Finn continues to make progress in not being a total jerk to my cat.

[conuly]

He's been able to walk past her coming in and out of the house without freaking out for a while, and all other cats he sees regularly, so a few days ago when he came up to me for snuggles while I was petting Callie I pet him and he sat there for a few minutes before she left.

Which I told Jenn, but what I forgot to tell her is that he turned his head away and looked somewhere else the whole time, shaking like he does when he is trying to be a Good Dog. I think he was trying not to look at her so as to reduce temptation to bark. He IS a good dog.

Comments

[pauamma]

A- for effort!

[cosmolinguist]

Gary looks away like that when he's trying to avoid the temptation to do something he knows he shouldn't.

[movingfinger]

GOOD DOG!!! That's remarkable improvement, and it sounds like he truly understands what you want him to do (not react to cats) and wants to be Good Dog! He did better work managing his feelings there than many humans!

[conuly]

It's taking him a long time compared to Moonpie* but he tries so damn hard.

* Moonpie is extremely responsive to the word "no". The first time she met Callie she started to bark, I told her no, and she has never made any remotely aggressive move at a cat again. She's actually so responsive to it that I feel guilty saying "no" if I can possibly redirect her instead, because I hate the look on her face.

[conuly]

It's absolutely adorable. And what good sense, too!

[conuly]

Callie, for her part, refrained from growling or hissing. Honestly, it's taken her even longer to come around to cohabitating with dogs than him with cats! The other cats will sit with Moonpie, who is very carefully nonaggressive towards them, but she won't, and will even hiss at her if she sees her. Which really befuddles Moonie, but she doesn't react. Moonpie is good at not reacting to the cats.

[wpadmirer]

Poor Finn!

[conuly]

I gave him lots of pats and snuggles, both during and after his trial of patience.

And today we walked by the friendly cat in the house around the corner and I stopped to pet her and Finn didn't even bat an eye! I didn't pet her for very long - on things like this, I feel it's best to always end on a successful note.

[archersangel]

progress!

[conuly]

Then yesterday he barked up a storm at Mama Cat when we came back from the vet. I think he thinks it's okay if a human isn't there to stop him. Still, he does learn. Slowly, but he learns.