Am I Crazy?

[HopsandLops]

I thought I would try here, and if its moved, haha that is fine with me!

We are adopting a new puppy, making my work with rabbits a bit harder to get the new puppy ok with all the rescues, as my rabbits are free range and the others are in our home. Well, I have two dogs already and it didn't take anytime to teach them the ok way to mess with and play with the bunnies. They are Saint Bernards, both adopted from different places, but the new little guy I think is going to a bit harder.

About a week ago I had to pick up 4 Flemish babies from a local kill shelter and we have been looking for a third dog, ever since our third Saint passed away in June. So while there I thought I would take a quick look. Well I fell in love with the sweetest pound puppy in the world! He is no where the size as our other two dogs, but I knew he would fit in with the big guys, the problem is I honestly didn't think about the rabbits before filling out the adoption form, until one of the shelter worker pointed it out... Dagwood (the puppy) is a Basset/Beagle puppy....

I was approved and he comes home tomorrow, and I was wondering if anyone has had success with hounds and rabbits, can their brain be over turned?? He is just 10 weeks old and I know I will have my work cut out for me, so I thought if I would see if anyone had advice in this matter.

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

I think that with him being so young he will be able to adjust to the rabbits and see of them as a "friend" after spending lots of (supervised) time with them and all

Since he'll be growing up with them, he'll learn that they aren't to be chased, etc. You'll just have to teach him and stuff, but once he's an adult he'll know that they aren't to be messed with.

By the way, that's really cool that you have Saints! I love Saints!

Emily

 

[HopsandLops]

Thanks, we already have puppy classes signed up and I think with a lot of time he will be fine, as it only took our Josephine (who is 3-4 and had came from a horrible home) only 2 months and now she sleeps with our three personal rabbits. I honestly think he will be fine, just needs guidence, and basic training.

I love saints, one of my first rescues I worked with (and the one that made me think about starting a rabbit rescue) was a Saint Rescue, before that I had never seen a saint in real life! But After lossing Moses (our thrid saint) at just a year old to a heart defect, we decided our next dog couldn't be another saint at least not this time around. Iwanted to look for a bigger dog, but Dagwood was just the sweetest little guy, and not just your jumpy excited pound puppy, he was actually sweet and loving. I normally wouldn't adopt a young puppy but I felt I needed to, as he has already had a pretty hard life (litter of 10, mom and dad dropped off in a box and tied to the shelter door one morning). Sorry for going on and on

 

[butterfly_lovr]

I have two sighthound crosses with my bunny, and have had a deerhound with a load of rabbits too, they are fine, as long as they know boundries, although I would never let them in their without me present, or when my rabbit is running around having a 'mad five minutes', all I would advise is setting out clear boundries, and plenty of supervision, and no matter how long you have your dog never trust him not to do anything, as if you don't trust him he will never get the chance to do anything

 

[MagnoliaDee]

That's fantastic that you are able to have your rabbits and dogs together... just wanted to say that really. We have two goldens, and I had two bunnies (just one now). Since the goldens arrived the bunnies were no longer able to roam the house as they once had, and I feel really badly about that. The have their own room and free roam that... but they are just far too skittish about the dogs. They are/were small rabbits... 3+ lbs each. And our dogs, well I have been working on them but not sure exactly how to teach them not to chase as I was never successful with my cat. So when I say I was working with them, I mean on leash.

Anyways, congrats on the new addition. Sounds like you know just how to make things work out. Wanna come visit us and fix things here lol???

 

[HopsandLops]

Well I will say, I got lucky. Since Saint Bernards are overly active dogs it seemed pretty easy to get them to understand what was ok and what wasn't. The worst they do now is drool on the rabbits. Josephine does sleep with rabbits or should I say the rabbits have taken over her dog bed and Josephine sleeps on the rabbit bed with them. The one reason I worry is both our dogs were out of the active, chewie puppy times and it makes menervous to think about a nippy puppy around the rabbits, haha not that any of my rabbits are tiny though.

I am glad to hear it can work, I never leave rabbits around the dogs alone, and Rosie Bunny (Giant Angora) has put both our saints in their place, but I am afraid that the puppy will just think that is play.