Got a PUPPY!! (rabbit interaction video)

[Jhulbe]

Below is the video link, sorry it’s side ways. You get the idea though.

 

We brought home a 12week old chow-chow/spitz mix (supposively semi-aggresive breeds) we got the dog home, and let him get accustomed to the house. We had the rabbit cage covered by a $3 fleece blanket from wal-mart. The dog didn’t seem to mind it at all.

 

We wore the dog out all day long, and late that night we gave him a bone and he laid down right infront of the rabbit cage. We decided to take the rabbit out, and after about 20minutes they finally got close.

 

I suppose it’s good the dog just really doesn’t care one way or the other about a rabbit. I think they’ll be able to get along. I’m glad we got a young dog. I’m sure they’ll be best of friends!

 

Hopefully I can get you guys some cute interaction videos. This one was from Day 1 the puppy came home from the pound.

 

 

 UPDATED VIDEO EDIT: 

Dog is 4 months older. Around 6months

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD7mkEuSZDo

[Barbie]

Congrats on the new addition! Your puppy and bunny are both adorable!

It’s good that the dog doesn’t seem interested in the bunny, but I do have to caution you against just putting them together like that. For the first several meetings (even the first several weeks,months, as long as it takes), the dog should be under control on a leash in case he does change his mind about the bunny. I got my dog two months ago, and I’m going slowly – he and the bunnies still haven’t had any nose to nose meetings… and while my dog has learned that when he’s around the bunnies he just needs to lay down and watch but not touch, it’s possible that I’ll decide not to take the risk and the bunnies will never have physical contact with the dog…. There are several members on here who have dogs that live amicably with bunnies, but that requires a special kind of dog… who knows, you may have lucked out!

As puppy gets more settled into his home and as he matures, you’ll find that his personality might change. Work with him on obedience training – he needs to have the basics down pat – in case he gets over excited one day around the bunny you’ll be able to bring him back under control. Since he’s a puppy he’s going to have lots of energy, and his antics might scare/startle the bunny, but I can see that your bunny is brave, so that’s a good sign. It’s best to go VERY slowly with these things, you don’t want the bunny to become frightened (rabbits are, after all, prey animals) and you don’t want the dog to see the bunny as a source of frustration (meaning you don’t want to always be telling the dog “no!” around the bunnies – set up your puppy to succeed by teaching him basic obedience commands and by controlling the situation in which he meets the bunny).

Good luck! More pictures please!

[Jhulbe]

I’ve been doing postitive re-enforcement clicker training on the dog since hour 1. He got sit, laydown, and stay down the first day. Part of the reason he was tired.

 

I was more concerned about the rabbit hurting the dog honestly. The wife was  standing right behind me ready to grab the dog. It doesn’t show in the video, but she was atleast an arms length away.

 

We wanted them to have certian level of freedom though, and meet on their own time. When the rabbit came off the couch, I put the dog in the laydown command. He’s pretty addiment about not releasing a command until told to do so. I’ve quite versed in dog training actually.

 

All I have to do now is to get the dog to stop attacking brooms.

[Jhulbe]

 

 

 

 

[Jhulbe]

Can actually see the rabbit house in this photo. We just moved into a new house like a week ago, so that’s why everything is out.

 

 

 

 

[KatnipCrzy]

I would recommend not letting the puppy have a rawhide or other “special goodie” when they are out together.  Some dogs get (what I call) “rawhide stupid” if they have a rawhide and another animal of person approaches.  There is just something about rawhides that can trigger a guarding behavior in some dogs that do not display that at any other time.

So for now- make sure there is nothing to squabble over.  And let the puppy have the rawhide at another time when you are there to supervise.  You should also practice taking the rawhide away when the puppy is fully engaged in chewing on it- give praise if it is easily given up.

[Sarita]

No, you are putting your rabbit at risk not the puppy. I would never ever let them play together even supervised. Right now it seems like the dog doesn’t care but you never know when the dog is going to turn. Proper training for your puppy is key but I wouldn never trust a puppy with a rabbit or even an adult dog.

While you think your rabbit is acting brave, he may be doing this as protection.

[Deleted User]

Agreed with what’s been said above.
— I do think it’s great you are starting clicker training already. Once your dog has the basic obedience down, it will give you a starting point for the rabbit-dog intros. Right now, watch carefully for when the puppy starts pawing at the rabbit because he will as part of his discovery behavior. For this reason, I’d leash the puppy in the presence of the bunny.

He is gorgeous. Does he have the blue tongue?

[Sarita]

Just noticed and watched the video and you really are putting your rabbit at risk by not leashing the dog.

He’s a cute puppy but one thing to keep in mind is that the majority of insurance companies won’t insure your home if they know you own a Chow. Just something to keep in mind…I don’t think many people realize this.

[Deleted User]

Good tip, Sarita. I didn’t realize this was a concern even in the States. It is too bad that there are so many restrictions on breeds nowadays when it really comes down to socialization.
Any dog is as good as the work you put in him.

Jhulbe, –congrats on the new puppy — keep us posted on his progress with the rabbit; it is always a hot topic, dog-rabbit intros.
I hear chows bond very strongly with their owners and maybe even with a bunny over time??

[Kyoshi]

He is stunnning, beautiful, amazing. Does he have a blue/purplish tongue? He must look amazing if he does. I do have to say i disagree with the comment of “Not allowing a puppy around a rabbit” as there ARE dog breeds, such as the Golden Retriever, that are VERY good with other pets. Just not to confuse anyone. The Chow has a 3/5 rating on frendliness to other pets, and the spitz has a bit of hunting in it, so DEFINETELY exercise caution around the bunny. If introduced at a young age though, problems would be minimal. But I agree with Sarita. Dog are no childrens book. They can change and turn at any time. I’d always keep the dog leashed. He might be ok now, but when hes older, he’ll get big and strong. He might paw at the bunny (innocent puppy play) or nip at it ( as a puppy, innocent puppy play. As an adult, no way), or even just trodd over it (that would be a complete accident) all of which would be fatal. But coudos to you for clicker training so early!

[Jhulbe]

just recorded a training session. Rabbit is 1 year 3 months, and dog is 6months old.

I’m uploading the end where he stops obeying commands. It’s about 5 minutes long.

Training is an /almost/ everyday thing. ~10-20 minutes sessions of them together.

[Otti]

yeah, I’m sorry, I’m sure that you have the best intentions, but from the video you posted earlier it really doesn’t seem like you’re doing the rabbit/puppy introduction properly. I think it’s important that you realize that your dog is just a puppy. He can’t be expected to be consistent in obeying commands or behaving yet. Even if it might seem like he is, all it takes is one time for him to ‘forget’ or decide to misbehave, and he could do some serious damage to your rabbit if not kill it.

I really think you should be doing these sessions while holding your rabbit in your lap or otherwise still on the floor, and with someone else holding your dog on a leash, and possibly also bracing it with their arms as well… You should take it much slower than this if you want it to really be safe.

[Jhulbe]

considering the original video is exactly 4 months old, and nothing has happened. I’d say it’s working quite well.

In person you’re able to judge the animals mood quite easily. You can tell when they’re being too playful and jumpy, or when the dog is just in a general “don’t care” mood. Note that once the dog started paying attention to the rabbit in the original video I cut it.. I stopped recording because something might have happened. 

Also what you don’t see in the video is my wife hovering basically right over the dog. Some element of trust is needed otherwise the dog is just going to learn not to touch the rabbit when held down.

New video is uploaded, but still in the “processing” phase.

You’ll note the dog is leashed in this video because I was alone, but normally we trust the dog to not be tied down. As long the dog is obeying commands at the moment I let him have free reign. I don’t ever expect them to ever be trusted to be left alone together, but I still feel it’s necessary for the dog to get as much interaction as possible at an early age. I’ve seen no negative effects of my method. Start interaction for the day when the dog is calm. Once he starts getting more puppy like, we separate the two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD7mkEuSZDo

[Otti]

I’m sorry but I have to disagree. I don’t think that the fact that you’ve had no incidents in 4 months of training your dog in this way shows that it was the proper way to train him. All it shows is that you were lucky there weren’t any incidents. If your dog had decided for one second to act differently that you believed he would, you would not have been in a position to properly protect your rabbit. It might seem like you’re only 2 to 4 feet away from them at all times, but animals are much quicker and more instinctive than us, so that’s a significant distance to cover counting in the inferiority of human reflexes.

Four months into the process, you can be somewhat more comfortable about your dog’s reactions, having monitored them over that period of time. However, I still don’t think that starting the process out the way you did is safe, and I think that needs to be said, even if I might come off as argumentative, for the sake of others who might try to emulate your efforts and who might not be so lucky.

[Sarita]

I have to agree with Otti. Seems to me that the puppy is still lunging at stuff and the rabbit is probably scared. I would never trust a puppy not to be leashed around a rabbit. Just my opinion on this.

[Karla]

Hey. I think it looks good. And what a cute dog I agree with your methods completely.

We trained our dog to be around the bunnies more or less the same way – with a leash and with looots of treats in the beginning. And we actually brought in a dog that had lived a year on the streets. We did not have any problems at all. We
taught him that he was never allowed into the bunny room, so he used to just lay right by the open door and look at them when they were jumping around. Also, he was told to lay down if they came near him. We don’t have him anymore due to other reasons based on his background.

 

Of course, you can never trust a dog 100 % completely until he has fully matured, but it sounds like you know what you are doing.

[Otti]

Karla, just pointing out that Jhulbe only used a leash if he was the only one in a room. If his wife was present, he didn’t have the dog leashed, which doesn’t seem safe.

[Karla]

If the bunnies were in the same room as our dog, we would use a leash, although he ignored them, but once he learned he was never at any time allowed to enter the bunny room although the door was open, he would not be in a leash – but under supervision.

He did not have a hunting instinct though and I do know that both spitzes and chow-chows do so, but actually I know tons of people with hunting dogs that run around on the farm with free-run chicken with no problems. It is a matter of teaching the dog self-control and considering the bunnies at part of the family.

It just sounds that Jhulbe is working with the dog the right way – mentally stimulation before introducing them, clicker training et.c and if he is confident that the dog obeys the commands and will lay down the second he commands it, then we should trust that it is right. I will say one thing though and that is once the puppy turns 5-7 months, he becomes a teenager and becomes sliiightly “deaf”, so Jhulbe, you might want to put a leash on him during that period or watch him carefully until he is back on track and his brain is back in his head

Petzy has two dogs that are very bunny-friendly, perhaps you can write to her and ask how she did.

[Otti]

Yes, if he learns over time that his dog can be trusted, as he seems he has and as you were able to do with your dog, then it’s appropriate to leave the dog unleashed but supervised. It’s a judgement call but one someone has had the time and experience to make.

I simply took issue with Jhulbe’s decision to leave the dog unleashed in that first video, which he identified as having been taken on the same day he brought his dog home for the first time. Everyone is free to do as they please, but I personally don’t think that’s a safe way of introducing a rabbit to a dog for the first time or even the first few weeks/months. It was the dog’s first rabbit interaction training session, and the dog was unleashed. That’s not safe.

[Deleted User]

Jhulbe, I was skeptical when you first posted about the new chow pup. I am very impressed with your dedication to making it work, it looks very promising to me. Of course, people will have strong opinions on rabbit-dog relationships.

The rabbit’s attitude is equally as important as is the dog’s: a spooky rabbit will encourage a dog’s prey drive to kick in. Your rabbit sat calmly and looked alert but not scared out of his skin. I am sure the rabbit is very much used to sensing the dog near his cage with no ill effects — this is key to success. You trust your dog, I can tell, so you chose not to use muzzle, halter or leash on him and that is your prerogative.  However, most injuries caused by dogs on rabbits seem to occur when no introductions were made, not during supervised intros. In theory,  a canine can turn a rabbit into hash in a fast swipe, even on a leash. I agree that a juvenile canine is not reliable in terms of responding  to commands, but it is also true that a puppy continuously exposed to a rabbit will not experience the same excitement as a dog who meets a rabbit for the first time. Your dog’s body language suggests to me he might have spooked  the rabbit by way of fast motions, but he was definitely not set on the bunny.

For your future socialization meetings, I would add a hide-out for the rabbit, one that only the rabbit fits in and that is sturdier than for the dog to be able to break it. It will give the rabbit a choice and will give you an idea about how comfortable he really is with the dog. I used this setup  when I allowed face-to-face encounters between my rabbits and dogs without restraining gear. I had one rabbit who would come out from hiding just to quickly bite my dogs’ feet and then go back into hiding. This rabbit has long since stopped this behavior but he is the reason why my female dog is very wary of rabbits to this day. She will go past my rabbit quartet in a stilty manner worried one crazy bunny will nip her paws again.

 

[Sarita]

Petzy’s that’s so funny about the paw bites – I’m sure that was some kind of defense mechanism on the rabbit’s part.

I always worry about the anxiety level of both the rabbit and the dog. An anxious dog is a hyper alert dog and nervous. I think the idea about giving the rabbit a hiding place is a great idea too.

[Deleted User]

It was a defense, coupled with serious poowarfare to show my dogs his territory. Could have had to do with the fact that they were all intact then, too.

[Jhulbe]

Posted By Otti on 11/10/2010 10:52 AM

I simply took issue with Jhulbe’s decision to leave the dog unleashed in that first video, which he identified as having been taken on the same day he brought his dog home for the first time. Everyone is free to do as they please, but I personally don’t think that’s a safe way of introducing a rabbit to a dog for the first time or even the first few weeks/months. It was the dog’s first rabbit interaction training session, and the dog was unleashed. That’s not safe.

 

 

Ill agree with that. A bit of luck was involved on my part. I have to admit that this is my first rabbit, and my first dog to own. I’ll post a video of what is used 90% of the time. Normally we bring the rabbit outside, and cage him.. While we play fetch with the dog. This is were most of the interaction happens. We rarely have unleashed dog/rabbit but all sessions have gone fine.

The orignial video was taken after about an hour of our new puppy being around the rabbit. He didn’t seem to care, so we recorded a little bit. Once the dog stopped focusing on the toy so much I killed the video and we watched them more closely. It by no means was a -get the dog home, okay, here’s a rabbit. Let’s see how this works- moment. I could see how the video and post could appear as semi-neglect. They seem to be getting along fine. He’s never growled, or nipped at him.

 

There’s also not a “correct” way to get your dog to like rabbits, so I’m just making this up as I go. Seems to be working. I’d guess most of it’s that the two want to get along, not really i’m that i’m training them, and they seem to be fine with each other.

 

[Deleted User]

well, by all means keep us posted! There are not a lot of rabbit-dog intro videos around and I really think this is going to work out fine!
I like the dog too, he looks more like the spitz now than the chow~

[Jhulbe]

Yeah, we’re pretty sure he’s in the border collie/spitz family

[Jhulbe]

 

 

Walter was a little sad Winston got the bed

[Lintini]

Oh goodness how did I miss this! What a CUTE puppy! Your bunbun looks very disapproving in this last photo hehe! Hope they make the best of friends!

[LBJ10]

I’m not saying I agree or disagree with anything in this post. I just wanted to say that our dog gets along just fine with our rabbits. We didn’t have to do much training since we had chinchillas before and she absolutely loved them. So I think to her, the rabbits are no different. I just remember reading that chinchillas are terrified of dogs, but ours had absolutely no fear. I still wish I could have gotten a picture of my girl sitting on our dog’s back. She would just hop right up there, but the second I would go for the camera she would hop down. I think it just depends on the animal and it seems like rabbits are no different. Some will be skittish around other animals and some will go right up to their face for a great big sniff.  Then again, my boys don’t seem to let too many things bother them. Did I mention that my one goes right for the vacuum hose when I’m cleaning out his cage? Maybe he thinks he’s getting groomed. And it depends on the dog as well, some see other animals as pack members while others might think yummy snack.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Jhulbe, I was skeptical when you first posted about the new chow pup. I am very impressed with your dedication to making it work, it looks very promising to me. Of course, people will have strong opinions on rabbit-dog relationships.

The rabbit’s attitude is equally as important as is the dog’s: a spooky rabbit will encourage a dog’s prey drive to kick in. Your rabbit sat calmly and looked alert but not scared out of his skin. I am sure the rabbit is very much used to sensing the dog near his cage with no ill effects — this is key to success. You trust your dog, I can tell, so you chose not to use muzzle, halter or leash on him and that is your prerogative. However, most injuries caused by dogs on rabbits seem to occur when no introductions were made, not during supervised intros. In theory, a canine can turn a rabbit into hash in a fast swipe, even on a leash. I agree that a juvenile canine is not reliable in terms of responding to commands, but it is also true that a puppy continuously exposed to a rabbit will not experience the same excitement as a dog who meets a rabbit for the first time. Your dog’s body language suggests to me he might have spooked the rabbit by way of fast motions, but he was definitely not set on the bunny.

I really agree with what Petzy has said here. I think you’ve done really good training-and from what I see in the video you understand what your doing. That’s a well behaved young dog you have-super job! So many people don’t do the right things early and then you have trouble (not just with other pets but with everything!)

And while I won’t tell you what to do or not to do, I don’t leash my dog around my bunnies. He is super prey drivey and I worked for months with him on it. No I wouldn’t leave him alone with a rabbit who is able to run and could spook etc…like Petzy said that can kick any dog into the FAP of hunting. Your there, and if you think if something went wrong you could get between them and neither are stressed being around each other then that’s great. There are plenty of members on here who let their dogs hand out with their bunnies-safely supervised, but I see nothing wrong when a competant adult is supervising, all parties are consensual and known to the superviser

[Lucysdad]

Nice videos! Wife and I have a 2 year old rabbit, and want to adopt a pitbull when we buy a house early next year. Very informative thread here.

[Author]

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