The Training Starts As Soon As You Walk In The Door - with Josh and Mandy Boutelle
What are the first things you should do when you bring a kitten home to live with your adolescent dog? In this chat with fellow pet professionals Josh and Mandy Boutelle, we talk about how they helped their new kitten, Fig, quickly settle into life with their exuberant dog, Fern.
What you'll hear in this episode:
how they started creating positive experiences for the pets as soon as Fig came home
why they waited a week before posting online that Fig had joined their family
what signs indicated that Fern might be able to coexist with a cat
why they didn't keep Fig and Fern separated for long
why kittens and potted houseplants don't mix
To listen to the full episode, click here to open it in your podcast player or press play below:
Fern and Fig
Day 1, 7:30pm - The Homecoming
Fern hangs out in the backyard
Fig goes to Josh’s office (his safe space)
multiple barriers go up (so Fern doesn’t have direct access to Fig’s door)
Read Mandy’s Instagram post about that first night here.
By Day 3: short training sessions together
Current Status: BESTIES
Snuggle Buddies
Nature Explorers
Update 10/19/2022 from Mandy:
Listened to the episode yesterday and really enjoyed it!!!! Also cracking up at the changes we’ve experienced since we chatted.
He TOTALLY meows at me to go outside in the yard now and will throw a fit if he does not get in the yard at least ONCE a day 😅🤣 he also now meows to be with Fern if they’re in other rooms.
Oh and he has total free reign of the house and no plant casualties. Though he did pull my succulent out of its pot the other day when I left my office open 🤣
What’s Next for Fern and Fig?
trick titles?
camping
being left alone together
This episode’s guests:
Pulling from their backgrounds in dog training & graphic design, Josh & Mandy Boutelle own and operate digiwoof and Woof Cultr where they help other behavior pros & spread the message of ethical training methods.
You can get in touch with Josh and Mandy here:
digiwoof
info@digiwoof.com
Woof Cultr
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