Start with a four month old puppy dog who is full of joy and happiness at being adopted into a home with a big, fenced in backyard and an Australian Cattle Dog/Husky mix (Ausky dog) to play with.
Take the dogs out to play high energy running games every single day. Encourage the dogs to play chase games outdoors and bowl each other over. Fulfill their need to play rough and tumble dog games together.
For best results, make sure your new dog is a girl dog and that she comes from an active herding breed such as an Australian Cattle Dog, Border Collie or Catahoula Leopard Dog. We chose the latter, a blue merle Catahoula Leopard Dog.
Give your new dog a month of good times and then take her to the vet to get spayed. If you don’t know what that means, getting a female dog spayed means performing a total hysterectomy. In other words, it completely removes all of her female reproductive organs including her uterus and ovaries.
Getting your female dog spayed may be a common surgery but it is by no means a minor surgery. The veterinarian must cut into your dog’s belly to remove the organs and stitch her back up with as many as three layers of stitches.
You are now under strict orders to keep the dog calm. Your high energy Catahoula Leopard Dog is not allowed to run, jump, play, or pretend to be a bucking bronco. It’s a good idea not to run her up and down flights of stairs either, and playing with her new Ausky dog friend is absolute taboo.
Now, stick an Elizabethan dog cone on her head so that she cannot chew at the stitches, rip them out, or cause infection or irritation to the incision. Keep the head cone on for the full length of her stitches, which can be anywhere from 7-14 days.
If your Catahoula dog is not on board with the new rules where she cannot jump, play, and run around like a madman, put her in a dog crate to force her to calm down. If she goes crazy every time you go near her, then don’t go near the crate. Distance yourself so that your Catahoula dog remains calm while her spay surgery is healing. Peek at her from around corners so that she cannot see you lest she start jumping around in excitement.
Now that you’ve driven your Catahoula dog totally crazy, it’s time to drive the dog owner crazy. Sit back and watch this poor little puppy dog who was once having great loads of fun as she stares at you sadly through the bars of the dog crate. Look at the sad little face of your poor woebegone puppy who is now wondering why her new friends abandoned her to this misery. Watch the days march by with the full force of the Catahoula dog energy building with each passing day, and no way to burn it off.
Watch in utter misery as this dog who once trusted you now looks at you wondering why you took all her fun away and won’t even play dog games with her. Look at the questions in her innocent eyes. Hear her whining, calling out to you, begging for a doggie game of chase or fetch or tug of war.
Panic every time you take her out for potty and she tries to buck and jump with excitement at being freed from the dog crate. Try to figure out how to calm her down lest she rip out her spay stitches and require a new surgery to repair. Panic every time she gets loose in the house and starts running around in happy craziness.
While you’re at it, do a few Google searches on things that can go wrong with dog spay surgery, especially when the dogs do not cooperate calmly. Once you are fully immersed in every possible thing that could go wrong, and you and your Catahoula puppy have been miserable for days, it’s time to set her free.
Remove the head cone and take your Catahoula dog to the vet for the removal of her spay stitches. Take your Catahoula Leopard Dog home and this time, don’t put her in the dog crate. She won’t have a clue as to what it was all about, but you’ll have one very happy Catahoula puppy and one very relieved puppy owner. Trust that she will quickly forgive you. Life is good once again!
