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Can I Have Guinea Pigs With Dogs?

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Ellie Larson

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I've been doing some research for a month or two about rodents, and I really would love to get a couple guinea pigs. My only problem is that I have two dogs.

My family took care of a guinea pig for our friend a long while ago. One of my dogs didn't care at all, but the other dog would incessantly bark at it.
At first, he didn't know there was anything in the cage (it was on top of the kitchen counter) but when he found out, he went crazy. We moved the cavy into my room, put it on a high shelf, and locked the door when we were gone, just in case. My dogs are about 30 pounds, so they couldn't reach super far up. However, my dog kept barking and barking at the door. This was before I learned anything about guinea pigs. In the end, we put a doggy gate at the bottom of the stairs so he wouldn't bark at the door. (My room was upstairs, and apparently if he was downstairs the cage was too far away for him to care.)

I would never let my dogs be near the pigs while they are out of cage, even if I'm supervising.

However, my family would not appreciate being unable to let the dogs upstairs. I don't want to cause all that noise or scare the pigs by having my dog bark at the door. I don't know whether my dog would get used to the pigs and get bored, or just be okay with the pigs if I introduce them slowly and properly. So my question is, is it possible to have pigs with my dogs? Or should I just wait until I move out? Is there a way to know if the animals will get along beforehand? And, mainly, if it's possible, how do I make sure they get along? What steps can I take to calm my dog down and have them "coexist"? I really want cavies, but not if my dog is constantly barking and scaring them. Thanks!
 
I've been doing some research for a month or two about rodents, and I really would love to get a couple guinea pigs. My only problem is that I have two dogs.

My family took care of a guinea pig for our friend a long while ago. One of my dogs didn't care at all, but the other dog would incessantly bark at it.
At first, he didn't know there was anything in the cage (it was on top of the kitchen counter) but when he found out, he went crazy. We moved the cavy into my room, put it on a high shelf, and locked the door when we were gone, just in case. My dogs are about 30 pounds, so they couldn't reach super far up. However, my dog kept barking and barking at the door. This was before I learned anything about guinea pigs. In the end, we put a doggy gate at the bottom of the stairs so he wouldn't bark at the door. (My room was upstairs, and apparently if he was downstairs the cage was too far away for him to care.)

I would never let my dogs be near the pigs while they are out of cage, even if I'm supervising.

However, my family would not appreciate being unable to let the dogs upstairs. I don't want to cause all that noise or scare the pigs by having my dog bark at the door. I don't know whether my dog would get used to the pigs and get bored, or just be okay with the pigs if I introduce them slowly and properly. So my question is, is it possible to have pigs with my dogs? Or should I just wait until I move out? Is there a way to know if the animals will get along beforehand? And, mainly, if it's possible, how do I make sure they get along? What steps can I take to calm my dog down and have them "coexist"? I really want cavies, but not if my dog is constantly barking and scaring them. Thanks!

HI! It is great that you are doing your research first before getting your guinea pigs.

To be honest, if you have got a barking dog that you are not able to keep away from any guinea pigs (or other prey animal pets), then I would recommend to be sensible and wait for a few years until your dog has passed away and you can reassess the situation. It is a huge stress factor for the guinea pigs; they can be traumatised by this.
 
You are right to be thinking about this before getting any guinea pigs...

It all very much depends on the dog, some manage very well in the same house and some do not. Some breeds have a very high prey drive and some not so much.

It sounds like you have a really tricky situation with your current two dogs. You are absolutely right that they should never be left unsupervised with each other but it's the barking that is likely to be the major issue. Unless your family are ok with the dog not being upstairs then it's probably best not to whilst you this particular dog is still around. The barking is likely to be stressful to family and piggies and the amount of excitement is possibly not good for the dog long term either. I wouldn't normally say no but I think in this case it might be best to wait....
 
It's good that you're thinking about it ahead of time. You CAN have a guinea pig and a dog, but it does depend a lot on the particular dog. It sounds like this dog may be difficult to keep a guinea pig with, as the constant barking is likely to irritate you and to be scary for the guinea pigs. Some dogs will do okay with small animals, but it depends on a lot of factors- breed (some breeds were intended to hunt small animals and it's a very natural behavior to them that is hard to break), personality of the dog (some are more laid back than others), etc. You've already had a trial run with your friend's guinea pig and saw how the dog reacted... perhaps you could bring the pig back and see if your dog eventually settles if your friend doesn't mind, but there's no guaranteed way to make introductions that will guarantee no problems.
 
HI! It is great that you are doing your research first before getting your guinea pigs.

To be honest, if you have got a barking dog that you are not able to keep away from any guinea pigs (or other prey animal pets), then I would recommend to be sensible and wait for a few years until your dog has passed away and you can reassess the situation. It is a huge stress factor for the guinea pigs; they can be traumatised by this.

Well, I can keep him away to some extent. He would never be allowed in the same room as the pigs, he would just bark at the door to the room. The thing is, I don't know if he'd eventually calm down or what. I'd assume he would, but I want to be careful. You are probably right though, should just wait some years :)
 
It's good that you're thinking about it ahead of time. You CAN have a guinea pig and a dog, but it does depend a lot on the particular dog. It sounds like this dog may be difficult to keep a guinea pig with, as the constant barking is likely to irritate you and to be scary for the guinea pigs. Some dogs will do okay with small animals, but it depends on a lot of factors- breed (some breeds were intended to hunt small animals and it's a very natural behavior to them that is hard to break), personality of the dog (some are more laid back than others), etc. You've already had a trial run with your friend's guinea pig and saw how the dog reacted... perhaps you could bring the pig back and see if your dog eventually settles if your friend doesn't mind, but there's no guaranteed way to make introductions that will guarantee no problems.

That's a good idea, to ask to try with the pig again! My dog is a cockapoo and is 8 years old, usually he's very laid-back. He doesn't really care about much, but he'll run away if given the chance. He's not trained very well. Like I said above though, I might just wait a bit.
 
Well done for doing your research before having guinea pigs.

Personally, if your have a dog who you know would bark constantly at the guinea pigs, I would wait a few years until the dog is no longer with us.

The only reason I say that is because we once had a couple of friends come to visit and their dog went absolutley mental just by the smell of my guinea pigs who were actually living in our shed at the time!

He was fine whilst in the house but as soon as he went in to the garden to toilet, he could smell the guineas in the shed and barked constantly at the door. This stressed both him out and my piggies.
 
That's a good idea, to ask to try with the pig again! My dog is a cockapoo and is 8 years old, usually he's very laid-back. He doesn't really care about much, but he'll run away if given the chance. He's not trained very well. Like I said above though, I might just wait a bit.

If you can afford to wait until conditions are right (and you have got a dog that is more tolerant about other pets in the house), then please do. I had to wait for nearly 30 years until conditions were right to make my childhood dream of a big guinea pig group come true, but it was worth not compromising on any of my pets' quality of life and only have as many as possible at the time, even if it meant that I couldn't have any at all for a while. It makes me treasure what I have got now so much more!

Some dogs have a stronger hunting instinct than others; they are what they are. You have respect the natural instincts of each species and individual.

If you want to to try with somebody else's guinea pig, please be aware that it may be pretty stressful for the piggy, too!
 
:D If you want to try to see how your barking dog will get on with guinea pigs again, I would not use a real guinea pig for this purpose. I would not subject a small pet to such stress as caused by a constantly barking dog. Instead, use a soft toy guinea pig or an ornamental one and play some recorded guinea pig sounds so that it looks like the toy pig is squeaking. Please don't use a real pig, even for short periods of time. Guinea pigs can die of fright.
 
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