Taradiddle81

dianed, that is gorgeous!! Lexi is already sleeping under the doona between DP and I! She is a bed hog! They normally are too excited to see each other to snooze though! But as we increase the time, the dogs are inside, I think they will then settle down enough to snooze together

Thanks everyone! I think once DP has cooled down a bit, I will bring Bandit in, on a lead until he "proves" himself to DP. dianed - they are kittens, but are 6 and 7 months. Lexi is 7 months and is pretty much an adult sized cat, has been for 6 weeks already! She is a Bengal, so thinks she is a dog and will be a large cat. Syd is still smallish but he packs a punch and he tends to either hide under the couch or he sits up on the cat tree or piano where they can't get to him easily. Bandit plays with Lexi mostly, and she can defend herself, she will bat him on the nose and if he still annoys her, the claws come out, and he learnt very fast to leave her alone then Also we've never seen Bandit pay any attention to birds (ie doesn't bark, or try to chase them etc). He didn't have previous experience to cats, but a couple of days after we got him, we took Lexi out in our arms to see his reaction and he couldn't care less. When the cats run around inside and the dogs are outside, Elly stands at the door drooling, but Bandit is off doing other stuff, isn't that interested. He does want to say hi and play with Lexi when he first comes in, but then he has enough and lies at my feet, so he doesn't try to follow them like Elly.

I hate to think what happens when she figures out the cost of feeding, worming, heartworming, and vaccinating a dog of that size.

We bought 2 kittens 6 weeks apart in Dec and Feb and Elly is 5. She LOVED the kitten from the moment we brought it home, to the point where DP said he is now second on her love list She was obsessed with Lexi and would follow her around and STARE at her... literally if Lexi was sleeping for 30min, the Elly would sit and stare at the cat tree for 30min. She on the odd occasion would lick Lexi. Then we got Syd and Lexi got dropped and Syd is Elly's new favourite who gets stared at DP had guinea pigs when Elly was younger and she would just follow them around and eat their poo and lick them on the odd occasion. Then we got Bandit end of Feb, and now Lexi and Bandit are besties! Lexi rubs all over him and he licks her head and down her back and she moves around so that he licks the "right" spot. Bandit hadn't been around cats prior to us getting him when he was 8 months. So just because a dog hasn't been around cats, doesn't mean that it will react negatively, but do you run that risk. It wasn't going to be a huge issue for us, because the cats are indoors and Elly is mainly outdoors, but we have enough room to put the cats in another part of the house when Elly was inside. We were also very fortunate that Bandit is very gentle with them too, but we also were fostering him first, so if he wasn't good with the cats, then we wouldn't have adopted him.

Hi All, Bandit is our 9month old rescue that we adopted 5 weeks ago. We have had him inside on numerous occasions and he loves the kittens and one in particular loves him back (she spends her time rubbing up against him, and then sits at the back door and cries when he goes back outside.) This morning when I went outside to feed the dogs, there was a dead magpie on their bed. I have no doubt that it was Bandit's doing, rather than Elly's because she doesn't mind birds and just follows them around and in 5 years we've never had this issue. I don't know if it died of natural causes, or if Bandit just managed to surprise it and pounce on it, but he has then brought it up and put it on their couch (which is their bed). He didn't eat it or tear it apart, it was pretty much intact, but he had plucked some feathers out (or at least shaken it enough that lots of feathers came out.) DP then said "well he can't come inside anymore, he has the taste for blood, and he might try something with the cats." I pointed out that Bandit has eaten a large volume of bones and raw meat in his time with us, and hasn't tried anything and DP said "that's different, he didn't know where it came from, now he does." Also his previous owners had pet birds and said that he was fine with them (so it might have been a case that he has tried to "play" with the bird, I don't know.) Given he already has a relationship with the cats, I doubt that he would try to hurt them. We never leave them alone together anyway, but these things can happen so fast that it doesn't matter if you are right next to them, you may not be able to stop it. My questions is, do you think it would now be an issue to let him inside with the cats now?

Fingers crossed for more good news for you, she is a gorgeous pup!

Just in case anyone comes back to read the thread later... bones = no chewing on things he shouldn't! We are giving them either a marrow bone ($5 split in half, they get a half each), or some smaller bones (bag of bones $3, looks like some sections of ribs, but also some larger bones cut into smaller sections) or a kong wobbler each day. Problem solved. For $8 a week, it is a solution that we and the dogs are loving!

Elly is the same, no real interest in other dogs, doesn't even look up when other dogs bark from behind fences etc. She only barks when she feels the need to protect her yard from people who are walking close to the fence line, and even then most of them time she just lets out an old man groan from her bed and only get up when she HAS to LOL! Bandit drove her batty at first. He likes to try to chew on her neck and he lies in front of her rolling around (showing off his wares? ehehe.) Now she actually enjoys him nibbling on her, and she loves the game and she will half-growl and bare her teeth, but not like she really means it, it's just part of the game. Now she loves to chase him as well. Sometimes when he has a toy for eg, she will chase him, but she doesn't actually want the toy, she wants him to run away, so she has a challenge It's been great for her fitness, because she went from sleeping most of the time, to now spending short periods playing chasings or tug of war etc and then the rest of the time sleeping :D Elly is 5 and a half, but to be honest, I think if we left it much later, then she would not have gotten used to his exuberance so quickly. They aren't quite at the snuggle up together stage, but they are happy to sit right next to each other on their couch and they will happily let each other chew the others bones (it helps that they have a few marrow bones going at once, mainly because we found it solved the chewing issue for Bandit.) We also have the issues that Bandit gets jealous when Elly tries to come near us. She let him bunt her out of the way at first, but she has now let him know who is boss, so he doesn't bunt her out of the way, they just both want cuddles at the same time. Honestly it has taken us 4 weeks to get to the point where Elly rarely feels the need to tell him off anymore. Bandit was trying to dominate her, so we didn't discourage her from putting him in his place with a nip and a firm bark. It seems to have worked

Bit different for us, because Bandit was 8 months (and 30kg!) when we picked him up a few weeks ago. However, we have a wagon, but no cargo barrier yet (when we transport Elly, we lay 1/2 the backseat down and popped her in a harness and she just laid down and snoozed the 3 hour trip when we moved. When we picked Bandit up, he had already been driven 90min and we meet them at a Maccas car park. The harness was too big, so we put Bandit in the boot and attached the lead to an anchor point in the boot. He pulled and tugged and struggled. We pulled over and took him off the lead and he laid down and slept in the boot the rest of the trip home (with the occasion kiss on the back of the neck for me .) We will have to get a second harness for Bandit now. Though having both of them in the boot tied up on harnesses could end up lots of tangled dogs LOL! Will be interesting to see how they go once we start obedience school and are taking them both in the car. It is only a 5min drive. Each afternoon when I get home, I put them both in the boot of my car (also a wagon) to reverse down the drive. Bandit tends to jump over and get in the passenger seat and sit up in the passenger seat looking out the window LOL When we moved recently, only a less than 10min drive, Elly was a bit distressed about the movement and not knowing what was going on, so the best way to keep her calm, was that I took her in my car for each trip back and forth between the houses. Because my car was packed each load for moving she sat in the front seat (with a seat belt on) but she is very well behaved in the car and she just sat there and looked out. If were a longer trip though, I wouldn't have risked her in the front seat.

Our dogs are home alone during the day, but I know that when they are outside without us, they spend most of the day sleeping, with odd periods of play (they are like kittens LOL). I will hold off on putting runs for him, because our yard isn't really set up well for it, and I don't think that Elly is getting a hard time from him. If anything she seems to be loving it, apparently she enjoys him nibbling on her neck, you can tell by the smiley glint in her eyes and her body language! So separating them isn't high up on my agenda. I will investigate crate training. Elly is fine with sleeping inside, she lies on our bed until she is told "Elly, go to your bed" and she gets off and lies on her matt next to the bed. I would love for Bandit to be the same, but obviously it might have to start with crate training before we can get him to that point. I would probably be willing to try him inside without the crate for a night or two and see how he goes. He might be fantastic inside, afterall when we are outside sitting at the table, he just curls up and snoozes at my feet. So I am not concerned about him chewing while inside, it is more just him chewing his bedding outside. Definitely more mental stimulation during the day though! MEH, do you have any suggestions? Today they got a 1/2 a huge bone each and they also get a cycle through of various rubber bones and rope toys. I am buying a second kong wobbler this afternoon. What else is good to mentally stimulate him?

Also, it seems that so far, he leaves the couch alone at night. If that continues then sleeping on the couch is fine, and during the day, I just need to find more for him to do. (Turn the backyard into a ball pit? LOL!) But when we do want him to sleep inside at night, I think it is definitely a good idea to start with crate training.

Don't worry Andisa, we have no intention of rehoming him! We are going to work on this until we are all happy (dogs and us!) At the end of the day, he is still a pup and we realise that this behaviour may continue for more than a year yet. We just want to make sure that we helping to get him on the right track. We realise it will be a long road. Don't worry, DP gives him cuddles and enjoys him and spends a fair amount of time in the garage with the dogs being "helpers." It's more just the "awww Bandit did you HAVE to!" when we find out what he's chewed that day. I actually think that Elly is enjoying him now. She has a youthful spring to her step now! She is more active (she will chase him when he has a toy, she doesn't want the toy, she just likes the chase So in terms of her getting a break, I don't think it's a huge issue and she does get time away from him every morning. They love playing and by the time they have been playing for a while, they both get tired and get to have a snooze (Elly's favourite pasttime! hehe). We haven't had to remove anything from her, other than the Kong Wobbler, and I will buy another one of them so they both have one. She didn't have it before we had him anyway. Andisa, are you saying crate train him outside first? My only concern is where the hell do you put a crate to fit a Rotti? He will need his own bedroom LOL!

I want to be careful, because I don't want them to not want to get on the couch at all. But I will keep it in mind, at least for the section under the cushions.

Thanks, if he insists on destroying this couch, I think that may be the next option for outside. Though he doesn't seem to chew the wool blankets, so I can prolly put that in the kennel if he pulls it out, well sucks to be him! Though I am also going to start training him inside as well.

Ok, so today he has chewed more on the under part of the couch, but the cushions and blanket were in one piece... At least what he has chewed doesn't stop them from using it. Hopefully the bone will give him something else to do tomorrow.