karennj
Well-Known Member
So Bear LOVES the flirt pole. Part of the plan to help his behavior with the kids is a lot more exercise and the flirt pole is great for that especially as it is the only thing I can do off leash with him at the moment since he is not yet trained on our underground fencing. He is so focused on that toy a Deer could walk right past him! Anyway, I follow the flirt pole rules of making him wait, drop and release. We do only about 5 minutes at a time a couple times a day and it absolutely takes the edge off. As soon as I see him getting too focused on the kids I take him to run after the flirt pole and he comes back in and is pooped. Before starting his exercise regimen (we are also walking and adding a lot of mental exercises as well) he was getting into everything and was VERY reactive to the kids. I literally had to give him time outs constantly and he was leashed a lot in the house. So it has been 2.5 days since the trainer was here and he is getting better each day. Today he only tried to nip at my youngest one time and he was on the floor and banging his feet on the ground. It's a major improvement.
So anyway, my concern is am I increasing his prey drive by using the flirt pole? He has met my cat but they are NOT yet ok with each other. He has sniffed the cat while it was laying in the bed and could care less about him. When he sees the cat walking he will run over to him but the cat is already long gone. The cat has the upstairs and basically uses stealth mode to get down to the basement to his food/litter box. I am afraid I am basically conditioning Bear to efficiently snatch a small animal (my cat). Could using the flirt pole be a problem?
So anyway, my concern is am I increasing his prey drive by using the flirt pole? He has met my cat but they are NOT yet ok with each other. He has sniffed the cat while it was laying in the bed and could care less about him. When he sees the cat walking he will run over to him but the cat is already long gone. The cat has the upstairs and basically uses stealth mode to get down to the basement to his food/litter box. I am afraid I am basically conditioning Bear to efficiently snatch a small animal (my cat). Could using the flirt pole be a problem?