Rabbit and Dog Help

[Sakura-Constealltion]

We recently gotten a puppy, he’s at least 8 weeks, and we believe he’s a Leonburger mixed with some German Shepard. We have 4 rabbits, 2 are being given away so we really need him to get used to 2 of the 2 we’re keeping, and we would like for them to get used to him.

What we have been doing, since 1 of the bunnies we are keeping is small and young, he’s mellowed out and usually you can run up to him and he just sort of sits there with a what expression and bounces off after a second of realizing. We hold him in our hands, firmly but not tight enough encase he wants to jump off, and just hold him a foot from the puppy. The interactions between the 2 have been wonderful, the little puppy will walk up, sniff the rabbit, maybe lick the rabbit’s face gently, and walk right off. Since the bun doesn’t care, he sits there and takes it.

Our other rabbit, she’s a bit of a grouch, and she’s the oldest out of all the rabbits we have. She’s too large to pick up and hold, and she despises being held so we don’t want her to associate stress with the dog or anything. The times she has gone up close with the dog was when he was sleeping. She would use him as a pillow or sit next to him sniffing every inch until he twitched and she would run off.

We would like for them to get used to each other since they’ll both have free reign of the house, and we don’t want to put them in one room (mostly because the rabbits will still get out) and not keep them all locked up. He has gotten along with our guinea pigs after some coaxing with the piggies.

[Dface]

My first and most important piece of advice is to never leave a prey and a predator animal in the same room together unnattended.

I cannot stress it enough. Animals have instincts and it only takes a simple mistake for a situation to go completely wrong.
I have a dog that we let foster kittens and she has helped me foster chicks, and she is never unattended with my rabbits. I trust her. But it’s just an awful idea.
Her “play ” can cause a rabbit to panic.
I had an incident with my other dog where he attempted to play with a rabbit, and it went into shock and had to be rushed to the vets. (He nuzzled it and it went limp, then mouthed it-never biting -there wasn’t so much as a bruise on the rabbit)

Even the best trained animals will occasionally do things that we can’t predict.

As for getting your current rabbit used to him, leave his mat in a place the rabbit has access to without him. The smell of the dog is normally the first thing they need to overcome.
My female rabbit was attacked by a dog, so was naturally very nervous, for the most part she just avoids interacting with my dog, but they can be in the same room together after a few weeks of her getting accustomed to the smell without any negative interaction.
Because the dog is calm, my rabbit feels confident enough to be around her.

Time is the main factor. Your rabbit may just need to adjust to the idea that it is not going to be attacked by an animal it is designed to fear instinctively

[Bladesmith]

As my ex wife’s dog has shown (She’s a toy poodle and a psychopathic killer of any animal she can catch), it only takes a moment for tragedy to occur.  Absolutely keep them separated for a while, because even in play, a dog can kill a rabbit in an instant.  Correct the dog if it shows any hint of aggression.  But they should be able to see/smell each other often, using something like a baby gate.  Then move on to very closely supervised interaction.  Once the dog accepts the rabbit as part of the family “pack”, things should be fine, barring hormonal changes, territory conflicts, etc.  One method I’ve used when integrating dogs (I’ve a lot of experience working with dogs as both a Shutzhund trainer and K9 officer, less with rabbits) is to hold the animal I’m trying to introduce to the dog in my lap, while the dog is free to look and sniff, while talking to the dog (Who we’ll call “Lucy” for this example) and referring to the other pet as “Lucy’s kitty/rabbit/young Godzilla”, to imprint on the dog that the other animal is family.  I also do things like mix their scents on their bedding, trading them back and forth, and so on.

Be careful and good luck.

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