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The Ling Dogs, Alexandria, LA (2025)

Best advice I ever read, train the dog in front of you.

01/25/2025

Snow always feels like a little bit of magic to me, especially way down here in the south. I’m still dreaming about it.

11/24/2024

Some throwback videos for the first two of working with Hades around the cats, and the last two are of our newest kitten, Persephone (aka KitKat) who has absolutely no fear. She definitely gave me a few gray hairs when she decided she was going to force her love onto the dogs, especially Hades. The first picture is how little she was when the neighbor gave her to us, and the second picture is two weeks later when I finally let her cuddle with Hades.

As I said in the post before this one, Hades has high prey drive, which means the smaller and faster it is, the more fun. Since the dogs sleep in bed with us, KitKat stayed in the bathroom at night for those initial weeks, and was only allowed out and in bed with me and my husband awake and watching. Hades did great after a few reminders not to put the kitten’s head in his mouth even if he was gentle. At first I tried my best to stay between them and close enough to grab her if Hades changed his mind on all the work we’ve done to acclimate him to the cats not being dinner. But as KitKat got older and faster than me, she’d hop away and go straight up to Hades and snuggle into him. Hades will still chase the cats occasionally but even so he doesn’t try to catch them or nip at them.

The last part of this is that I know my dogs’ body language and I know when they’re playing, and when they’re serious. I know when Hades is just playing and when he’s locked on. Knowing him so well, and making sure we trained this specifically created the trust I have that he can have full access to the house when I’m here, and partial access to it and the cats when I’m gone. Just because that trust is there doesn’t mean I don’t watch him closely and make sure to call him off if he gets too excited. But that means we still consistently and constantly work on it. Train yourself, then train your dog.

11/08/2024

While this is mainly my dog account, we do have several cats! We’ve done a lot of work to make sure Hades can safely interact with and be loose around them. Hades is our Belgian Mal and has the highest drive in our house, so we wanted to make absolutely sure he understood that the cats are not to be eaten. While most of the time we are inside with the dogs, I do trust Hades to be alone with the cats for a couple hours.
Training: We’ve had cats before we got Hades, so while in the house as a puppy he was leashed, crated, or closed in the room we were in but still around them. I also took baby steps to having him off leash next to me with a treat or toy while we watched the cats play and dart around without engaging them. When his prey drive began to develop, and he had a foundation of not chasing the cats, we let him get closer to our more docile cats. We corrected roughness in any form, and focusing or staring too intently, and praised gentler interactions. At the final stage, we added in an ecollar, bomb proofed his ‘leave it’ command, and these pictures are the product. I trust my dog, BUT we still keep an eye on him and correct him for any fixating or play that’s a little too rough. It took me, as the advocate for both my high drive dog, AND the cats, at least a year and a half of WORK to build this trust. So please, enjoy the culmination of what happens when a great dog, patience, and training come together.

DISCLAIMER: some dogs will take years to get to a safe place around small animals. Some may never be able to coexist. Please research the breed you’re getting, the types of drives they might possess, how much drive you should expect (even if it’s not exact, knowing whether you’re getting a couch potato or an energizer bunny will better prepare you) and be honest with both your breeders and rescues if you have or live close to small animals and children. Even if you don’t pay for training, connect with other trainers and working dog groups to help prevent any issues or tragedies.

10/20/2024

Introducing baby Athena! My husband decided he wanted his own shepherd so after a little searching, we found a female German shepherd that was 5 months old. The first picture is the second visit, but to be honest we knew she picked my husband the first time we met her! She’s settled in nicely with Hades and Apollo. She and Hades are best friends and Apollo is enjoying not having to babysit Hades! She’s sharp as a tack and it’s been interesting to watch all the dogs learn from each other both in training and naturally in their environment. Hopefully we’ll have some training videos soon for what we’ve been up to with all three of them! She is now 9 months old and getting bigger every day!

12/17/2023

🎄🦝🌲

12/09/2023

Hades v the cats! This bomb ass dog amazes me every time we train. We did this a few days ago and again today. The only other training he’s had with the cats is being led to and from his crate by his collar while being told to leave it when he fixated on the cats. Swipe to see how much he used to hate the cats (to be fair the one in the video egged him on). Always such fun to see how brilliant he is!

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Alexandria, LA

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+13373968210

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Videos

Hades v the cats!

Hades v the cats! This bomb ass dog amazes me every time we train. We did this a few days ago and again today. The only other training he’s had with the cats is being led to and from his crate by his collar while being told to leave it when he fixated on the cats. Swipe to see how much he used to hate the cats (to be fair the one in the video egged him on). Always such fun to see how brilliant he is! . . . . . #belgianmalinois #belgianmalinoisofinstagram #belgianmalinoislovers #dogtraining #belgianmalinoismoments #belgianmalinoisofig #belgianmalinoislove #belgianmalinoislife #malinois #malinoislovers #malinoisofinstagram #instamalinois #malinoislife #malinoisofficial #dogsofinstagram #dogoftheday

The Ling Dogs