Help Needed!

[Crotalus]

I'm am so excited! On Wednesday we finally going to have a look at some dogs! They are sisters, half Akita, and mom is a GSD/chow/rottie mix.

The only concern I have about them is this. They are both 11 months old, and have never seen a cat in their entire lives. Their dad, the Akita, has never seen a cat either, and the guy who has them says that their mom HATES cats. He did say that there is a wild rabbit that lives in the yard with them, and they never chase it or anything. Sometimes they even hang out with the bunny, so that's a promising indicator of their prey drive.

Anyway, what is the best way to introduce our kitten to the puppies to make it most positive experience we can? I am worried about how they might react, and want to do everything I can to help it work out. Our kitten came from a home full of dogs and cats, and she's fine with canines. My husband says the only reason he would say no to getting one of these dogs is if they want to eat the cat, since he's never had the luxury of a cat friendly dog.

Thank you all for your time!

 

[RedyreRottweilers]

I would be very cautious. Akitas, Rottweilers, and GSDs are known to frequently have high prey drive.

At 11 months old, these will NOT look like puppies. These will be large dogs. Are you planning to take them together? That will be a tall job....

I would say observe the dogs and the cat with the dogs on leash, and make your own decision from there based on the dog or dogs' reaction.

 

[Crotalus]

I understand that their tendency (based on their breeding) will be to chase. I also know that they won't look like puppies, actually, here are some pictures of them. Developmentally though, they are not full grown yet.

http://tucson.craigslist.org/zip/180020311.html

The owner says that one is 25 lbs, and the other is 35 lbs, which really surprised me because my brother's akita is 11 months old and 122 lbs. I kind of wonder if maybe the dad isn't a shiba ainu or something, but we'll see when we get there. It could be too that he didn't have all the info on mom's background and there are some smaller breeds in there.

What attracted me to them is that they are heavily socialized with children and dogs. The owner says he has children that they get along with very well with, and also a 1 month old baby. When I asked him why he was getting rid of them he said that with the new baby and everything he just couldn't give four dogs all the attention they need. So far everything sounds promising, but we'll see how things work out when we meet them.

Most likely if we decide to get one, we will only get one. My husband and I are each going to get a dog, and he's really wanting to get some kind of purebred dog, also much younger. The problem around here is the only place you can get purebreds from is BYB, and for some reason people like to charge $300 for pit boxer mix puppies. Urgh.

Is there some technique to introducing cats and dogs? Like if I gave them treats and let them sniff the kitten and super reinforced any good behavior and made being around cat seem awesome would that help at all? Or will it just happen the same regardless? Thanks Redyre, I appreciate your input and thoughts!

 

[Fran27]

I highly doubt that they have akita in them with such a size. Regarless, they are gorgeous!

Just be very careful with the cats... Never ever leave them unsupervized, and I would keep the dogs on leash first when they are together.

 

[stevinski]

i'm sure they'll be gorgeous,
but seriously you have to be really careful cause with all those breeds, there is high end of the population of them, are all really badly bred, so unless the foudners were all good dogs which is unlikely cause of the mixing then you could have a really porely bred, hard to train dog on your hands, let alone two. b
ut you might be lucky

 

[Crotalus]

Thanks!
I'm sure everything will work out fine either way. Not sure why, just something I've noticed about people, when a mutts heritage is unkown it's a great dog, but when it is known everybody is super cautious. Nothing directed at anybody is particular, just an odd thing I've noticed people tend to do.

Anyway, I've had the fun of trying to retrain a super pushy year and half old GSD greyhound malamute mix from the shelter for search and rescue. After that, nothing scares me.

 

[Renee750il]

How are things going? I'm sorry I missed this thread . . . . Just to give you some encouragement. I adopted Bear, a five year old, GSD/Akita mix and brought him home and introduced him to Gonzo, my large, blue male cat. Bear and Gonzo were fast buds, even AFTER Gonzo boxed his nose hard enough to give him a nose bleed http://www.chazhound.com/pictures/showphoto.php?photo=7823&cat=500&ppuser=148&sl=r For years, people would ask me how I got the dog and the cat to travel together in the car so peacefully. I'd just tell them that everything was fine once I convinced the cat that he shouldn't maul the dog . . .