Some of you may have remembered me asking about aquiring too young of a pup. I have another question.

Reese is now almost 8 weeks old! Wow, time does fly. She's a frisky little thing with one ear laying across her head as it's trying to come up and she clamps on to everything in sight. Lol.

Anyway I have a couple questions. First, is it alright to play tug games with her ( she's going to be just a pet ) if I take the toy and put it away when we're done? I never let her take it and keep it for herself.

Second, I own a cat and a kitten who aren't afraid of her and when I put her food down the kitten ( who seems to enjoy getting knocked around by her ) will wander right up and see what she's doing and Reese will growl, bark and curl her lip at him. Is there something I should do about that? I don't want an accident to happen in the future. She doesn't do this to me by the way.

She's also knocking the kitten down and standing over him with tail raised constantly-whenever possible.

Tethering the pup to you when she is out and about will cure this.
By tethering her to you, you can monitor her every move. Something that should be done with puppies anyway.

This will allow you to redirect her to what is acceptable behavior rather than trying to correct a young pup that does not know the rules yet.

She needs to learn what you will accept and what you will not.

Is she aggressive towards you with food? If she is, I would recommend hand feeding her for a while, until she learns that you as leader offer the food and you are not a threat while she is eating.

I would not allow her to bother the cats while they are eating and vice versa. That is just asking for trouble.

Leerburg does not recommend playing tug with some pets. It is believed by some that tug can create dominance issues in dogs.

My outlook is that it depends on the handler/owner, the dog and the pack structure. The dog gets to play tug, win the tug a few times, but ultimately when the handler does not want to play, the handler ends the game and puts the tug away. The dog is NOT allowed to have access to it unless the handler allows it.

I have "free" toys at my house, these are the lower value toys that my dogs are allowed to have in their crates or on their dog beds.

High value toys such as tugs and ultra balls are put up and only played with when I take the dog out to play or train.

There is nothing wrong with playing tug, even with a "pet" dog.
If the dog loves the tug, it can be a great tool for obedience.
Just keep in mind that the dog may not like to tug much in a few months when she starts teething.

In-so-much as the cat issues go, your best bet is to keep pup and cats seperated at this age.
It's not wise to allow the dog to pester or terrorize the cat, nor is it fair to the cats.

Instead of having to correct the dog constantly for roughhousing the cats or growling around the bowl, keep your pup tethered in the house so you can pull it away from the cats, and consider feeding your pup in her crate.

It sounds almost like your pup is trying to establish dominance with the cats, who of course don't understand what the pup is trying to do, not being dogs and all.

I wouldn't tolerate the behavior, but it is much easier (and more fair to the dog) to simply prevent the behavior than have to correct it.
As the pup matures and naturally begins to learn self-control, she'll learn to peacefully coexist with the cats.

 Quote: Alyssa Myracle

... Instead of having to correct the dog constantly for roughhousing the cats or growling around the bowl, keep your pup tethered in the house

 Quote: Carol Boche

Tethering the pup to you when she is out and about will cure this. ... By tethering her to you, you can monitor her every move. Something that should be done with puppies anyway.

AND besides this, I would recommend tethering the pup when she's out of the crate.

I learned this with adopted adults. What a boost this is!

I would tether also.
I did not at first with bruiser and now I am paying for it.

The puppys need to learn the rule first.

With the cats I let my dogs play with the cats but they learned there limits befor they where aloud to play with the cats.

For the food agression feed in the crate that solves all problem. And helps with potty training also.

Good luck with this new pup

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

 Quote: Alyssa Myracle

... Instead of having to correct the dog constantly for roughhousing the cats or growling around the bowl, keep your pup tethered in the house

 Quote: Carol Boche

Tethering the pup to you when she is out and about will cure this. ... By tethering her to you, you can monitor her every move. Something that should be done with puppies anyway.

AND besides this, I would recommend tethering the pup when she's out of the crate.

I learned this with adopted adults. What a boost this is!

Ya know Connie, took me a minute, but I finally got that you would recommend tethering too.....HAHA