Chances of my 2 year old rabbit getting along with my dog and cat?

[beaglebabe86]

Okay, my boyfriend and I have a 2 year old malerabbit, Duncan, who gets along great with cats and dogs.Werescued him from the shelter and they told us that hewasfound in an abandoned house along witha cat. Duncan has beenspending some weekends and spring break at my boyfriend's house, and hehas a crazy hyperyorkie. Amazingly, they getalonggreat.

This summer Duncan will probably be livingwith meatmy parents'house. My parents have a 7 year oldfemale dachshund and 10 year old female cat, who are the best offriends. Chloe (dog) has known Sophie (cat) since she was a puppy, soshe actually gets along better with cats than dogs. I have heard thatdachshunds are bred to attack small animals such as rabbits, but if shegets along great with the cat,what are the odds that she willattack Duncan?

~Jessica, 20

 

[Spring]

Hi Jessica! Welcome to the forum! What a bundle of sweet heartsyou have!

:welcome1

I have never had the experience of having a rabbit and dog/cattogether, but others on the forum have had dogs, cats and rabbits getalong. Hopefully they can help you a bit more if you are planning onintroducing them .

Rabbits are very fragile,so even if all get along well, theyshould never be left alone together. They need to always be supervisedif they are going to be out together.

 

[monklover]

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/1/dogs.html

With time and effort I'm sure that your rabbit, cat, and dog can become friends!

After almost 2 months my standard schnauzer (hunting dog) and my rabbithave become friends. It took a while, but after trainingJackie he has gotten SO much better with Buddy (although I never leavethem alone together!)

EDIT: I can't seem to spell today!

 

[Runestonez]

Of our 6 rabbits 3 get along great with thecats. The other 3 have territory issues! Here isDandi trying to get in on feeding time! The cats get wet foodonly once in a while...he doesn't believe me that the food is for catsonly...he has to check it out anyway! For the most part thecats ignore the bunns. Chelsea and Chloe get along reallywell with Leo...he doesn't seem to mind them either!

 

[undergunfire]

Holy heck, Runestonez, where did you find that gigantic ball? Mallory and Morgan want it baaaaad:shock:.




- Amy (Mallory, Morgan, and Madilyn-Mae):hearts

 

[Runestonez]

Farmers market...$15bucks!We bought it because at the time Skittles wasteaching Solembum to chew the drywall in the diningroom...so we plunkedthat down in front and pretended we didn't want them to chewit! Problem solved! Bunnies don't understandreverse psychology! he he he!

 

[undergunfire]

Haha, darnit. They really wanted that gigantic ball!




- Amy (Mallory, Morgan, and Madilyn-Mae):hearts

 

[JadeIcing]

Pardon me if this is long.

Now I have some questions for you.

1) How much do you trust your dog?

2) Is your dog trained? (sit, stay, leash. IE Basic comands?)3) Has your dog ever attacked anyone?

4) How do you play with you dog? (wrestle around, or is it more relaxed?)

5) How old is your dog?

Answer those questions and I will help you from there.

It is possible to get a dog to be friends with a rabbit. My dog playsand cares for my rabbits. When one of my rabbits were gravely ill shecared for him. She would not leave his side. I had to bring her foodand water to her.Once he was able to move she would follow him and sitwhere ever he went under to let me know.

She is best friends with my boy Elvis. My Samantha who was aggressivefrom day one. Shegets along with the dog but not my otherrabbits.

She meets every foster rabbit that comes into my home the same day.

I have a Pomeranian this is temperment of my dogs breed.

Temperament

The Pomeranian is a very active dog who is intelligent, courageous, anda loyal companion. But due to its small size it can suffer abuse fromchildren. Beneath the pomeranian's fur is a small but muscular dog,similar to a Chihuahua.

Pomeranians can be trained to be good watchdogs by announcing intruderswith loud, sharp barks or yips. Unfortunately, lack of very dedicatedtraining has instead led this breed to a reputation for constant,undirected barking. For this reason, these dogs can prove verystressful company for those unaccustomed to their vocal nature. Butstating "NO!" in a firm, gentle voice will let them know when it iswrong for them to bark.

The Pomeranian easily adapts tolife in the city, and is an excellent dog for countryliving with its strong hunting instincts from its wild ancestors

Here are some pictures:

Akasha (dog)and Samantha

Akasha and Elvis

Her grooming Elvis

Her sleeping while he eats.

Nose Kisses

Silly animals he will go between her legs and lay down. Don't ask me why.

One of my moms dogs Sandy with her rabbit Rocky

More photos here.

My blog

 

[bluebird]

my chihuahua ignores the rabbits,the jackrussell chihuahua mix ignores the rabbits.our one full blooded jackrussell tries too attack them.I would let them meet first while therabbit is in the cage.i think this is really a matter of how well yourdog is trained.and i would never allow unsupervised play.bluebird

 

[Starina]

I have an 11 year old Rottie/ St. Bernard. Sheis very territorial, and doesn't like strangers at all. But she is avery sweet dog if you know her. When I first got my rabbit, I let thedog smell her carrier box when she first got home. Then a few hourslater, I let the dog meet the bunny through the cage. I started lettingthem meet face to face once the dog would lay down and be calm. I wouldtell her to "be nice" which is something we also tell her when she getstreats so she doesn't bite your hand by accident. I trust my dog, but INEVER leave them unsupervised. She is a good dog, but she is a dog, andI don't want to make the mistake of forgetting that. The rabbit lovesthe dog, she sees her and she binkies and runs up to her. The dog seemsto be worried about hurting her, she will whine and get real low to theground. The bunny gets real low, in the "groom me" position.Thenthe dogsoftly "bops" the bunny on theheadand the bunny runs off binking and comes back for more.In fact today she had to spend a few hours in my room, my BIL had somepeople over, and she slept on the floor right next to the rabbit cage,and the bunny was sleeping next to her in her cage. It was cute.

~Star~

 

[beaglebabe86]

1) How much do you trust your dog?
I'm pretty sure that I trust her-- she's pretty much of a chicken;even though she tries to protect her territory by barking when anotherdog walks by the front yard, she rolls over and starts shaking. She'sall bark and no bite. She's never bitten our cat. Recently we had atiny yorkie stay with a guest at our house and Chloe was going crazy toget tothe yorkie, but once we letthem meet, she wasquickly uninterested.

2) Is your dog trained? (sit, stay, leash. IE Basic comands?)
She knows the basic commands, although she doesn't always obeythem. She's very good at sit and down. If I use a stern voice, she willstay.

3) Has your dog ever attacked anyone?
She's only "attacked" someone once-- several years ago my 3 year oldnephew was being very rough and she got scared. She's not very goodwith small children because of that experience, but she gets alonggreat with people, cats, and most other dogs. We leave her and Sophie(cat) out in the house together all the time and we've never had aproblem. They like to play "tag"/chase, where they will take turnschasing each other around the house. Usually Chloe will try to getSophie to chase her instead of vice versa.

4) How do you play with you dog? (wrestle around, or is it more relaxed?)
Since she's so small, we don't really wrestle, but she lovesplaying fetch. Like I said, she loves playing "tag" with our catSophie. For the most part, we play with her pretty relaxed. She's a lapdog, so she would rather snuggle or get a belly rub.

5) How old is your dog?
She is 7 years old. Also, I don't know if i mentioned this, but she's aminiature dachshund and she was the runt of the litter so she's smallerthan most mini-dachshunds. Also, our cat was also the runt of thelitter so she's smaller than most cats. (I dont know if that would makea difference, but maybe it would help since Duncan (rabbit) is aboutthe same size)