Cato American Staffordshire Terrier & Pit Bull Terrier Mix Saint Paul, MN

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• Adoption fees are as follows: 2-5 months old: $400, 6-9 months old: $350, 10+ months old: $250. This covers their Spay/Neuter, Vaccinations, Microchip, 4DX, Fecal Tests, and Housing Costs.

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Cato is probably the toughest dog to describe, so as his foster mom, I’m just going to tell you about him from my perspective…

He is Very high energy – he needs lots of attention and exercise. If the weather’s bad we will sometimes just run him up and down the stairs to wear him out. Keep in mind that he will have his energy back in a couple hours. The more you wear him out the more focused he is.
Cato is challenging, his brain seems to be sporadic and sometimes he’s unpredictable. The more I get to know him, the better I can predict him and conquer the challenges we face. He has fear issues that make him a different dog in the outside world.
Indoors he’s rompy, silly, happy and full of cuddles. He takes some time to bond with people, but once he does he just pours love to them. You have to have a lot of patience because he doesn’t just open up to everyone right away. He’s my shadow around the house and we’re working on creating space between each other so he doesn’t trip me. Also learning to stay out of the kitchen which all is going well. He gets along great with our dogs – we have a female 4 yr old and a male 3 yr old, both high energy pits. They’re teaching him to stay calm, play nice, and manners. He is a part of their pack.
Outside, he’s gone from finding it extremely scary to trusting me as his handler. He checks in with me and if I need to I’ll put him in a sit stay with eye contact to keep him confident. When he first came to us new people were very scary and he would freak out and try to run from me, so each walk we take is training time. I have treats with us, we walk a bit then do a sit, his head is always right at my knee in a heal position and when new people come I prevent any outburst. I start doing our basic sit stays, saying his name so he looks at me and keep his focus on me so he knows that I’m there. With him you need to prevent the issue because once he goes into a fearful state of mind it’s very hard to break and bring him back down. Bikes are the scariest – he will jump, roll, spaz out on the other end of the leash- if I’m able to prevent him from focusing on a biker, then the situation is better. His new owner will need to do a lot of training to bond with him this much so they can be his “safety blanket” like I am right now. I’ve been Cato’s foster for 7 months so I’m very willing to pass along as much helpful knowledge that I can.
At this point with having had Cato so long, he’s pretty much a normal dog with some challenging moments. He does have separation anxiety which is getting better with time as well. I’ve been able to make this much progress with him because I worked with a professional dog trainer. Cato’s fee may be waived, but he’s not “free” – his future owner will be investing in ongoing dog training for him. That being said, Cato has a $400 training credit for an approved trainer that is included with his adoption. I think Cato is an amazing dog and if the training and time is invested you will get the best friend you’re looking for … actually you’ll get more than that because he will do anything to please who he loves. He’s very intelligent, easy to train, fun to work with and when people get to see his silly side – they’re nothing but smiles because he’s very adorable. He’s worth investing the time and energy into because he give back just as much as you give.
Everyone in the household has to be willing to invest equal amount of work and time. If they don’t he will become codependent on one person and that triggers his separation anxiety. This is also why we would prefer a household without kids. Cato does a bit better with female dogs that can put him into place when he’s too wild. He does also need to be in a home and not a condo/apartment because of the anxiety that he has. We feel that Cato is very adaptable and with time and training he can be molded into a better version of himself. If you are looking to help, work with and fall in love with a dog like Cato, please fill out an application and do a meet and greet.