Dog Training Q and A! 6/3/2021: On keeping a puppy from attacking a cat, and using Harry Potter spell names as cues

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs . Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda . She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman. Today she answered a listener's question about keeping her young dog from attacking her cat. --- Partial Transcript: Annie: A quick Thursday Q and A for you, if you’re here and you have a question, you’re welcome to ask it. But I have a question that I got at Anniegrossman.com/ask that I really liked that I thought I’d share. And I’m rocking a side ponytail today. What do you think of my…what do you think of this look? [laughs] It was the best quick hairdo I could come up with. If I was going to have to show my face. Does it look, does it look intentional? Hey there, Dustbin Terrier, great name. Hi, Bo…Uh, Pixel. Okay. So, this question comes from Melissa and, did I lose it? Okay. Melissa, who is from, St. Louis, Missouri and has a corgi, right? Pachi is almost six months old. He and my two year old cat Covu love to play around together, but sometimes they get too rough. Anytime this happens, I use the touch cue with my fingers and give him a tasty treat, but then he turns around and runs right back to Kovu. Sometimes it’s friendly, but it always escalates into a serious fight. And then she has like a side note part, which I want to talk about in a second, but let’s just talk about this part. So really great question. Actually I’m gonna read the second part now because I think it relates, so then she writes: I’ve also given a name to the touch cue, which is Revelio, I’m using Harry Potter spells as trick names, and he’s brilliant. Isn’t that cute? He comes when I call almost every time, but I guess play time with Covu, is more fun. Sometimes I grabbed his favorite toy to distract him from Covu, but again, that only lasts for so long. Do you have any ideas? Thank you so much for your podcast. I’m amazed with how much I’ve been able to train Pachi within a short amount of time. And especially with three syllable trick names such as Expelliarmus for “drop it.” [laughs] I was told that it was impossible to do by a local trainer. Again, thank you. So it’s funny, you know, I’ve heard people do say dogs only understand like one or two syllables, but I think that’s probably b******t. So good for you, Melissa, for going the Harry Potter spell name route. I think that’s very clever. But to go back to the issue of what’s going on here with the cat and the dog. I mean, Pachi is only six months old, so I would hope that you’re able to get him some really good play time. I think puppies ideally need a really good jaunt with other puppies every day, if that’s possible. It doesn’t need to be a dog park. Full transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe