I know this has been covered before, but I don't know where to look & don't
have time to comb through the archives... how do you deal with a new puppy?
We were just gifted with a wolfhound-mix 8-week old puppy who thinks it
is the greatest fun to chase the ferrets.  I've already been forced to
seperate Moogie from the others during play because he is
insulinomic/adrenal and flat doesn't have the speed & energy necessary to
get away from this puppy, and I saw very quickly that if the puppy catches
Moogie, Moogie gets rolled and gnawed on.  This does not look enjoyable
to me, to say the least, plus I am very afraid of the possibility of real
injury, so Moogie has been segregated to our bedroom for play for the time
being; but, I can't help but think it's no fun for him to be isolated
during play time.  I've been isolating Diva during play for a long time
(since before the puppy), because she is blind and absolutely does not like
the other ferrets, so she's not really having to change her habits at all
with the advent of the puppy.  At the present, I'm not seperating Pandora,
Flower, and Tank from the puppy because every time I try, they just squeeze
under the door and come out anyway; and besides, they really enjoy getting
to run and play hard, and they can't do that confined to a single room.
However, they can't be enjoying running and hiding from the puppy all the
time instead of playing together, and honestly folks, he mauls them when he
catches them!  I'm thinking of trying to put the puppy outside every time I
let the ferrets out, but that should be a last resort for two reasons:
1), I really want to solve the problem and get him to leave the ferrets
alone if we're actually intending on keeping the puppy, so that we can all
co-exist peacefully, and
2) my family opposes the idea and would give me a hard time about it-- they
insist that it's just "playing" and that the ferrets are enjoying it!  If
they enjoy it so much, why do that struggle to get away?  Even at 8 weeks,
the puppy is so much bigger than them that it looks dangerous to me to be
so rough with the ferrets, and he really pins them down and looks like he's
gnawing them like a toy, though I haven't seen any marks on them.  I always
stop him as soon as he starts, but my husband doesn't approve and thinks
I'm being silly about it.  I'm worried also because this is a wolfhound
mix, and they are hunting dogs-- could this be the juvenile expression of a
hunting behavior, and does that mean that when he gets bigger he'll view my
babies as prey and will kill them?  I'm very concerned and would appreciate
any advice.  Thank you!
 
Vickie
[Posted in FML issue 2661]