Dogs

I think it depends entirely on the individual dog. But as guinea pigs are defenceless prey animals I would never advocate leaving piggies unsupervised near dogs. Sadly we have seen too many cases of piggies injured by dogs.
 
:agr:


I have 2 dogs. A tibetan terrier who is a companion breed (they are terriers in name only)with low prey drive and a Brittany who is a hunting breed with very high prey drive.


My TT has no interest whatsoever in the pigs. When my old pig, benson, was in his final weeks, i could do some of his care routine on the floor in the same room as my tibetan and he never stirred. No interest, excitement, nothing.


When i clean the pigs out, i can open the cage and my TT can just be strolling about safely no problem.


My high drive brittany is a different kettle of fish. As a pup, she was very, very interested in the pig cage. I put a lot of work in on impulse control.

Eventually she could lie at a distance and watch them but she was still very interested.

She is 4yrs old now. The pigs are in a secure, lidded cage in my kitchen. My brit has no excitement in them there at all now and never stops to look into the cage.

But - i would never open lids and clean the cage without her safely crated. And she cannot be unattended in the garden when they are in their run as i havent trained in that environment.

She will never be like my TT as her instinct is to hunt. She is very much like a cat in that she will creep, point and then lunge forward at speed. That is genetically hard wired into her.


I have a cat too - again she takes little interest in the pig cage but i would never ever leave a lid open with her about!


So, it very much depends on the dog, the level of training the dog has had and the security of your pig cage.
 
I manage to keep my dogs and pigs separate, our pigs are currently residing in the shed, the dogs know there is something there but are removed swiftly if they get a nose in! They have only managed to get out once when the pigs were in the grass run in the garden, the girls hid and we put the dogs back in no harm done.
I don't trust my dogs as they are terriers, we have made every effort to keep them apart. Everyone is very aware of when the girls are in the run The dogs are in the house.
It really does depend on the dog and training.
 
I won’t even leave mine out in a run unsupevised, We had a devastating situation a year or so ago in the rescue. Some piggies were adopted from us and were put out in a run in the new owner’s garden while the owner was inside the house. The garden was surrounded by a wall but adjacent to a public footpath. The new owner heard a commotion and found that 2 dogs had broken into her garden and had sadly killed the piggies. Such a terrible shock for them. Sadly some dogs instinctively have the urge to hunt.
 
VickiA said:
I won’t even leave mine out in a run unsupevised, We had a devastating situation a year or so ago in the rescue. Some piggies were adopted from us and were put out in a run in the new owner’s garden while the owner was inside the house. The garden was surrounded by a wall but adjacent to a public footpath. The new owner heard a commotion and found that 2 dogs had broken into her garden and had sadly killed the piggies. Such a terrible shock for them. Sadly some dogs instinctively have the urge to hunt.
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Sad but true.
When I had my first guinea pigs I also had dogs, and made sure that there was never any possibility for them to have any sort of contact.
The dogs didn't appear interested in the guinea pigs but it only takes a second and devastating damage can be done.
 
Yes, i agree again. It really is such an instinctive fast lunging movement from a dog.

You just cant take any chances at all with some dogs. Even when we are sitting out in the garden with our brittany, we often pop a long line on her in case she makes a lunge for the run.

We have a very secure run. It hasnt got folding sides, and it is quite high too so it wouldnt fold in if she made a lunge - but the pigs could get a real scare!

Most of the time she will just sit on the grass looking so calm ans relaxed - but we know fine well if a squirrel or cat appeared in the garden, she would be up and away in a heartbeat.

And any commotion in the pig cage could easily trigger her predatory response sequence.

You just cant be too careful with some breeds.
 
VickiA said:
I think it depends entirely on the individual dog. But as guinea pigs are defenceless prey animals I would never advocate leaving piggies unsupervised near dogs. Sadly we have seen too many cases of piggies injured by dogs.
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My Guinea pig attacked my dogs face, I don't let them meet, but my son had opened the hutch without my realising and my Guinea pig came out and went for my dog then ran and hid in a bush, when I found him he was covered in blood so I was frantically checking him expecting a limb missing but I then realised it was my Dog that was Injured, Guinea intact! she's got a swollen face with multiple bite marks. I couldn't believe it but rather this survivable attack than the other way around. I'm not condoning dogs and guineas meet at all, but sometimes they're not so defenceless!
 
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