# Rabbits and dogs



## nobunnynoclue (Jul 21, 2011)

Has anybody here been lucky enough to have a dog that ignores or at best tolerates the bunny well? I have two dogs. As a new bunny mom, I feel that I can't trust my dogs. One is a terrier mix, the other is an australian shepherd. Niether one bred to leave small animals along. But they are good around the rabbit, show some interest, but mostly leave her alone. I just don't think I can ever feel comfortable enough to let bunny roam around without supervision with the dogs in the house. 

anybody else?


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## Nancy McClelland (Jul 21, 2011)

In 40 years I have had one dog that I could trust around any animal I told her to leave alone. Our Cockatiel could even ride on her back and she used to love catching birds. I would be especially leery of any with "terrier" in their back ground.


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## plasticbunny (Jul 21, 2011)

I have two Chow Chows. One of them, Leela, is a four year old rescue who is just great with the bunnies, but that's becauseI made sure to introduce them properly. Any sign of excitement was NOT tolerated, and I did the intro slowly over about a month before they were ever allowed to touch each other. As the alpha, I had to show my dog right from the start that bunnies are not toys, they are members of the family. I would trust Leela alone with the rabbits because she is so low energy and has met the rabbits properly. Molly has even gone so far as to hump Leela for dominence, and Leela just lays there and takes it :biggrin2:.

My younger Chow, Duke,is still just a puppy, only three months old. Because he's a pup, he still gets a little too excited about things and when he sees the bunnies, he wants to play with them. I only let him interact with the bunnies through the bars of their pen. By interact, I mean sniff, which is the best way for him to get to know them. Any pawing or whining is met with a stern NO, and he is put into a down-stay until he calms down (which can take 5 or 10 minutes. He will likely not be trusted alone with the rabbits for another year or so at least.

I think a lot of it does have to do with your dog's breed, and a lot of it has to do with how the dog's view you in their life. If you are the "leader", they will listen. But, if for any reason you hesitate to leave your dogs and bunnies alone together, their playdates should probably be supervised. After all, dogs are natural predators, and rabbit's are natural prey.


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## Cheyrul (Jul 21, 2011)

Apparently one of our bunnies was out all night, so ours dogs are fine. However, our bunnies were born here and were able to get out of the cage, by slipping through the bars by 3 weeks, the cats are fine with them too.
Lucy is a lab/Aussie shepherd mix and Hairy is an Airedale mix, ie; terrier.


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## Pharfly (Jul 22, 2011)

My bigger dog Ursa, is a lab pyranese cross the day we got her(7weeks old) she ate a live pet mouse out of my daughters hands. So we spent time teaching her "Don't touch" and now she doesnt even sniff the mice or hamster when the kids hold them. When we got Nova when Ursa went near her we said "Don't touch" and Ursa leaves her alone, she will lay beside the cage and the 2 sniff noses which is adorable 70lbs dog and 2lbs bunny sniffing noses lol. My cocker spaniel is a lazy beast lol he is so mellow and calm, he also sniffs through the cage but doesnt seem too care that there are bunnies in the house. If I still had my old german shep he would have killed the bunnies, heck he even got one of my budigies that escaped, lucky for her she lived. I think a lot of it has to do with training too. I expect my dogs too be calm inside the house, if they get annoying they are told "Go to bed" or go outside. As well trained as my dogs are I still wouldnt trust them loose in the house with the bunnies loose. It could only take a few seconds for something too go wrong.


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## nobunnynoclue (Jul 22, 2011)

thx for your responses. My dogs are pretty well trained. They don't bark or get in the bunny's face.. they are actually very mild mannered around our smaller pets. If I tell them to "go lay down" they immediately turn around and mope off to the next room. 

I'm just afraid that their vermin-chasing instincts will kick in one day and take over. They are animals, afterall.


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## undergunfire (Jul 22, 2011)

I trust my Doxie/Min Pin 100%. He is AWESOME with my bunnies. I can leave him home alone and the bunnies out to roam the apartment and not think twice. We just adopted a 5 year old purebred female Doxie a few weeks ago and I would not trust her with the bunnies. We are going to work with her on the bunnies, as soon as she has settled in more and learns that I am the leader.


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## JadeIcing (Jul 23, 2011)

Amy you got a dog and didn't say anything. 8/


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## Ashleighh (Jul 23, 2011)

As you can see here my dog and rabbit are best friends! I was so worried at first because my maltese shih tzu (Ninja) HATES other dogs. Once we went to visit her brother and she cried in my arms and wet herself. :expressionless

When I introduced her to Lola I did it very slowly and carefully. She was extremely curious and kept wanting to touch her. Eventually I got them together and they have been inseperable since! I'd never leave them alone together but under my supervision they are perfectly fine. Ninja even lets Lola climb on her back while they sleep. 

It just takes time and patience I think! Let your animals get to know each other because it's better for them in the long run. Just make sure that your bunny is well protected on the first few occasions!

If you are really sure you can't trust your dogs, I wouldn't risk it though!


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## undergunfire (Jul 23, 2011)

*JadeIcing wrote: *


> Amy you got a dog and didn't say anything. 8/



I thought I told you?!


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## JadeIcing (Jul 26, 2011)

Nope.


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## piperknitsRN (Jul 26, 2011)

In general, I would say leaving them alone (unsupervised) would probably not be a wise choice. That said, my (now deceased) Westie (a terrier), Piper, was so mild mannered I left him alone with Flip-flop, unattended and never had a problem with him (the dog). The bunny, on the other hand, used to harass the dog by trying to steal his dog food out of his dish (I know bunnies aren't supposed to have dog food). It was the funniest thing to watch, a 3 lb little Holland lop butting a twenty pound dog away from his dinner, and the dog looking at me, whining pathetically as if to say, "Do something about this, now!" I wish I'd videotaped it. It sounds like one of those things people make up for the heck of it.


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## moquimarbl (Jul 27, 2011)

Please, Please be extra careful. My dog had never bothered my bunny and I felt safe leaving her out of her cage for a couple of hours when I went to the doctor. I came home to find her dead and bunny fur all over the house. It was a nightmare. I just want to urge you to exercise extreme caution when considering leaving them alone together. I would not want anyone to have to live the nightmare I came home to.


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## Must_Love_Pets (Jul 27, 2011)

I would never trust my dog around my rabbits alone. Although my lil Shiznit is super sweet and does not do any type of chasing or show any sign of agression toward my bunners. He gets along so well with Thor because he is a bigger breed rabbit. They nuzzle each other and play a very soft game of chase. However, working with cats and dogs for so long and practicing behavior modification, any dog and I mean ANY dog is capable of harming another animal.


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## RoscoTheRat (Oct 31, 2011)

I have three dogs that like my bunnies. I have a pit who plays with them, a hound who also plays with them, and a German Shepherd (Who's surprisingly dog aggressive) who ignores them but gives them kisses once in a while.


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## LaylaLop (Nov 2, 2011)

Dante doesn't seem to care... 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58FRRS9dfVY&feature=player_profilepage]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58FRRS9dfVY&feature=player_profilepage[/ame]


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## hippie (Nov 4, 2011)

I have a papillon who cant stand other dogs and outweighs my bunny by about 10kg-my rabbit is tiny!! For some reason he adores my rabbit and is super gentle with him. So there can be some exceptions.


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## BertNErnie (Nov 13, 2011)

my 2 dogs are abit weiry of the bunnies but i dont trust them to leave them in the room without supervision just in case you never know what might happen and it only needs to happen once.


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## qtipthebun (Nov 13, 2011)

Totally depends on the dog. I've had two bunnies that have grown up loose around Rottweilers; we adopted a bunny from a friend of a friend when I was growing up who had two Rotty brothers, and Q-tip currently has a gigantic sister (also a Rotty). Tippy and her sister absolutely adore each other; I trust the dog as a babysitter, but this is a very old Rotty who has grown up with pets and would never harm an animal.

So I think it depends on the dog you have. I wouldn't leave them unsupervised, at least not yet. I'd wait until the dogs knew that the bunny was one of them.


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## Sweetie (Nov 13, 2011)

I wouldn't let any dog be alone with any prey animal. I had a very scary experience the other day. My mom and I went to let the dogs out to go potty, I saw Indy (my brother's dog) go into one of the back bedrooms, so I followed and next thing I know I am standing there looking at one of my mom's cats laying on the floor dead. I freaked out and told my mom to come look. Indy, Karma, and Dawg were in the house with the two cats. The dogs killed one of the cats. I found Kitty alive behind the microwave and traumatized. Kitty (my mom's cat that lived through the ordeal with the dogs) is now at my place for her safety.

Point is my mom and I both didn't think that it would go as far as the dogs killing a cat, because they would just chase them, but it did. Dogs have a prey instinct that cannot be totally taken out of them, some have a higher prey instinct than others, but they all have it. One day it will happen, then what?

I would not leave your dogs alone with your rabbits ever. It is a bad idea and it is just a disaster waiting to happen.


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## Sweetie (Nov 13, 2011)

*BertNErnie wrote: *


> my 2 dogs are abit weiry of the bunnies but i dont trust them to leave them in the room without supervision just in case you never know what might happen and it only needs to happen once.


I agree with this! I have my mom's older cat because the three dogs she and my brother has, killed her other one. See my above post for story about it.


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## Kizza (Nov 24, 2011)

Just to be 100% safe I wouldn't leave them alone together, for a couple of reasons. 

As moquimarbl said, you can have them living happily together for a long time then one day it could change for no apparent reason. This happened to my beloved Snowy with my mini foxy. Nikki (my foxy) didn't intend to, but caused her death by chasing and harassing Snowy until her heart gave out from the stress.

Due to the breed of your dogs I wouldn't leave them alone with your bunny, because they are both bred for hunting small animals and it is in their nature, and they are very curious animals. What we think is nothing to worry about might in fact be extremely stressful for bun, and bunnies don't tolerate stress very well.

Also there's no telling what goes on behind closed doors when you aren't there to discipline your dog. So just to be on the safe side I wouldn't do it personally.

Sorry to sound all gloomy about it. Nikki is ok with Rocky she seems to avoid him and not worry too much about him but Rocky is a curious little boy and he might approach her when she doesn't like it, and in that situation she would snap so I just keep them separate


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## LaylaLop (Nov 29, 2011)

I keep my pets all in my room, but my dog and rabbit are never out together without me around. I have a dog x-pen I attach to Layla's cage and she gets to roam around in that and I can leave the room and whatnot and know she isn't getting into cords or at risk of my dog thinking she'd make a good snack. I'd say the predator/prey drives are basic instincts and sometimes you can't fight nature. My dog is well behaved when I'm around, but without me there he'd more likely than not chase her and possibly kill her.


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## Krissa (Dec 5, 2011)

I have an Australian shepherd and I trust her 100% with my rabbits. I also have 3 cats who I trust supervised with my rabbits. When I am not home the rabbits are in their pens.

On that note - you answered your own question - you don't trust your dogs. If there is doubt, don't do it. You know your dogs. I have spent years in obedience training with my dog and as a result I know her and her temperament well. I also did not just throw everyone together at one.

Oh, and Aussies are not bred for hunting. They are a herding breed. They may herd the rabbit, which can scare them, but they are not out to kill the rabbit instinctively. I have noticed that Aussies tend to play with their feet - as in they like to move things with their paws. This can be dangerous to thin bunny skin.


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