Dog Bonding?

[Tipsy Bunny]

Man, I have not been on in a while!  I was at my parents house a couple of hours away for the long weekend and brought Tipsy with me.  My sister and my parents both have French Bulldogs.  While one is a little over excited about Tip, the other is pretty good about her, stays her distance, never snaps, lets her come up to sniff, and does not get frightened if Tipsy accidently jumps on top of her to get on the bed, and never chases to bite or hunt, she first saw Tip and is all about play!  She puts her butt in the air and starts making noises in hopes of getting Tipsy riled up.  But just a couple days ago, I put Tip out in my sisters yard and the bigger one, thats the over excited one (thats Onion), got a little too chasey, and scared Tip.  Just that morning, Tipsy and the littler one (thats Pearl) were going back and forth doing small spurts of chasing each other.  Now, whenver Pearl tries to ignite some chase time, Tipsy gets scared and just starts running, but Pearl thinks its play and runs after her… note that when I watch Tipsy, she is not breathing heavy, she is not screaming, her eyes arent bugging out, its more “I dont want this to get out of hand so I am getting out of here” kind of run, cause when everyone stops running she either grooms herself, or lays down.  Things were going so smoothly and I thought what was going to take weeks was only taking hours, but then Onion had to ruin the flow.  So will my Tipsy be able to have a dog/bunny relationship?  Or will she be afraid of playing chase forever?

[LoveChaCha]

I would put a leash on the dog that is going after your rabbit

[kinggoblin]

My dog & rabbit are fine together, he annoys her, she pretends he doesn’t exist and ignores his attempts to be “friends”.

My boyfriend’s relatives have two dogs though, one is not bad, the other is wild and very badly behaved, and when we visit them I keep them locked out of the room my bunny stays in. He is scared of them and I am scared the wild one will hurt him.

[Mandyyy]

Every dogs different. My Pit can get a little over excited with animals (he was never taught as a pup how to act with people or animals, so he gets over excited.) I would use positive reinforcement for the dogs and teach them to ignore the bunny, or at least just sniff/lick tipsy.

They also could be playing. My hound is AWESOME with animals, and they buns and her chase each other around my room.

[Sarita]

They won’t ever bond like a rabbit to a rabbit. And you don’t want the dog chasing the rabbit either. It may be playing for the dog, but it’s frightening for the rabbit.

Definitely never let them out together without supervision.

Also it can be stressful to the dogs as well having another species in the house…works both ways.

[Rabbit lover]

One of my dogs Oreo gets along really well with my buns however Bano my other dog thinks they are toys. =c I just let him see the bunnies threw a dog gate he is getting to see that they are not toys.

[LBJ10]

My dog gets overly excited sometimes. She loved our chinchillas and they would play with her, so she thinks the rabbits are just something else to play with her. She doesn’t chase, but she will try to force herself into a corner if that is where the rabbits are sitting. They pretty much ignore her and don’t seem amused. They aren’t afraid of her though. My dog will crouch down and be wagging her tail and the rabbits will only give her a passing sniff. She is so good at finding little ones though. One of our chinchillas had gotten lost (he was scared and hiding). I asked my dog where he was at and she went right to where he was hiding (under our dresser, somewhere he had never been before). Anyway, I’d like to think she would find a lost rabbit some day if it was needed. LOL Will they ever have a bond? Probably not. I have seen some bunny-dog friendships that were pretty good though.

[Mandyyy]

My rabbits don’t get stressed out about the dogs playing with them. In fact they will play back with the dogs. They grew up with dogs and cats, and they are the only other animals my bunnies like (well domino, she hates everything else). I have even caught my bunnies and dogs laying/cuddling together. :/

Every bun and every dog (no matter the breed) is an individual, and it depends on the animal it self.

I’m a dog trainer, so I have a lot of experience with different breeds and dogs.

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