Maggie was brought home 2 days ago. She is the sweetest dog ever. She wants to be a lap dog and will put her paws on my lap if I'm sitting down or she'll lay between my legs if I sit on the floor. She walks great, she may pull if she catches a scent and wants to go that way but otherwise, she doesn't really pull. She is ever the curious dog. I have heard her bark twice in the past 2 days and I'm still not sure what made her bark, some noise outside. She loves other dogs and loves children but sometimes she will get excited and jump up. I think a little training will help her with that.

We are working on a couple things with her. The first thing is she isn't house trained. We are giving her frequent walks but for some reason, she thinks the basement (where the previous owners kept their dogs) is the place to go. She anxiously tries to go to the basement but after her first "incident", we aren't letting her down there. We bought something called "Nature's Miracle" and sprayed it around and we are also going to shampoo the carpet down there.

The second thing and what will eventually decide her fate with us is she has chased our cat a couple times. Our cat is now very nervous around her although Maggie seems to be doing better when she sees our cat. The thing is though that we have to keep her restrained more than we would like, partly due to the house training but also due to the unknown between her and our cat.

We do have a trial period through the rescue so if it doesn't work out, we can return her. Our other option may be to "return" her but foster her for a while. It'd give her a chance to live in a home and give our cat a chance to see if she can live in harmony with a dog. I wouldn't want to adopt her permanently though if both her and my cat would be unhappy for the years to come. Both DH and I are hoping that they will both adjust enough in the next couple weeks to determine our next step.

So we will see. I think she is overall a great dog though! If she does live with us for the rest of her life, I know she'll make another family happy.

nelie~what kind of dog is she?

When we brought home Chico, he wasn't house trained, either. Since our old dog (who we had put down earlier) had had some accidents (old age) in our living room, Chico thought that the living room was the place to go, too. We shampooed to no avail--dog's scents can still pick it up. We were already in the process of getting new carpet (we were waiting until Chico was housetrained before we did it, but he wasn't progressing). We decided to go ahead and install the carpet and lo and behold! no more accidents once the new carpet was in! DH wanted to keep the old carpet pad to save money but I insisted we needed new (I'm sure the pad would have kept the scent).

I'm sure she and the cat will start to get used to each other. Especially if she's still a puppy, she'll calm down. And as for the barking, if it's just one bark at the sound of something outside, I wouldn't worry about it. It's when you get an incessant barker that it becomes a problem.

Congrats on the adoption, and for choosing a rescue org! Fortunately our dog came housebroken, so I’m afraid I can’t offer much advice there. If she only does it where she smells other dogs it’s more likely a territory marking behavior than a true housebreaking problem, I should think eliminating the scent would take care of that. Never used any of those products from the pet store, but I hope you find something that works and don’t have to resort to carpet replacement.

There was definitely an adjustment period with our dog and our old roomies cats. Eventually they worked it out, one cat is quite dog friendly (a bit of a pushover really, Dexter seemed to like pestering him a bit) and the other cat made it clear from the beginning that she wanted nothing to do with dogs and he learned to avoid her. Took a couple weeks, but in the end we had a big happy family of two cats and two dogs under one roof. Maybe you already have something like this, but it’s good to make sure your cat has a few good high up places (like a cat tree) where the cat can get some time away from the dog if needed. Makes them more at ease to know there’s always as escape route.

I would definitely recommend finding a good trainer and taking a into obedience class. Even if your dog doesn’t have any real problems a good trainer can give you great insight to understanding your dog’s behavior, establishing yourself as “pack leader”, and help you work as a team. Plus it’s fun!

Good luck, keep us posted! Post pictures if you can

Good for you for your rescue dog! I have two and they are a important part of the family. Neither were house broken when we got them and it just took patience and training. Of course they were both puppies, but I remember the excitement they showed when they first "asked" to go outside to do their business. They were as happy as we were. Lots of praise is the key.
As to the cat, we also had a cat that ruled the roost, and was acting a bit frightened and "pissy" but they are now the best of friends. It is just a myth that they are natural enemies. I have always lived in a dog/cat home and there was never any problems after the first couple days when they were just testing each other out.
Good luck to you and your new family member.

Unless you have a really timid cat, it'll work itself out. My cats both have their individual ways they deal with dogs (we haven't had one of our own, but have had both my parents dog and Sarah's grandpa's dog at the house for extended periods). One cat uses hide/avoidance at first, then slowly ventures out to investigate. The other establishes who is in charge right away (will never forget my cat smacking my parent's giant aussie shepherd on the nose when he got too close...haven't had a problem with them since). Either way, they adjust...just monitor them together for a while.

Awww... she sounds like a real sweet heart. I agree that she and the cat will adjust after a transition period and either become friends or just ignore each other. We have a new kitten right now, so we are transitioning him in with our other older fuddy duddy cats. He wants to play and gets excited... they want nothing to do with him. We have done lots of time outs (putting kitten in other room) to give the older cats some peace.

Good luck and congrats on the new baby!

Oh I was actually very happy with her single bark I think it is a good thing. I've lived with dogs that bark and bark and I used to live next door to a terrier and I swear no dog barks more than a terrier. She is a corgi/beagle. She definitely has the personality of a beagle too

We may think about the carpet but who knows what we may decide doing in the basement.

I'm also glad to hear about these stories of adjustment. I do really enjoy my dog. I ran home for lunch, said hi to her and the cat. The cat was walking around the dog's crate without too much worry. I grew up with a cat and a dog but the dog was a puppy when we got the dog and the cat had recently lost her baby boy (1.5 years) who we kept from the single litter she had. So she was motherly towards the puppy. Since Maggie isn't a puppy puppy (she is a little over a year old), I know it'd be harder for her to accept a cat. Lola isn't really a timid cat, she is curious and playful but I also think she is a very sensitive cat, more so than any other cat I've known.

I am actually going to become an animal trainer of dogs and the best thing I think there is to train puppies is pee pads. You put them in a particular area of your house (say near the door) and if you see the puppy going to have an accident automatically take them to the pee pad and have them do their business there. If they do go there then give them a treat because they did do something right. As for training the dog the best absolute best method I have found is clicker training. I love it because it is a way of positive reinforcement. When you spank a dog they don't understand what they did wrong, but when you use a clicker you reward them for what they did right. When you use the clicker and then give them a treat they realize that getting a click means a good thing and soon they will keep being good so that they can get a click. It's really a great thing and very inexpensive.

Also, when I got my puppy she was just very curious about cats. She had never been around one before and had no idea what they were. She never meant them any harm, just wanted to check things out. So maybe you can "introduce" them and let them check each other out and see if that helps.