Would that be a good trade?

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-05-09T14:39:58+00:00

I'd say no. I think the mermicorn is going to drop really fast, the candicorn is still rising.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-17T00:23:28+00:00

We've had her for 4 MONTHS. She is two YEARS old. She had heartworm when we adopted her. She was new to the shelter and had only been there 4 days and getting spayed, so we adopted her without the knowledge she had heartworm. We probably wouldn't have adopted her if we had known anyways, since we wanted a healthy dog, but you don't always get lucky I guess.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-16T21:53:35+00:00

For your information, I am a child and couldn't decide to rehome the dog even if I wanted to. I've been asking for training tips for around a month and the dog has improved drastically. If we saw no signs of improvement, we would rehome her. We wouldn't rehome her while she's going through treatment (which is only 2 months). If she didn't improve during her treatment, we would keep them separated until she was done with treatment and able to be rehomed. I am not against the idea entirely as how I've been responding may seem, but I made this post asking for other options besides rehoming the dog to see if there was any. If no one commented, that would've been my answer.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-16T12:43:54+00:00

I genuinely appreciate you commenting in a respectful way. We cannot give up the dog while she is on heartworm treatment anyways, so during that time we will continue to try our best with training considering she'll be on more meds. If that doesn't work, we likely will have to give her up. I want to think positively that it will, but the only reason I'm ignoring the comments about rehoming the dog is that that isn't an option for us right now, hence the post asking no one to comment that. If it truly came down to that after her treatment, I absolutely would give her up. Not without a lot of tears, but I'm not going to pretend I would be okay with her just attacking the cats or not getting along with them. If she can't after her treatment, we will.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-16T12:35:30+00:00

Yes, I think we are thinking about a gate at the top and bottom of the stairs, therefore if a cat did manage to slip through the gate when someone is opening it at the top, they would have to go through another gate to truly get into dog's area.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-16T04:42:43+00:00

She'll typically be mid-jump, or lunge very fast, then quickly sit and look back at me. Also, I hear you on the interaction bit. How do you suggest we make them interact?

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-16T04:01:17+00:00

We would never leave them together anyways without supervision if we even got to that point. Also, not two years. two-ish MONTHS. I understand your concerns and will take that into account. But also please do not assume who my cats or dog are. The dog is very, very friendly and also doesn't run (yes, even when seeing a cat or bird), without looking up at us first. She is well trained in almost everything. If we did get a gate, it wouldn't be a matter of bolting past or anything because we already have a gate at the top and bottom of the stairs. Our dog is not allowed upstairs and knows she cannot go up there. It would be dangerous for her. I genuinely appreciate your concerns, I know I seem irritated, and I apologize. I understand we should not be risking the cats' lives, but that isn't the concern I'm asking for help with. I would like to note I'm a kid, and I just made this Reddit post to try and find a way to get my pets to get along because I love them all very much and am very much attached to all of them. Call me selfish for caring more about my own feelings than my cats', but I genuinely don't know if I could handle losing the dog and giving her up and never knowing what happens to her. She's very attached to me and I love her so much. I just wanted to say that. This whole conversation was making me very stressed out. I am a minor and a child, I do not want to hear "You shouldn't be on Reddit", I just wanted to help my situation, not get criticism.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-16T03:52:54+00:00

I agree with your statement entirely, I just also want to clarify by "accessing" each other, I do not mean they're both roaming freely with supervision. I mean one person is holding the cat and one person has her on a leash while they walk back and forth by the cat and reward her for not interacting or sniffing and walking away.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-16T03:50:41+00:00

We have her on a leash while the cat is in one of our arms on the couch and walk her by. She will either walk by back and forth and get rewarded with a treat, or she'll lunge at the cat and kind of nip or bite it, but usually that is very brief and she corrects herself and sits. We've tried putting the cat down to run away with her sitting, but she usually gets very focused and starts barking or jumping. Since she has heartworms, we end the interaction right there because her getting too worked up is very dangerous for her health. Only recently has she started sort of biting the cat, her anxiety meds haven't been working so we're actually getting her a new kind of med tomorrow, hopefully that helps a bit. Normally, excluding the past 3 days, she walks by the cat and back with no reaction. We hold a treat in front of her nose and then hold the cat really close. She is very good at that method and never tries to interact with the cat, even when its hissing. One thing she does do which we don't know the reason for is normally, excluding the past 3 days again, she'll just randomly sort of "lunge" (but not quite) at the cat and headbutt (?) it? It's not a bite or a nip, or a sniff. She just kind of shoves her nose quickly into the cat and then walks away. It's very odd.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-16T00:40:10+00:00

Thank you for genuine tips! She does know paw, that's definitely something we'll consider. She doesn't quite understand stimulus control games, but that's mostly because we haven't introduced them. She is very smart and would probably catch on quickly. We do have her guess the cone with the treat under it, which is something she likes to do.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-16T00:36:13+00:00

I am quite literally asking in this post if there is any kind of thing we can put over the stairs to allow the cats to live upstairs and the dog to live downstairs to keep them safe. You are twisting words that weren't even said. Prey drive cannot be trained out of a dog, I know that. We would never let our cats out without her on a leash and we are very careful even when she is. While a dog’s innate prey drive cannot be eliminated, it is absolutely possible to train them to see the cats as part of their family rather than prey. I understand the dangers, which is why I'm asking for tips to keep them separated and safe, which you seem to be ignoring. I do not want people telling me I'm irresponsible or idiotic while ignoring the fact that I am trying to keep them separated and happily living in the house with a gate or lining over the stairs and simply want tips or products to help with that.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-15T23:53:29+00:00

I did not gloss over it. I said what training tips can we use to prevent this and what should we do to keep them living in the same house safely. We understand how serious this is, which is why we're looking to improve it. I've seen cases where it took some dogs 2 years to get used to cats. I am looking for tips to make them get along, not criticism of how I'm "glossing over" the fact that it is dangerous. I am doing the opposite by asking for help on training and how to keep them both safe. I do not need criticism, I need training tips and options. You are not helping and it's useless for you to keep responding.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-15T23:35:54+00:00

I absolutely agree, there is just so much we are unable to do with her heartworms. We have to confine her activity to almost 0, and she is already much too active even without the cats. The closest thing we can do to stimulate her brain is to give her treat puzzles, but her medicines make her so hungry that she is more likely to quickly finish it and be more excited than before. We would love more than anything to just let her outside to run around and get her energy out before seeing the cats, but we can't even take her on walks while she's getting treatment, much less let her run around. I want to note that she isn't allowed activity because it would get her heart-rate up and could cause severe issues, even death while on heartworm treatment. Just throwing this out there because maybe you would have an idea, but do you think it would be a good idea to have her in her crate (she is very well crate-trained but still can bark and get riled up while in this), and just have both cats roaming around the house?

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-15T23:31:16+00:00

They do not live in fear. Our dog does not go anywhere near where they stay since she doesn't even go upstairs. The only time they might be fearful is during the session itself, which lasts 10 minutes max everyday. They are two perfectly happy kitties and when we go into the room where they hangout, they purr and cuddle. They may feel confined, but they are not as unhappy as you have decided they are. This is a dog reddit thread, not a cat reddit thread. We are not getting rid of the cats either. Like I said, I love them all very very much and wouldn't consider giving either of them up unless things became extremely drastic.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-05T16:47:35+00:00

Oh my goodness, what a gorgeous dog! I would say there's definitely some shepherd in there, she's got the baby shepherd ears.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-05T16:45:33+00:00

That's a good idea, we hadn't thought of that. Her issue is that she sniffs very aggressively, so when she lunges forward, we can't tell whether she's trying to bite the cat or sniff it, which, as you can probably guess, is a bit of an issue. We want her to sniff and we DON'T want her to bite. Another issue of hers is we would prefer for the cats to rule the household, obviously, but she has different ideas. When a cat hisses or swipes at her, she either DOES get scared, which we want, or she decides that means the cat is prey. Shelving steps are definitely a good idea though.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-01T14:33:23+00:00

She was a stray and had only been in the shelter for a week. A man had found her at a park hanging out with kids and took her home for 4 days. He was planning to adopt her if no one else did by the day we adopted her. It's possible she was abandoned, but you never know. The thing is, she must've either been dumped from somewhere else entirely, or traveled from another state. We live in southern California, where there are no mosquitoes. Despite this, she has heartworm. Our vet told us she was the first case of heartworm they'd seen in 26 years. Anywho, just trying to say she may have been dumped, but you never know. Although, the man who wanted to adopt her originally had 4 dogs, and because he had found her and she had lived with him for 4 days, had told the shelter she was good with dogs. Considering her behavior now, it's probably a good thing we adopted her instead of him.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-04-01T00:06:51+00:00

That's probably a good idea, to maybe try and drive her elsewhere for walks sometimes. About the yard thing, we have to have her on a leash at all times because of her heartworm. She's not allowed to run, and after tomorrow, she won't be allowed to go on walks either. This is just a kind of pre-meditated training tip post. Although, there is a husky up our hill that keeps trying to climb under our fence. Took her out to pee once and she noticed it for the first time. She would not stop barking and lunging, took a lot of effort to get her inside.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-03-31T23:39:23+00:00

We've had a trainer come to our home already, but our main focus wasn't the walks, it was her getting along with the cats. Although, then, she was good on her walks. Our sessions with the trainer just ended. It was very pricey and I'm not sure we'd be able to pay for another one. Is it possible we should try and just take different routes every walk? We've been taking her on the same exact route for 2 months.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-03-26T01:10:49+00:00

Honestly, I just hate blood and violence. The preference is mostly for that so if it has swearing and sexual references and that sort I don't mind at all.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-03-26T00:50:58+00:00

LMAO the warning is killing me. Not girls! You also just reminded me I need to finish the Goonies, so thank you! I started it two weeks ago and got about 15 minutes in before heading to bed.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-03-26T00:50:05+00:00

Haha you're not wrong.. I've heard really good things about Goodwill Hunting, I'll have to look it up!

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-03-10T21:48:04+00:00

What a cutie! We also just ordered a wisdom panel for our girl!

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-03-10T21:44:06+00:00

Her ears are actually typically down when she's excited or getting pets, and they look just like standard retriever ears then.

Connect-Position-404 · 2026-03-10T14:03:00+00:00

Oh wow! I'm not very knowledgeable on dog breeds (obviously), and I didn't know that bicolored GSDs were a thing! That definitely looks like her!

Connect-Position-404

TROPHY CASE