Ok I placed a 6 mo old female that has simple obedience (is ready for her CGC), started on agility (cat walk, waeves-no jumping), great ball drive/food, loves to tug. Socialized in flooring, sounds and People, She is on a spayed contract (information on said dog)

Ok they wanted a family /alarm dog. She fit the program very well. The husband picked her up and drove three days to get back home. Well, now they are home and are having problems. This is where I need the help.

1. The 19 year old son does not lke animals much, is not happy with her. She barks at him everytime he comes in to the room. He stops and points and tells her to shut up. Thinks he should not have to give treats to bond with dog. He can pet her and even walk her but it is the first sighting. She is fine with the older daughter, 9 year old daughter and other son. They had the kids friends over this weekend and she did fine.

2 They took her to the vet for a check up. She sat in the waiting room no problems, People were petting her. Office visit was going great they checked the stomach, teeth, eyes, checked the one ear was fine but when she checked out the other ear the dog sniped her. Vet jumped back seconds went by and they told her no, the vet went back to check the ear and she growled again the vet backed away and told no. Now she does not like the vet! (this is what was told to me, also I asked about how long it was between the snip and the command)

3. I have a big male cat that puts must of the dogs in their places. She did not bug him and told the owners as long as their cat stands his grounds there would be no problems BUT if he ran she would chase. Well, the first day the cat chased her though the house. Now that she is been there a few days and getting settled in she is wanting to play/ move up the pecking order and is pestering the cat.

Any thoughts comments would be a great help.

Barbara,
I am no expert on these matters but here is my 2 cents for what ir is worth.
First off the dog has not been with this family long enough to bond with any one, sounds like she has only been there a few days and it will take an older dog, meaning some a dog over a few months some time to bond within this family.
Second off you will want to get a copy of how to be your pups pack leader into the hands of this family, hopefully they have the internet and can listen to Ed's pod cast of how to be your pups pack leader.
The 19 year old clearly does not like animals and the dog will since this and re-act to this. Maybe they need to get this 19 year old to have bit more understanding and not be so angery at the dog. Pointing and yelling is not going to allow this dog to even think about bonding with this 19 year old. So that is a story of another matter all together.
The dog at the vet may have been a bit nervious, after all was driven for 3 days and then taken to the vet. This dog is a bit older at 6 months and is going to take some time for the pack leadership to be addressed. The 19 year old is not helping there either. This family needs to establish pack and rank order, in the mean time they need to keep this dog away from the cat and the 19 year old as well. Most of these issues can be addressed with correct pack order. Once the pack order is set then they can keep the cat safe so to speak, for now they need to keep the dog and cat apart until the dog knows who the pack leaders are.
This dog does not sound as if it is ready for it CGC if it is growing at the vet while being examined to me, but what do I know. The dog needs to be able to eb handled by the vet or others without growling or getting stressed and may need some more time with just meeting and greeting people and other events such as that.
My two cents :-).
Get them to listen and then when they are taking there dog to the vet have them give the dog a good long walk. Get her a bit tired out before the vet. That may help there. Was there anything wrong with her ears at all?

My solution to these problems.

1 - Kick the 19 yo out. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

2 - Did something happen to this dogs ear before? If there is something wrong with it's ear it may be reluctant for anyone to touch it. My older shepherd hates vets, she has since she was little. I warned my new vet that she might have to be muzzled, but he said it's not necessary. We brought the dog out to a parking lot by the office and he continued to check the dog over without her growling or getting hackley, maybe something like this would help.

3 - They need to slowly introduce the dog and cat. The dog should be corrected for chasing the cat. There is a good article on here about introducing dogs and cats.

Kimberly

Jay you bring up some really good points. I will link them to ED. also far as the CGC testing goes she has been though the mock shows and had no problems all we were waiting for is the test in two weeks.

Barbara,
Then it may be just do to the fact that she is new to the home and needs to adjust to all of the new folks, smells and of course she needs time with her new family. She may have been ready for you to take her through her CGC, sounds like she needs time to adjust. She may have just been a bit nervious about the new vet and not knowing her new pack structure, she may have felt the need to defend herself. She needs to learn that her new mom and dad will do that but the pack structure needs to be laid down first and fore most.
I like the idea of throwing out the 19 year old... LOL
I can say that I have a 24 year old and a 28 year old.... LOL

Hi again Jay I think you are correct about getting used to the family/pack. After the three day ride and then coming to a new house with all new masters and cats AND then a vet visit is just too much for a 6 month old. I told them it takes around 21 days (3 weeks ) for a new pup to get in the swing of things. I also told them to get in to an obedience class to help with leadership and more obedience.

I think it is going to be a problem with the son as they have said "he is at that age where he knows everything and we know nothing"

 Quote:

I think it is going to be a problem with the son as they have said "he is at that age where he knows everything and we know nothing"

LOL, what he NEEDS to know (but apparently doesn't) is which side his bread's buttered on <:-O

I was 19 once and my sister had a 1 year old Cairn Terrier. I knew everything as well.

Probably should have gone to the hospital. Turned out I had more to learn. I just left the dog alone after that and she left me alone.

I would hate for either one of them to hurt. I really hope it does not come to that.

Just wondering - what was the reason for finding this pup a home so far away from where she was? - Just was thinking that it sounds as if this may have been a last resort home as it does not seem to have been "checked out" very thoroughly..... not meaning to be judgemental, but wondering why a dog would go to a home where a member of the family doesn't care for dogs? <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />