I received a lot of mail from people responding to my message about my new
puppy harrassing my ferrets.  I got some very good suggestions.
 
I have to say up front, however, that I am still getting a lot of flack
from my husband and our roommate about my concerns.  My husband, who knows
me better, finally threw up his hands and said "Whatever.  Do what you
want", but the roommate is still arguing with me over it.  They still feel
that I'm being stupid by trying to keep the puppy off the ferrets, and that
"they're animals who're going to have to work it out among themselves--
you're accomplishing nothing by trying to keep them seperated."  They
believe that it is just playing and won't hurt anything, even though the
puppy tries to pin them down with his forelegs and wants to mouth them like
a toy.
 
Almost all the messages I received urged me to keep them seperated until
the puppy learns that he is below the ferrets in the family heirarchy (and
boy, let me tell you, THAT didn't go over well when I announced at home
that I was going to be trying to teach the puppy this!), and that he can
under no circumstances be allowed to put his mouth on the ferrets.
Yesterday, I gated him in the bedroom so he could see the ferrets when they
came out (of course, I have to fight the ferts on this too, as they want
nothing more than to climb the gate and check out the puppy!).  I kept him
seperated that way for most of the ferret's play time, then I took one of
the ferrets into the bedroom and held her while the puppy was allowed to
sniff.  Whenever he opened his mouth and looked like he was going for the
fert, he got in trouble.  For the last few minutes, I took down the gate
and followed the puppy everywhere; whenever he wanted to play with the
ferrets, he got in trouble.  After only a few tries, he laid down and
didn't try to chase them anymore.  The ferrets ignored him, and he only
followed them with his eyes whenever they crossed his field of vision.  I'm
going to try doing this every day for however long it takes to teach him.
 
See, my husband and the roommate really hate this because they WANT the
puppy and ferrets to 'play' together, to entertain them.  They insist
that all the animals are enjoying themselves and that I'm just the big
party-pooper who is ruining everything for everyone.  They say that if the
puppy is actually too rough to suit the ferrets, the ferrets will bite him
on the nose and that is all that is necessary to teach the puppy what his
boundaries are.  But I'm deathly afraid that if I allow them to work it out
by themselves, that the puppy will get just a little too rough one time--
and that's all it will take, ONE time, and I'll have a dead ferret and a
family saying "Oops, I guess I was wrong..."
 
And I'm all the animal's guardian mom, and I won't let that happen no
matter how much work it is.  I told my husband yesterday that if they
didn't cooperate with me on my efforts to educate this puppy, that I'd give
the ferrets away myself to someone who will put their needs first, rather
than see them be miserable or injured.
 
By the way, a lot of people have asked if he is a wolfhound mix or a wolf
mix.  Merlin is an 8 week old Irish Wolfhound - Rotweiller cross, who looks
pretty much identical to a black labrador puppy at this point.
 
Thanks for the fact that no one has flamed me too badly about this
situation.  I really am trying to do my best for everyone.
 
Vickie
[Posted in FML issue 2663]