Bunny & Dog Introduction

[genie86333]

Hi, everyone.

I have a dog who wasn't raised around rabbits, but has been around smaller animals (dogs & cats) and has always been friendly with them. (He used to have his own cat, in fact! LOL)

I now have two rabbits & am generally very careful to keep them separate - when he's in the house, the rabbits are caged, although not hidden away from him or anything like that. He generally ignores them - a few sniffs when I get a new one, then no more attention.

One time Oreo managed to get his cage door open & Mister started whining, alerting me that something was wrong. He just stood there peering around the corner & whining as Oreo sat still in the hallway. So, I'm not terrified anymore that he'd do anything like I was before that happened, but I still haven't tried letting them interact. Mister's a 40 lb dog & could do a lot of damage if things went wrong.

I would like to start letting the interact because I've seen other dogs & rabbits being on friendly terms. Any advice, other than the obvious of having someone there tohelp me & keeping Mister on a leash & tightly controlled, just in case?

 

[Niomi]

Our dogs and rabbit are not friends, but I can explain how I got the dogs to leave the rabbit alone. I set up a large dog cage in the living room and put my rabbit in it. Whenever the dogs went after the rabbit in the cage in an unfriendly manner, I would squirt them with a plant sprayer. They quickly learned to leave the rabbit alone.

 

[genie86333]

Thanks for the advice, but the dog already leaves them alone...I was just wanting advice for introducing them to each other without cage bars between them - it's possible they might even become friends, since Gingersnaps seems to like him (or at least not hate him like she does me & Oreo!) and he usually likes small animals.

 

[Luluznewz]

I know some dogs and some rabbits can be civil. My parent's dogs, for example, would NEVER be civil to a rabbit (two boxers and a wolfhound). Your dog sounds like it could be okay though.

There are pretty good articles online, but all I really want to stress is that they should never ever be left alone together, even if it gets to the point where they seem to be great friends.

It really can work though. Check out some articles online.

 

[elrohwen]

I would start by letting the buns out and keeping your dog on a leash. Whenever the dog is being calm and not fixating on the bun, give him a treat or some pets. Try to keep him very calm. You probably want the bunny to run around like a maniac to see what your dog's reaction is. The goal is to have him be calm even when the bun is moving fast, because this is typically when a dog's chase instinct kicks in. Once you can trust him on the leash, try him with the leash off. It sounds like he'll probably be pretty easy to introduce to the buns since he's already so well behaved around them.

 

[genie86333]

Luluznewz, thanks for the reminder about never letting them be alone together. I'd never forget that - Mister's mom was a big (wild) rabbit chaser so I'll definitely always remember it's in his nature.

Elrowhen, thanks for that advice. That is pretty much what I was thinking too. I know Mister won't do anything when the rabbit's just sitting there, since Oreo did get out that one time (and I praised & treated him like crazy for alerting me that the rabbit was out) but that's what I was worried about was what might happen when the rabbit starts running & dodging & binkying! Of course, he's seen cats when they do their "crazy cat" routine of running at breakneck speed from one end of the house to the other, so it might not bother him either.

I'm going to have to intro him to Oreo first though. He's protective of me, so I'm worried about what he might do if Gingersnaps tries to charge/bite me. Maybe if I ever get Ginger to chill out, then I'll work on the two of them together.

 

[JeffS]

I saw on the dog whisperer once a lady hired Cesar to make sure her dog would behave around bunnies that she wanted to get from a rescue. His strategy was to teach the dog that the rabbits are dominant. He used a stuffed rabbit and even a remote control car with a stuffed rabbit. When the dog showed signs of aggression he did his usual "Tsst" thing and of course when the lady got her bunnies her dog acted perfectly.

... then again, it's TV, so believe what you will.

 

[genie86333]

Hmmmm...interesting. I think that's how he naturally viewed "his" cat - he let her crawl all over him (literally,) eat his food (she refused to eat cat food, just shared his food every day), drink out of his water bucket (which was interesting when she was a little kitten!) The cat was definitely the boss.

 

[pherber12]

When I first got Roxy I wasn't sure how my dog would react, but she wasn't scared of him at all so for the first couple weeks I tied the dog to his dog bed in the living room whenever the bunny was out so he couldn't chase and scare her.. A couple weeks later they were sharing the dog bed together, and now Roxy is the boss of him and bites at his legs to make him move out of her way. He's also no longer allowed on his dog bed if she wants to lay on it. lol.

 

[missyscove]

While I would never leave my dog alone with my buns, they're definitely on good terms. Mostly I think it's just my dog, she was raised with a cat and basically has no interest in the buns.
For proof, here's a video my brother made:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj5t1yUrj0Y[/ame]

On an unrelated note,
it's actually really important that cats eat cat food. They're obligate carnivores and have requirements for arachadonic acid, niacin, pyridoxine, vitamin A, and taurine that dogs don't have because dogs can synthesize them. Cats also have a much higher maintenance protein requirement than dogs do.