My furry household

[p_anda]

They're all so cute... one question though, how are you managing with the greyhounds and all the little rodents in the same household? I imagine the dogs are not really allowed unsupervised in the same room with them, but still. I think it might be just I had a bad experience with the mixture of the two, but as long as I keep rodents, I'll never get a dog or a cat, maybe I'm just too paranoid, but I'd never have a peace of mind if I did...[maybe I'd get a collie, because I know for a fact that they can be trusted a 100% around small animals.]

[fluffymunchkins]

I'm not sure what the case is with Happysaz's greys, but I manage with mine and all the rodents no problem
First day home, she dived at the cage and wanted my pair of robos dead!
But overtime she was allowed into the same room under supervision and was taught to look but not touch. Now she completely ignores the gerbils and they have been moved downstairs.

The hamsters are always safely shut away in my room and I do allow her in when I'm in there. Her hunting instinct will never go away and she is still fasinated by the hamsters if they move. But she doesn't go near the cages except for a sniff, and leaves the room immediately when I command if I feel shes too excited x

[kyrilliondaemon]

Yeah, I'd trust one of my parents dogs to be in the room with me and the ham cages. Hec was raised being nice to a rabbit and fully understands that small not-dog-things are to be looked at not touched. I don't let him near them but we visit my parents home fine and they have both Hector and his sister Angela (she was homed with us 3 months later than Hec) and Ange knows she should only look... But gets excited and can't be trusted with small animals.
Even so, we just have a strict list of precautions and when we visit with the hams its fine. There's a dog gate and properly closed door between the dogs and hams 99% of the time, and the hams only leave my room with the dogs out for a walk (which takes 90+ minutes) then Dad shuts the dogs in the kitchen until he knows the hamsters are safely back in my room, so again there's a properly shut door between them at all times.
We let the dogs into the hamster room (my bedroom) once because they were making a major fuss not knowing what the secret was in there and we just made sure we had 3 people to the 2 dogs and someone had each dog by the collar at all times. Hec behaved perfectly, Ange went nose to nose with Scruff through cage bars and was easily restrained when she later tried to get a bit too close and it worked out fine.

My parents also keep Hec, Ange and the rabbit (David) perfectly fine. David has his hutch in the rabbit shed, so is safely shut in at night anyway, but most of the garden is raised up so my parents have simply put a big sheet of wood in the way at the bottom of the steps and blocked off the side of them. Then humans go out, drag the wood aside, go between it and the wall to get past it, drag it back and are fine to see the rabbit. The dogs can't move it even if they try and can't jump up to the garden so they never have any interaction with David at all, but can be allowed out in the lower bit of the garden perfectly safely.
Hec used to be allowed to go and see David if they had company, but Angela was 6 months when they got her and has always been a bit more wild (e.g she taught Hec to ruin cuddly toys lol) so isn't trusted with David and now the dogs don't have contact with him.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to explain the precautions as well as I could. Basically I fully believe its fine to keep rodents/rabbits in the same house as larger animals, you just need precautions to be in the way and its fine really. Oh and incase its relevant - Hec and Ange are both purebred rottweilers, and I'd not trust any other dogs any more than I do Hec with them.

[p_anda]

Obviously I know most people take a lot of pre-cautions when keeping dogs and small animals together, but my boyfriend wants a dog when we move out, and I'm funny with dogs. I don't like toy dogs but when we will be living in a flat so if we get one, it needs to be a lazy big one that is trustworthy around rodents. My other dislike is untrained dogs of any kind, and my boyfriend is not exactly assertive, so a big dog could be very problematic if he doesn't keep up with the training. I am already researching dog breeds, and pretty much the only ones that I'm considering atm are the Newfoundland, a French Bulldog, St. Bernard or maybe a collie. [not specific as to which one] I think the bulldog is almost entirely out of the picture, considering the vast amount of health problems associated with the breed...it's a shame though, I really like bulldogs. I'm open to suggestions though. My boyfriend's mum has a chihuahua and Jack Russel cross [though she insist it's half Yorkie...my arse...he looks NOTHING like a Yorkie] and he's a nightmare...no joke. I do believe however that it's mainly down to not having trained the dog, but he can't even be trusted being left alone in any part of the house for 2 minutes, not just where my hamster is. He pees EVERYWHERE even though he's housetrained, is skittish, barks at everything, terribly jealous of my boyfriend's mum, to the point where he attempts to bite her grandkids if she pays more attention to them, and he's been successful a couple of times. He's a very good example of irresponsible breeding and ownership. My boyfriend's mum just loves him too much for his own good to do anything about his habits.

So yeah...I believe it's mostly down to the training of the dog, but still, I'd like a breed that was not bred to hunt or exterminate rodents and it's proving difficult.

[Hammie.A]

Awwwwh todd is getting an old boy saz!! Haven't seen a piccie of him for years!!

Do you remember my old greyhound Rory?? The one who had his tail docked lol :P He passed about 9 months ago at 13 years old! !

I remember when you get Gizmo (ithink)
lol

Lovely fur family !! !<3

[kyrilliondaemon]

Er... p_anda, lots of dogs were bred for guard or herding duties, and just to check, you are aware how large newfoundlands are, right?
They're in the category of dogs that (like Hec) I'd not trust completely with small rodents on the grounds of one accidental step and you get a er... flat rodent.

I actually really want a baby collie-newfoundland cross, (can't remember which type of collie) but thats not for rodent related reasons lol. Also something I'll probably never get as we're agreed that we'll rescue when we can eventually get dogs and I doubt rescues will have baby collie-newfoundland crosses very often lol


Oh and my cousin has a jack russel who behaves well and a chihuahua-chinese crested powder puff cross and both are well behaved, so with the jack russel it'll just be the lack of training thats the issue. Terriers can be hyper but they can also be well behaved when trained properly.


Honestly, for a dog I'd just go to a rescue, ask the estimated heritage of the dog, rule out any that have "terriers" or "hounds" in the family tree and go from there.
You can also occasionally find a rescue which checks how the dogs are with small animals, and one of those would be perfect for you really - thats what I plan to do when we get dogs in the future

[happysaz133]

Originally Posted by p_anda

They're all so cute... one question though, how are you managing with the greyhounds and all the little rodents in the same household? I imagine the dogs are not really allowed unsupervised in the same room with them, but still. I think it might be just I had a bad experience with the mixture of the two, but as long as I keep rodents, I'll never get a dog or a cat, maybe I'm just too paranoid, but I'd never have a peace of mind if I did...[maybe I'd get a collie, because I know for a fact that they can be trusted a 100% around small animals.]

It's just a case of being sensible really. Todd, the oldest dog, has been around animals ever since I've had him, he takes no notice of the small animals. The youngest two would quite happily eat all the small animals, so basically, I take no risks. The dogs are away when the small animals are out.

I think I feel OK about it, because my parents got a dog and a hamster 6 months before I was born, so I have always known to be sensible with them. That's not to say we haven't had accidents, there has been one hamster eaten by a dog and one guinea pig killed by a dog, but in both cases, those were human fault, not the animals.

[p_anda]

That's the only reason I don't want a rescue...because I think it's hard to tell what kind of mutt the dog is unless you've seen the parents, etc. obviously the more different breeds are involved, the more difficult it will get to predict its temperament. If the parents are pure breeds than that's fine, that makes it easy. I'd love a rescue if I didn't keep rodents but I don't want to take risks with my hamster and a rescue is always a risk...as she'll most likely to be still around when we get a dog, and I'm planning to get other rodents/ a hedgehog too. I'm quite experienced at training dogs and I find you can't train a dog not to do something it was bred to do...especially when you're not around. You can train them to ignore/leave them alone, but that won't suffice for me I'm afraid, because the instincts are still there and the dog may obey your commands, he/she will revert to their behaviour whenever they get the opportunity.

I know Newfoundland are huge, I've met a few. And all description of them include that they're great with other pets and they were definitely not bred for hunting. The person I know who has one breeds cats and she says there hasn't been any problems even though she got the dog as an adult. I also know a dog trainer through my boyfriend and he says they're great dogs.

I'm not planning to have hamsters running around the flat, so stepping on them shouldn't be an issue. Obviously they'd always be in a playpen or an exercise ball, I just want a dog that won't actively try and kill them because of the temperament of the breed, or act unpredictable around them.

I'd never get a terrier/terrier cross just for personal reasons, I've had too many bad experiences...people's experiences can be good with them, but mine weren't, and I've really come to dislike the breed. [ my grandma's russian terrier has bitten me in the stomach when I was 4, for no obvious reason, I was just standing around in the garden, and it charged at me, I've still got the scars...and that was a well trained dog ]

[gutterglitterxx]

Aw, such a gorgeous group!

I might furnap Arran and Percy. ;D