About Joey

We have 2 cats, Slippers and Kiwi, that we have had for several years, and the dog, Joey, we found on the streets and was never claimed so we decided to take him in. However, Joey isn't good with small animals, so we've had to keep him and the cats completely separated. We thought that he was just too hyper and playful, and would just need more obedience training before we could start doing introductions, but over the past 3 months that we have had him, and especially today, he has proven that that is not the case. Joey has an incredibly high prey drive, and any time he even gets a single glance at our cats or another small animal, he goes bananas, and it's near impossible to hold him back. Today, one of our cats had snuck out of the bedroom when I wasn't looking, and Joey caught his smell. It was insanely hectic. Joey had Slippers pinned down on the floor, holding him with his mouth, and Slippers was just frantically scratching at Joey's nose. Luckily Slippers wasn't injured at all. Joey's nose was just bleeding, but I managed to pull him off of the cat and get them separated. There was no growling coming from Joey which was a good sign to me. But I was still terrified for my cat. Normally Joey is a really good dog. He's hyper and playful, and has a lot of energy, but he's also sweet and really loves to sit in your lap and cuddle. Give him a good butt scratch and he'll be your best friend. He's made a lot of progress with just basic home training since we took him in. But the cats are just too much for him. We can't continue to live in a home where there's a constant fear of whether our fur babies are going to be safe. Joey was a chance we took to begin with, taking in a stray dog off of the streets that no one ever claimed, that way he wouldn't have to go to a shelter. We were trying to do something good and help this dog. But this task is proving to be something that we are not equipped to handle, something that puts our fur family at risk. I do not doubt that there is someone out there who CAN train Joey to be around cats or other small animals, because he really has proven he has the ability and desire to learn, but my small little family lacks the capacity and knowhow to do so. And we really want to, not only keep our fur babies safe, but give this dog the best possible chance at an amazing life that he could possibly have. My partner, Luke, found him walking in the middle of the road when it was still icy. When he stopped to check on the dog, he immediately just hopped in the back of the truck. The dog was thin, had cracked paws, and some very minor cuts on his legs. The dog was super friendly and Luke brought him into the inside of the truck, and he just laid down on the seat and made himself comfy. Luke went through the neighborhoods nearby and knocked door to door asking if anyone had lost a dog, and no one had. He got to one small little trailer park area, and a couple people said they had seen the dog running around before, one person said they heard that someone had tried to call animal control on it twice because it was in their yard. But that wasn't really useful information, and kinda just seemed like neighborhood gossip. So Luke just brought the dog back to his dad's place and introduced it to his dad's dogs, they got along great, ran and played a lot, and then brought him back home to our house for the night. He closed off the cats in our bedroom just to be safe, because I wasn't home, so he wasn't going to try meeting without my help. He took a bunch of pictures of the dog and posted them on Facebook, in the groups and stuff and shared them with friends to see if anyone knew anything. The dog liked to jump and bounce a lot, like a lot a lot, so he got 'temporarily' named Joey, but then it just kind of stuck. Since no one ever came forward and claimed the pup. Luke tried really hard for at least 2 weeks to try and see if this pup had an owner, but nothing came of it. So it just kind of went by week by week, is someone going to claim this dog? Is someone going to take this dog off our hands? And eventually it was just, I guess we have a dog now... Well, might as well give him a good home if we can. He's played with our neighbors female bulldog and her 3 puppies, as well as playing with my partner's dad's 3 golden retrievers (2 male, 1 female), he's met one other dog, a yellow lab (male) from our neighborhood and that was the only dog he didn't get along with. Just listing basic at home training Joey has: crate trained, house trained, 'sit', 'down' (mostly), 'place', 'wait', release word is 'okay', will wait for food, 'shake' (paw), working on 'roll over', 'crate', treat motivated, leash trained. Troublesome areas: pulls on leash (harness helps), barks at strangers, barks at random things (nervousness/anxiety), likes to jump on people (ignoring and turning back to him often helps),

Wake County
Raleigh, North Carolina