harder. I tried that in the beginning. After a week of non stop putting her up for two to three minutes, letting her out on lead and then as soon as she was calm and letting her off her going back to thrashing or chewing on Enzo, I got physical with her because Enzo won't. I scruffed her and told her in no uncertain terms that she was being impolite and behaving unacceptably, sternly, I didn't yell, I didn't hurt her, but grabbed her and growled a warning basically at her, and then forced her away. It took a few times before she got the message that I was going to keep her from molesting Enzo, but now I only have to tell her to knock it off. And it works with every dog she fixates on as well.

Some dogs just have thicker heads than others, and especially with a dog that won't give a high enough warning or level of correction for rude behavior, stepping in like that consistently will get the message through that you are enforcing a "no rude zone". She's not afraid of me for it, and she's not afraid of Enzo, and will listen when Enzo tells her to back off now, because she knows if she doesn't, I will.

She tried the "Imma maul you" thing with Ozzy once. She had just settled our house a few weeks after she came home with me, and went up and started chewing on him. He thrashed her. No blood, just a LOT of yelling, and she never tried it with him again. They also play together fine. Some dogs are too nice when they say no

Does he have a good leave it?

My little mal used to get obsessed with my chickens and then kill them when they got too close. I practiced leave it on a long line with her when she'd start to stare and then used an e-collar (assuming you're comfortable with that) on her after she was good on the line. Used the e-collar to proof her while she was loose and that has been successful in keeping her from going after my chickens. Hasn't killed anyone since and she has a great leave it.

Yes! It definitely seems to get Cajun more amped up. I've been doing this separation business for 3 months now and she's not comprehending. Or she might be good for the moment but then later in the day she's back to her old tricks. She needs a good correction, she walks on thin ice when she's around Happy because Happy tolerates no ones BS, but Juno won't do it.

But seeing this thread makes me happy because I really thought I was the only one with a nutjob dog like this.

Haha oh god No Fun Land is the worst kind of h*ll for Squash. The only time I've ever heard him actually howl (and very mournfully, too) is when he's been inside in his crate while the rest of us are outside. It's a pretty effective punishment for him. YMMV, obvs.

Ma'ii use to be like this with Charlotte back when we first adopted him. We worked on Leave It, and now anytime he starts in on her again, that's all we have to say to get him to fully back off.