A guess is no biggie.

Even a DNA test is shown to be not that accrate.

Breeds of dogs (especially in mutts) are helpful for activity level. Period. Mikey is two herding breeds-yet he thinks he’s a hunter.

AND I tell ya-the first time he met the rabbits-I figured NEVER could he be with them. It doesn’t matter what they are inclined to be=it matters the training

OH and follow up? I can leave him unsuprvised with my senior buns even, and he’s fine.

I have a poodle terrier mix and he is fine with the rabbit, my full terrier just wants to eat them though. Only time will tell if your dog likes them or wants to eat them. I don’t THINK that training her not to hunt will work, but that’s just me, cuz I have had two terriers and they both were critter crazy, Luckily in this household the dogs are confined to the kitchen and the bunnies to my bedroom.

A great command to start with to help, is the “Leave it” command. If your dog has a strong will to please you and knows “leave it” really well, it shouldnt matter what the object is, he/she will/should leave whatever it is you want it to not touch, alone. My boston terrier, Beemer, he is INSANELY hyper! and he doesnt miss a beat. I had a hamster and let her walk around, whenever he would charge straight towards her, a simple “leave it” and he would stop dead in his tracks and turn around and look at me. LOTS of treats or whatever motivates your dog most, is really good to start with. I would suggest starting with putting food down and teaching him leave it that way first. Then work up to the rabbits being in a cage or carrier and when he goes to sniff the cage/carrier telling him to leave it and every time you say it and he looks at you give him a treat. then move towards the rabbits being behind a baby gate and do the same thing until he no longer goes up to it and just doesnt even bother with it. after that put him on a leash and in the same room as the rabbits and again the leave it command and treats. Eventually you get to off leash training and such. Depending on how strong willed he is about wanting to play or get the rabbits will depend on how long it will take. You can do the training yourself or get a basic commands book, or even seek the help of a dog trainer, whichever you feel more comfortable with.

But if you are serious about wanting to keep the dog and have the rabbits out, training will def help and work if you are persistent with it.

edit: also you wont be training a trait out of the dog. and I would suggest NEVER leaving the dogs and rabbits alone together when you arent there to watch the dog. Dogs are still dogs no matter how well trained they are when you are with them haha.

It’s going to be a very individual thing. Like Ashelee said, you won’t want to ever leave a dog and bun together unsupervised, regardless of their history together. It only takes a split second… It is entirely possible that they may never get along, so I think that’s a big factor in determining if a dog is right for you. You can and should do training but it would likely take months and by the time you’re done, they may be no better off together.

We would love to have a dog, but the bun factor is one thing that is stopping us… we’d have to find the PERFECT dog and I know that is VERY DIFFICULT to do.

Can’t you just give the bunnies part of the house and the dog the other part- if you want your bunnies to be free roam.

I’ve done a lot of research about dogs since I’d still like to get one. The one thing that is always agreed on is not to get a dog that is closely related to a wolf or a breed that was derived from wolves in any way. Aside from that it is generally agreed that any breed of dog can be trained not to eat your bunny if done properly. Of course, the dogs personality has a lot to do with it and many agree that you shouldn’t bother starting until your dog is full grown although I tend to disagree with that one. I want a scottish terrier and after my research the fact that they were bred to hunt badgers isn’t enough to change my mind. I think it is much more about the individual dog than the breed of dog. For instance, boxers are generally really smart dogs but the one my mom had was dumb as a box of rocks, maybe even dumber.

Anyway, there was another post about dogs and I included a link with an amazing article about how to get your dog to get along with your bunny. Let me know if you can’t find it and I’ll go hunt down the link again. A trainer can not help you in this area at all, it is entirely up to you and not someone else as this has to take place in your home with your bun and dog.

Aww I’m so sorry youre in this situation! Good luck with the other trainers!

I’ve never tired to introduce my parent’s dog to Leroy – I don’t live with them – so I don’t have any first hand experience, but I would think that this is also important to consider… how are your buns around new situations? Are they timid/fearful, or outgoing and more the “ima kick your butt if you tick me off!” type? Regardless, you’ll need to make sure your rabbits are comfortable around the dog – perhaps offer lots of hidey boxes that the dog can’t get to if the buns get scared. Even a lunge toward a bunny may scare it badly – remember that wild rabbits have an instinct to flee from predators such as coyotes and foxes – dog-like animals. Sorry… that probably wasn’t very encouraging…

I think if done slowly it is possible though, there are BB members who have proven that. Good luck!

I went and found that link anyway, here it is.
http://www.wisconsinhrs.org/Articles/Bunnies%20and%20Dogs.htm

Also, as to what MoonlightWolf said that I forgot to address, he is right. Training your dog not to hunt won’t be enough. Your rabbit also needs to be trained which is why you do it with your animals together. It won’t matter one whit if your dog isn’t “hunting” your bun, if your bun is scared (and it will be without a doubt) it could sit right there and have a heart attack (literally) on the spot just because something that should be eating it is smelling it. Stories of buns having fatal heart attacks caused by fear is the reason I don’t take Freya out for walks beyond the yard, the last thing I want is someone’s dog to scare her to death.

I just wanted to give you link to this video involving a Pit Bull and a rabbit (a cottontail actually). Pitbulls have a certain reputation but this video just goes to show how much personality, training and loving care of your animals can make a difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch  Though I’m not totally convinced Sparky is bathing the bun…  Also see other videos with this dog. They look to be set-up, puting these animals together, but it still demonstates the gentleness of this dog and the owners proper disciplining of him.

Hugs Sandy. I’m sorry. The dog sounds like a sweetie and I am hoping she will find a wonderful forever home.

Thanks K&K, but then, how do I proceed? Would a professional dog trainer help? The whole dog thing is new to me right now, but Sugar seems to be very trainable. I taught her a few things, but to train a trait (I see the glaze in her eyes when she looks at the buns) out of a dog seems like hard work. I can barely keep myself disciplined, let alone dog… LOL.

A trainer could certainly help. Period your going to need to go forward slowly and always supervise First work on a ‘gentle’ command. You want a command that means ‘kisses’ or ‘stop and lay down’ or whatever stops the dog from doig whatever and do something gentle(up to you here on semantics) DO not work with the dog and bunnies until this command is solid

We went to our first puppy training class today and comparing her to the other puppies, I think I have a great dog. I did shed a few tears when I asked the trainer about the rabbit hunting instinct and she said, “this might not be the right dog for you”

My dog as near as we know and can guess is two herding breeds-but he thinks hes a hunter.

Breeds in dogs can give you an idea of energy level and tendancies. It’s not the be all and end all. You CAN work with your dog.

Here’s how I’d go about it.

1) Desensitize your dog to the buns. Allow your dog to see or be near the buns, and get that to be a good thing by giving treats (ensure the treats are given when not acting hunty or predatory or drooling. Make sure it’s for good things. But you want your dog to associate the buns with good things

2) Work on the gentle command (or whatever you choose to call it) The command wll be a settle down, or kiss or lay down command. Just something that gets the dog to stop and relax and be gentle

3) SLOWLY introduce with your bun in your arms-so your dog knows you ‘own’ it and they don’t get to do what they please (think the couch or the bed or your dinner-your dog doesn’t dare challenge you for those-so act the same waY)

IT CAN be done!!! You’ll need to work hard but it certainly can be done. When Mikey was first around the buns-the drooled and watched and was ready to ‘catch and eat’ and now, I can leave him in small time periods alone because he’s mostly concerned with eating poops and he knows he can’t bit or roll or play (he does play bows when the run-which says to me he understands they are pets now, not food).

I think you are putting way to much stock in the breed thing. If YOUR specific dog is going to eat the rabbits than maybe it should go. But, if you thought it would work before it suddenly became a terrier than it still could…It sounds like if you hadnt know it was a terrier you would keep it.

All i’m saying is pretend you didnt know what breed it was, than evaluate from there. Also, I should say that boxers aren’t really a good breed for rabbits either. I’ve had boxers most of my life, and I have to say basically every boxer i’ve known would hunt a rabbit. I’m not really sure why boxers would be better than terriers. They were bred to hunt things too. Maybe you could find a dog in a shelter that has experience with rabbits / small animals. Also, many shelters have both rabbits and dogs, so you could pick a dog that ignores the rabbits at the shelter.

I agree with Jessie here, 110%. It’s not about what kind of dog you have but about the dog itself. If you really can’t plan on keeping your buns and a dog seperate all of the time when you aren’t home for the remainder of their lives, a dog isn’t for you. If you can’t plan on keeping them apart when you are home until they are taught to get along, a dog isn’t for you. If you can’t invest months into teaching them to get along, a dog isn’t for you. If you love this dog and are able to spend the time and effort needed to helping your animals get along, keep the dog. But honestly, getting a different dog will not improve your situation a whit. If you take any dog at all, any breed at all and just randomly put in in a room with a rabbit, it’ll try to eat the rabbit, it’s what dogs do. Breed has absolutely nothing to do with that.

Posted By Adalaide on 11/07/2009 01:16 PM
I’ve done a lot of research about dogs since I’d still like to get one. The one thing that is always agreed on is not to get a dog that is closely related to a wolf or a breed that was derived from wolves in any way. 

All dogs are descended from wolves–the gray wolf, specifically.  Their classification was changed from Canis familiaris (domesticated dog) to Canis lupus familiaris (domesticated wolf dog) to reflect the results of DNA testing.  

As others have said, all dogs (like all people and all buns) are individuals.  A breed standard is able to give you hints, but the dog’s individual personality and aptitudes will trump breeding every time.  I’ve known retrievers that could never learn to retrieve, terriers that were laid-back couch potatoes and more than a few “vicious” breeds that might damage you by licking your face off, but that’s about it.  Another note of hope in your favor is that you have a pup that’s going to be exposed to the other animals in your household.  Dogs are very social creatures and tend to view the occupants of their household as their pack.  My husband’s family had a dog when he was small that would kill cats (ugh!  I know!) that wandered onto their property.  But they had four cats of their own and the dog never showed any aggression towards “his” cats at all.

Take things slow, talk to trainers and keep their interactions strictly supervised (not that you don’t already know that!).  I don’t know that I’d ever leave a dog and bun together unsupervised; the dog may be the kindest creature on the face of the earth, but (most of the time) they outweigh the bun by several orders of magnitude.  A bit of ordinary play (to a dog), could really hurt a bun.

It’s not about what kind of dog you have but about the dog itself

I’m going to disagree here a bit. With rabbits yes breed does not really matter for most things. With dogs-it does matter for a lot of things. She can certainly work with the dog and likely succeed here….

But the breed really does matter-for energy level (like a lab) and tendancies (huskies are more independant, chowchows are hard to train, labs love their balls etc) It is Important
For instance, I don’t think I’d ever have a doxy around a rabbit-they were bred to kill them-this does matter!

As others have said, all dogs (like all people and all buns) are individuals. A breed standard is able to give you hints, but the dog’s individual personality and aptitudes will trump breeding every time. I’ve known retrievers that could never learn to retrieve, terriers that were laid-back couch potatoes and more than a few “vicious” breeds that might damage you by licking your face off, but that’s about it. Another note of hope in your favor is that you have a pup that’s going to be exposed to the other animals in your household. Dogs are very social creatures and tend to view the occupants of their household as their pack. My husband’s family had a dog when he was small that would kill cats (ugh! I know!) that wandered onto their property. But they had four cats of their own and the dog never showed any aggression towards “his” cats at all.

Take things slow, talk to trainers and keep their interactions strictly supervised (not that you don’t already know that!). I don’t know that I’d ever leave a dog and bun together unsupervised; the dog may be the kindest creature on the face of the earth, but (most of the time) they outweigh the bun by several orders of magnitude. A bit of ordinary play (to a dog), could really hurt a bun.

Couldn’t have said it better

I might, depending on the cost, get an assessment of Sugar and how she relates to the rabbits, and take it from there.

Yes and maybe she can give you tips and ideas of exercises to try with her. Like a training/desensitization gameplan

Sounds promising!!

Hugs. :o(

Thank you, Sandy. That is valuable advice… a dog that shows NO INTEREST in buns. I am going to keep that in mind.

Posted By Beka27 on 11/14/2009 08:29 AM
Hugs. :o(

a dog that shows NO INTEREST in buns. I am going to keep that in mind.

Is there such a thing? Other than a dead dog, I can’t think of any dog that prior to training would have no interest in rabbits.

 edit: Ruffles, I do think you did the right thing. Sugar would have taken time to get to a point where she would be gentle to your rabbits. The rat terrier has such a spark when it comes to small creatures of prey. It can be done, though.

As a rule of thumb, I would go with a larger herding type of dog for living in a house with rabbits.

My vet really disagrees with me alowing my dogs near my rabbits because as a species dogs will hunt rabbits like cats toy with mice.I didn’t want to live in a house, though, where I have to worry what would happen if dogs and rabbits ever bumped into one another. They had to be introduced.

I used a chrome pinch collar on my dogs to get them to stop pawing at my rabbits. I also misted water on their faces if they wanted to chase. I did the same for training them not to jump up on people and children.  My dogs are large. I introduced the rabbits one by one to each dog separately and in the beginning only caged.

With all that, I can tell you with certainty if my dogs saw my rabbits outside in the yard running fast — there would be a chase until my dogs got close enough to recognize them. Indoors and on the patio the dogs are very gentle with them but I always always make sure that there is a tunnel or other stationary hide-out that my rabbits can get to safety, not because my dogs want to hurt them, but because my dogs play hard with each other and I can’t have my rabbits getting caught in that.

Beka, I know you worry about Max and Meadow for when your husband wants a dog. I reallly don’t think you will have problems; if you can bond two rabbits, and teach a little boy how to handle them, you can train a dog not to hurt them. It’s about supervision and reading body language.

Hahah Petzy I agree Babybunsmum’s Bogart comes close-he’s sooo calm he’s almost disinterested. In fact she has a video of Baby peeing on him (literally standing on her dog peeing) and he’s just like *sigh* Mom…can you make her stop

With all that, I can tell you with certainty if my dogs saw my rabbits outside in the yard running fast — there would be a chase until my dogs got close enough to recognize them. Indoors and on the patio the dogs are very gentle with them but I always always make sure that there is a tunnel or other stationary hide-out that my rabbits can get to safety, not because my dogs want to hurt them, but because my dogs play hard with each other and I can’t have my rabbits getting caught in that.

Totally agree here-Mikey is really great with the buns (despite a rocky start) however he took off in the park the other day to chase two wild ones. It’s different with house buns though-same as dogs who have cats in the house but will chase cats outside…ok like Mikey too. When we had the kittens here after a few intros I could let them romp around and he just followed wagging his tail and smiling. And he plays fine with my friends cat too…but cats in the backyard get chased!

OK, the advice you’re getting is ticking me off.

I own a seriously prey drivey pit bull and I also own 6 rabbits and two ferrets. It is absolutely doable to have the dog and the rabbits in the same house BUT you have to really want it and the bunnies can’t be completely free roam.

Did anyone suggest crate training for your dog? We know that rabbits are crepuscular and are in resting mode for most of the middle of the day. You could pen them during the day while the dog is loose in the house, then crate the dog and give her a high value treat like a marrow bone while the bunnies get out of cage time.

Vets are not the best people to aks about animal behavior. They are not behaviorists OR trainers. Your average cookie pushing trainer is ALSO NOT a behaviorist, they teach commands. The very best person to talk to besides an actual behaviorist (which can be expensive) is a die hard dog rescuer. They can help you work out almost ANY kink in your living arrangement to help you keep all of your animals.

Sorry…I just can’t stand it when people who think they know animals give crappy advice.

Posted By TARM  on 11/18/2009 07:01 AM

You could pen them during the day while the dog is loose in the house, then crate the dog and give her a high value treat like a marrow bone while the bunnies get out of cage time.

I think because there are children involved who may open the rabbit’s cage unseen, the dog should be 100% rabbit-proof. I also know that any dog can get to that point but I think Ruffles wasn’t able to invest the time needed.– I agree with TARM about that advice given to Ruffles. It’s pretty absurd. Does this ‘behaviorist’ actuially get paid for saying things like that? — I woud imagine even Babybunsmum’s Bogart would have been “interested”, at least at the start.

My dog was as bad as any with rabbits in the beginning.

Posted By Kokaneeandkahlua on 11/15/2009 11:50 PM

Totally agree here-Mikey is really great with the buns (despite a rocky start) however he took off in the park the other day to chase two wild ones. It’s different with house buns though-same as dogs who have cats in the house but will chase cats outside…ok like Mikey too. When we had the kittens here after a few intros I could let them romp around and he just followed wagging his tail and smiling. And he plays fine with my friends cat too…but cats in the backyard get chased!

My Pit Bull was the same. With dogs and cats. I didn’t have rabbits then. I always wished people would have put their bias aside and allow for an intro between their dog/cat and my dog, but they just saw her breed. My friends’ dogs and cats got along great with mine because they were introduced.

Petzy! OMG! Love! That picture!!!

I wish I could get my dogs to do that.