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Expecting a 3yo Don Sphynx Girl and currently own a dog #prayforme

Yoda mom

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@alandsim you are doing great ! Kudos to you and your partner !
“Phase 3 “ can even take several months ... having a backup plan To consider as you do to keep all paws safe to coexist is a good thing . I am sure you have seen online on training threads the mention of coexist named “ crate and rotate “ lifestyle ... nothing wrong with it... all get love attention and play and it can actually less stressful because they have their “me time with you “ and thrive on routine and structure. I am sure many cat and dog breeders have posted on forums about their lifestyle system.

Sim sounds like she is content and we know very loved .. she sounds like a hoot of fun!
Jo is no doubt loving the me time too .. isn’t it fun to see the spark in their eyes and dog smile when they aim to please :)

Positive vibes and head smooches!
I commend you for all your love and dedication!
 

alandsim

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@Yoda mom I had never heard of crate and rotate but I read some about it today it's comforting that some people make it work long term! We have the ideal house set up for it so yes, it's definitely it's nice to have that in our back pocket as an option!

It's amazing, without the addition of a cat Jo might have grown up without a lot of manners!

It's easy to be lax on dog training when you've got an only-child dog and accept some not-so-great behaviors.

He's always been a terrible walker and now we're working with the prong collar, I'm reading articles on so many different training principles and strategies for working on dogs with high prey drives, etc. Jo will probably be a lot easier to live with as he gets older now that we're working with him so much.

So, Miss Simbelina is changing all of our lives in another very unexpected way!
 

alandsim

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Guess who got to adventure while Jo was out on a walk last night?
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alandsim

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It's about time for an update on Cat/Dog Time 2019!

We are kind of in phase 3.5. Jo is allowed around Sim with a leash and muzzle... and at certain times when we're doing really well we can now work up to having him off-leash with the muzzle! We were using a waist leash, then a retractable leash, then when it became clear that I barely even need to hold onto the retractable leash because he stays where he is, I determined it was safe to try this!

At the recommendation of my Vet Tech Friend, (who has introduced a new dog to her cats and actually pays for trainers and stuff and knows what she's talking about unlike me) I have given up for now on hoping Jo and Sim will be best friends any time soon. I am generally trying to discourage him from paying attention to Sim at all, and if he can avoid her and not stare at her like a creep, I consider that success.

There have been several instances where Jo has been chilling out and laying on the floor, and Sim sprints past him or jumps up on something near him (she is not afraid of anything) and I've been worried he would chase, but he just stays where he is!

There have also been instances where out of nowhere Jo decides "I'm going to get close to you" so it's very important to keep an eye on him.

While I make sure Sim always has an escape route, either she's very brave, or lacks the instinct to use it. There have been instances where instead of getting to a higher space that she can easily access to get away from the dog, she stays where she is and allows herself to be cornered by him (until we yank him away immediately). One example is when she was sitting on the sofa and he walked up to her. Instead of getting up on top of the back cushions, she backed up and hissed.

Here is Jo in his muzzle:
IMG_5758.jpg


We'll get there eventually, right?

Another update: Sim visited the vet and has not gained or lost an OUNCE since I got her. So she is in fact being dramatic when she begs for and steals food at every opportunity. Naughty girl!

I even asked the vet when she told me her weight is totally fine: "well can I get away with giving her more so she'll stop screaming?" but we all know that probably wouldn't quell the screaming.

Sim wore her harness and leash to the vet in lieu of using the carrier (I have a thing that hooks onto her harness and buckles in to the seat belt so we were safe. I use the same thing with Jo in the car.) and made me look like a good owner and acted like a perfect angel, sitting on my lap calmly in the waiting room. You could never tell by looking at her that she is a LOUD, mischievous little alien at home!

IMG_5889.JPG
 

Toa and Ross

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You are such a dedicated mom! I admire the way you handle this. Jo looks so beautiful and adorable. Makes me want to go for a long walk!
Sim is looking very dapper in her harness.
 

Yoda mom

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@alandsim hugs to you and your partner ! Doing great ! Keeping them safe with lots of love and care !
They look fantastic ! Sooo white amd clean! What shampoo . Jo amd Sim are gorgeous!


Ps what brand muzzle ?
It’s good info / training tool to share with members who may be working on slow transitions too to keep all paws safe . I personally like to train dogs to be used to having a muzzle on ... as a courtesy not that they need to ....I have them don their “party hat “ on during vet visits .... the vets and techs hands are their lively hood andkeeps all safe .
I keep one in my emergency kit .

Hugs n big head smooches!
I found my sphynx fearless when doing slow intros ! They wanted to be near and with the big boys all the time ! As you can see from my avatar pic who owned the dog bed !

Look forward uodstes!
Slow and steady kudos to you !
 
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alandsim

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A few small things going on in our little animal family:

  • I bought Sim a little treat dispensing ball and she is only a little pissed off that she has to work for kibble now :p and tried a new brand of wet food, Tiny Tiger. It's half price right now on Chewy, grain free and doesn't appear to be bad quality so I ordered two variety pack cases of it in addition to my Purina One hoping to save a little money. She likes the flavors we tried, but anything she doesn't like I can always gift to the animal shelter!
  • Last night we tried out no muzzle (heavily supervised and just for a little bit) for the first time. I allowed Jo to get up on the couch with Sim and me as pictured below.
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Then he scooched a lil closer and started licking her butt :0:ROFLMAO::0, Sim tolerated it for about a second then started hissing and we made him get away.​
  • Jo has an appointment to get microchipped at the local shelter! They use 24petwatch so I'm going to also try to get Sim's microchip number on that registry as well. The microchip number was on her ukraine paperwork and the breeder never mentioned it to me, so I'm thinking she never went and put it in her name. I also looked it up on the microchip lookup link that @Yoda mom mom posted a while ago and that didn't say it was registered to anyone so hopefully it will be easy to put it in my name!
  • And also, it's just so nice to be able to hold and smooch Sim. I think her hairlessness abates the baby fever of my twenties a little because when I kiss her little head I feel so motherly )(
 

Yoda mom

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@alandsim what a precious update! You and your partner are doing amazing with the slow intro plan! I commend you for going the extra mile ! Proud of you ! Hugs! I am smiling ear to ear !
the treat dispenser is a great idea! Thank you for sharing the tiny tiger info!

One of mine has an international chip... I registered the number and her photo on my home again microchip account ...
Kudos to you for organizing the chip info and the appointment for Jo.
For the past two days I have been helping trying to locate a dog thst was a st croix hurricane rescue that was recently adopted out and was accodemtly let out a door ..
He was seen in the brush in my yard amd across in the woods ... we are praying we can find him safe ... I hope his microchip is registered on the various sites as well.

Look forward to more great updates ! The pictures say it all!
It can take months ... the train does get to the station with all the dedication and love you are giving ...

Happy dance head smooches!
 

alandsim

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@alandsim what a precious update! You and your partner are doing amazing with the slow intro plan! I commend you for going the extra mile ! Proud of you ! Hugs! I am smiling ear to ear !
the treat dispenser is a great idea! Thank you for sharing the tiny tiger info!

One of mine has an international chip... I registered the number and her photo on my home again microchip account ...
Kudos to you for organizing the chip info and the appointment for Jo.
For the past two days I have been helping trying to locate a dog thst was a st croix hurricane rescue that was recently adopted out and was accodemtly let out a door ..
He was seen in the brush in my yard amd across in the woods ... we are praying we can find him safe ... I hope his microchip is registered on the various sites as well.

Look forward to more great updates ! The pictures say it all!
It can take months ... the train does get to the station with all the dedication and love you are giving ...

Happy dance head smooches!

Oh my, I hope that puppy does get home safe!
 

alandsim

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So we are having Jo off-leash and off-muzzle like 100% of the time that he and Sim are together in the house.

We still need to correct Jo if he's overly focused on the cat, but he is pretty good at listening. He occasionally does get close to her but we're pretty much just letting them work it out themselves with supervision.

The biggest breakthrough lately is that SIM HAS BEEN SLEEPING IN THE ROOM WITH US!!!

It started with a very loud thunderstorm we had Friday night that woke both of us up. We knew housemate was out so Sim didn't have anyone to sleep with, and Jo was still asleep under the bed making his occasional groaning and snoring noises. We rationalized "oh, she's probably scared, we could try it" so I went down to get her out of her room and she just snuggled up between us.

We fell asleep and next thing I know, Jo is jumping into bed with us at 4 in the morning and we're panicking like, "where's Sim?!" She was just sitting on the floor quietly looking up at us. I think she explores the room and looks out the windows all night. I was surprised that she didn't bug us with her nocturnal antics because she is VERY vocal when she wants attention for the rest of the hours of the day. I just went and fed her/put her downstairs and went back to bed and we've been letting her sleep with us and going through the same routine since. It's unclear whether Jo has any idea the cat's even been in the room at night! :ROFLMAO:

As I think I've mentioned before, thank god Jo is not food aggressive, because Sim is guilty of trying to take his food from his elevated feeder a lot. Jo doesn't do anything about it and just looks on as we shoo her off of the dog feeder, counters and table constantly. We don't free feed Jo. We feed him in the morning and around dinner time and sometimes he does wolf it all down, but other times he just picks at his food throughout the day so his bowl has food in it often. Sometimes Sim's antics remind him that "hey, there's food over there" and he starts eating as soon as we shoo her away.

Yesterday evening, my partner was in the kitchen and Sim was on top of the feeder trying to take his dry food. My partner watched as Jo calmly approached and booped her with his nose :0 to get her to go away, and when she did he started eating. :ROFLMAO::0

So, pretty harmonious! We're still being cautious and whenever we can't pay attention to both of them we do separate them, but they're getting a lot of time to get used to each other and I'm feeling confident that they can coexist!

Just to give you an example of how beta this dog is: This morning he and I were walking in the neighborhood and two big lab/pitty/boxer/who knows?-mix dogs were barking at us from their fenced yard. Somehow they got out of the yard and came at us and got right in Jo's face. I picked Jo up by the front of his body and swung him around so he was behind me, and told these dogs "ah ah! No no! Go on!" Luckily they listened and backed up, and they didn't turn out to be violent at all, but Jo just let me handle the whole thing. He didn't make a sound. Hopefully from a distance he at least looks intimidating because he's definitely not a guard dog :0 (I knocked on the door and let those people know the dogs were out and they were very apologetic. I just think they were over-excited, not mean. I was very relieved!)
 

Toa and Ross

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Yay!! Very happy to read this update. That's such progress.
Jo is an absolute sweetheart. When I was young we had such a sweetheart dog too and always joked that he was no guard dog. Till one day 4 young men threatend my dad. Our dog....wow...he tranformed into a monster and those men had to run for their life while my father was running after sweetheart dog to stop him:).
 

alandsim

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Hi @Yoda mom! Not much to report on the cat/dog front! We are letting them both free roam with heavy supervision and occasionally we need to shoo Jo away from her but he's slowly improving I think! Also the cat figured out how to bust out of her room with the french doors even when they're closed (old house, none of the doors are hung correctly) so it's a good thing they can free roam. When we leave the house Jo is sectioned off in our bedroom which does latch correctly.

Sim's 2nd birthday is the 19th (if I am to believe her adoption paperwork with the incorrect microchip number)- I keep going back and forth between making her a cake or just giving her some other treat like some meat or a soft boiled egg. :p
 

Anita Eccleston

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Hi there, my name's Al, short for a girl's name :)

I own a two year old husky and I will be picking up a 3 year old don sphynx mama that is retiring from a breeder next weekend..

I am feeling positive about the whole situation because:

1) My dog is well exercised and mostly sleeps when indoors. He is very interested in cats but most of them run away from him so he never gets to say hi, including my parents' and grandparents' cats. He's never attacked one, although they have swatted at him. He's also very smart and sweet, and I believe in my heart that he would never hurt a fly and that he will understand a new member of the family. That being said, I NEVER plan to leave the two alone unsupervised. When we're not home he stays in the master bedroom, and I have a room downstairs for the cat to be confined to with litter box access and lots of cat enriching amenities.

2) Mama cat currently lives with a maltese (not really comparable, but), they get along and her previous owner thinks that as long as there aren't other CATS to bug her she'll be happy.

3) I have a three part, gradual pet integration plan that my partner and our housemate are briefed on and on board with. It could take a month before they are in the same room with him off leash but I want to give them the BEST chance at coexisting and hopefully becoming friends.

Still, I've heard all the horror stories about cats and dogs so I'm of course a nervous wreck. I have lurked a lot and read a lot of advice already, but I will probably post in the future about my (very detailed) plan to get some feedback. Also, my partner has cat allergies so I'm trying to mitigate that. There's a lot of variables and hurdles that I'm sure we'll have to deal with for this to work out (and if it truly doesn't, we'll cross that bridge) so I'm hoping being a part of this supportive community will help me!

Hello I am so excited for you ! I’m sure all will turn out well for you !
Please keep us up dated and we shall expect a million pictures lol
Xxx❤️❤️❤️❤️Xxx
 

alandsim

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Update
We've had this little girl since March 24! All is well and we are so happy with her! A few recent tidbits:

She is a good traveler! I took her to my mom and dad's house over 4th of July weekend and we brought a little pan and some pine litter with us (they have cats but their box is in the basement and I didn't want her to be confused about finding it or the type of litter) and she used it no problem. The actual earth cats kind of kept their distance from Sim, and our little alien stuck right by all the humans the whole weekend and slept and snuggled with whoever was willing on the sofa. She also was into the earth cats' Costco brand cat food the whole time since my parents free feed! Oh well, better for her than dog food or Parmesan cheese I guess!

She is great at catching houseflies (glad I've got those heartworm meds!) and makes a little cackling sound whenever she's got her sights on one. We watched her get 3 in one day once (I swear our house is clean, not sure how they keep getting in)!

Cat/dog relations are pretty neutral. We still have to tell Jo "leave her alone!" often, but to even things out, sometimes Sim just walks up to him and smacks him unprovoked and we have to tell her "no" too. Sibling rivalry. You gotta love it.

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In the above pic, Sim was laying smack in the middle of our large sofa and I was sitting on it. Jo didn't want to be left out so he kept pacing around and trying to climb up a bunch of different ways, but finally settled here, inches from Sim's face, and they both remained calm! This is as close to them snuggling as we've ever gotten!

And here's a few more low quality pics:
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I'm so glad we get to live with this weirdo!
 

Yoda mom

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@alandsim awhhhh wonderful adorable update!
You and your partner have done amazing !
Soo soo happy for you !

Just look a them together ! Heartwarming,!
Hugs n head smooches!

Yup , Sim is very loved and happy ...
Priceless pic of you together ..says it all !
 

Sheldon13

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Oh I love that update! Your little family is coming together! I really enjoyed reading about your anecdotes and seeing your pictures.


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