Bluey
Catahoula Leopard Dog | 2 Years old | Male | 59 LBs
QUICK FACTS: ✔️ Good with other dogs! ✔️ Good with cats! ✔️ Good with kids! ✔️ Crate trained! ✔️ Potty trained! ✔️ Walks well on leash! ✔️ Snuggle pup! 🫣 Shy at first
Check out these videos of Bluey here! and here!
Bluey is a 2 year old Catahoula Leopard Dog from Alabama. He was a stray in a community that tried to catch him for 3 months and because of this he has an extremely big fan club. Like all dogs, Bluey will need a patient owner at first to give him a bit of time to adjust and bond with his new owner (took about 3 days with his foster mom to want to be velcroed to her). Dogs typically need 3 days to decompress, 3 weeks to learn your routine, and 3 months to feel at home. Bluey has been in Wisconsin since June 15th.
Once he is settled in he is a major Velcro dog who has to be in the room with you and he loves to cuddle. He is extremely smart and one of the sweetest dogs you will meet. He loves squeaker toys and squeaker balls and is great at entertaining himself and he loves playing with other dogs. Currently Bluey lives with two cats and my resident dog, a high energy American Foxhound.
Energy Level:
I would say Bluey is a medium/medium high energy level dog. He easily keeps up with my high energy foxhound and he plays with him for about 1 hour a day wrestling and chasing each other outside. He is extremely fast and would benefit from a fenced in yard or trips to the dog park. We also do a 1.25 mile walk every day. Bluey gets excited to see other dogs on a walk and barks and will lunge to try to say hi. If you have hot dogs in your pocket he will easily re-direct and sit down. If he’s at a Fetch event and he can freely be with other dogs he doesn’t bark or lunge.
Training:
Bluey is extremely food motivated and will do anything for any level of food in the house. If he’s outdoors where there’s more distractions, he’ll need a higher value treat like hotdogs. When Bluey got to WI he wouldn’t take treats out of a hand. Now he’s like a normal dog and ready to learn. We just started doggie elementary school on Aug 14th (6 week class; 1x/week) so we’ve started a formal training program in addition to learning commands through daily living such as: kennel, wait, ok (to release from wait), leave it, drop it, come, off, no no, back up, heel, outside, and up up to jump into a car. He is extremely smart and learns things very quickly (I’m so proud of him!). Bluey does not chew on anything inappropriate. He’ll either have a toy in his mouth or a Benebone. He has no food sensitivities that I have found.
Crate Training:
Bluey is crate trained and will lay in his crate while I’m at work for 8 hours. He also eats his food in there to re-inforce good habits. His crate is right next to my resident dog’s kennel so he does have a companion. He will vocalize when I first leave the house and when I get home. I don’t leave him on his own without my resident dog much so I can’t truly say how he’d be as a single dog crated all day. I have not tested him free roaming. At night he sleeps in my room and will sometimes burrow himself under the blankets. He also prefers to be touching you while sleeping.
Potty Training:
Bluey is potty trained and has not had an accident in the house in over a month. He’ll vocalize or hit the bells on the door to go out. Or he’ll shake his ears at night to wake you up to go out.
Grooming:
Bluey has a short coat and will just need to be brushed during the shedding season. I haven’t noticed a lot of shedding from him in the two months that he’s been here. It’s really easy to trim his toenails when he’s tired. Bluey does not like a bath, hoses, or sprinklers etc; You will most likely need to keep him clean using grooming wipes or shampoo gloves with the leave on shampoo. If you give him a bath in a bath tub he panics and will try to claw his way out and acts like you are spraying acid on him. He also runs away from sprinklers and hoses and will watch from a distance. He may have had bad experiences in his past.
Dogs:
When Bluey first got to WI he needed decompression time and I didn’t let him meet new dogs but I let him watch my dog and another confident foster dog greet other dogs and people. Now Bluey wants to meet every dog he sees. He’ll go right up to a dog and say hi. If he is overly excited he may dart/nudge at the other dog. He does great by learning from observation. He is not a dominant dog and has listened to every dog that correct his behavior. When he plays with dogs she’s a rough and tumble guy if the other dog is a match for him. He appropriately switches back and forth as to who is on the top or bottom and who is being chased but with him being less dominant he can also become the one that other dogs pick on. This may change as he grows more confident, it’s fun to see him learn how to socialize.
Cats:
Bluey lives with 2 cats. When he got here he was scared of both cats and wouldn’t go near them. Now Bluey will chase my female cat that likes to try and play with the dogs. She’ll trill and run to get the dogs to chase her. My female cat is not declawed so he is more brave playing with her sometimes he will nudge her but he has never tried to hurt her. My male cat does have claws and has taken a swipe at him because he got too close for his comfort and now he respects him. If he hisses and swipes at Bluey he’ll turn and run away.
Kids:
I didn’t let Bluey meet kids when he first got to Wisconsin until I felt like he was more adjusted to life with humans. Now Bluey has met kids of all ages and has done great with them. I think he could successfully live with a family as long as the owners are patient and give Bluey time to adjust to their home. Bluey loves to play and can get the zoomies so you’ll just need to watch out for those with little ones since he’s so muscular.
Car Rides:
Bluey does ok in a car. I’m not sure how many times he’s been in a car in his life so he’s probably still learning that car rides are fun. Right now he will patiently sit in the backseat of my car but does pant and flick water/saliva off his tongue. We’ve been going to Fetch events, training class, and I try to take him to dog stores to get treats and toys.
