Let me provide some backstory, my brother who lives in an apartment near the university his attends, spent his summer vacation at my and my parents' apartment when he told us that he wanted to adopt a dog. He had been wanting a dog for years, so we understood that he was adamant about it. Our parents and I advised him to adopt an adult dog that has already been trained since he's a first time dog owner (none of us have had a dog before) and a puppy would have been too overwhelming for him. We have three cats, so we also told him to look for a dog that is friendly with cats just in case he wanted to bring it over at our place occasionally.
Despite our advice, he still adopted a two month old puppy that obviously had no training since it was so young. It's a girl, and it's a German Shepherd mix. Needless to say, just as we expected, my brother couldn't handle the puppy and it overwhelmed him. As his summer vacation came to an end and he had to go back to his place, he asked us if we could babysit the puppy for him until she became housebroken because his apartment didn't allow dogs that weren't housebroken. We obliged, and the puppy is now six months old, but it's been extremely difficult. She bites and barks a lot (to the point where our neighbors have complained about it), no matter what we do. She is doing much better when it comes to housetraining, though. She doesn't really have any accidents anymore, but my brother still refuses to take her back with him, and he will not allow us to give her a better home for some reason, so we're stuck with her. In the meantime, he got just got another dog, this time a 2 year old Siberian Husky. This one actually lives with him and he's taking responsibility for it since she's a completely trained and docile dog.
Now, onto what my post is about, we have three cats and it has been arduous getting the puppy to get along with them. I've googled how to introduce a new puppy to cats, and tried the suggestions, but nothing seems to quell the puppy's aggression towards them. I put a leash on the puppy during these encounters because she always tries to lunge at them. My cats let her know when she's getting too close for comfort by swatting her on the snout and hissing at her, but she still keeps trying to follow them around and lunge at them, She also keeps staring at them without breaking focus, which I've read is a bad sign, so I try to distract her with toys, treats, or by clapping, but most of the time, it doesn't work. I give her a treat on the rare occasions that she ignores them, but she just goes back to her old habits after a minute.
Today, the puppy did something else very concerning to me besides the attempts to lunge; she actually tried to nibble/bite them. My cats hissed and swatted at her, but it wasn't really deterring her. I ended the training session, and took my cats to my room. I am just extremely stressed at about this whole process, and there seems to be no improvement at all. I don't know what to do.
On a daily basis, I've suggested to my parents that we should give her to a better home and with people who actually know how to handle a puppy, but they say that they can't because my brother won't allow them to. I think it's ridiculous that someone who lives five hours away and doesn't have to deal with the puppy, is forcing us to keep it despite all of the difficulties we're having with it. He's evading responsibility for this puppy, and it's pissing me off.
I just need advice on what to do. Should we keep giving the puppy more chances or should we give it to a better home? If the former, my primary concern is what I can do to make her get along with the cats.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/duoxg0/im_having_a_lot_of_trouble_getting_the_puppy_to/
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