Dog vs. Mouse

by Degare Sun 01 Jan 2017, 1:55 pm

So, I felt the need to introduce my dog to my Pumpkin.
You know - just in case Pumpkin should "get loose" when I've got her out sometime...
I don't end up with the dog "accidentally" swallowing her.

So - I brought the dog into my room, and pulled out Pumpkin.
I had the dog sit on the floor, and cradled my little mouse in a "finger cage" just in case.
I told the dog (many times of course) to be "gentle".
She actually does know what this word means.

Not two minutes later, I have Pumpkin in an open palm where she can fully view the dog, and the dog can fully view her.
The dog very carefully with just the tip of her tongue licks the mouse.
The mouse puts her foot on my dog's nose, and does a nose touch with that cute little "twitter twitter" noise she makes when she's happy (giving kisses).

The dog then proceeds to (carefully and gently) completely cover my mouse in dog-kiss slobber. After all, "she needs to be cleaned!"

Dog (gypsy) and Pumpkin are pretty much best friends now. Friends

Aside from the dog staring at the cage all the time, and leaving "dog snot marks" all over the glass... and whining for me to take the mouse out... At least now I don't have to worry if she gets loose that the dog will hurt her.

I will not however, be making the same introduction with the cats.
Two of them it would go well with... The other one would eat her in a quarter of a second.

by MesaMouse Sun 01 Jan 2017, 6:34 pm

Glad to hear that it was a benign meeting but it depends a lot on the breed of the dog. My late BooDog was half-dachshund, bred to hunt badgers, weasels and rodents and, although she always watched the mice intently and behaved well, she would have loved to have gotten her jaws on one!

by Unicorn Sun 01 Jan 2017, 7:42 pm

We have 3 dogs in the house- my parents' terrier and we've inherited my sister's elderly yorkie-minpin mixes because she has 5 young, active children and these tinies are old and arthritic. I won't let the terrier so much as know Flynn exists, she'd swallow him whole before anybody could blink, but the two elder dogs come in my room to eat anyway (there's a little hole in the door big enough for them to come in but not the terrier, because they eat special food she can't have). They ignore him utterly, occasionally looking at him curiously but other than that they don't care, I can have him out in my arms and they'll just lie next to me and ignore that he is even out.

Someday I shall have my very own house, and have a dog of my own who will have to learn to get on well with the mice, hamsters, and possibly rats I'm planning to fill my office with... Wink

PS- too cute that puppy gives mousie kisses!

by CallaLily Sun 01 Jan 2017, 7:55 pm

My aging Min Pin would eat the mice up in a heartbeat, if he had the chance! I'm glad your meeting went ok but I personally would not ever introduce any of my mice to any other pets. Too risky, imo.

by Unicorn Sun 01 Jan 2017, 9:02 pm

@CallaLily In general I agree with you totally, and at first I would chase them out of the room if I had the mouse out but after a time I realized they didn't really care. I wouldn't let them get close to him but as long as they continue to ignore him they can be passively in the room. When Cody lies up next to me if I'm sitting on the floor with Flynn in my arms he won't even face him, ha, he is determined not to be told to leave.

I've had so many pets over the years, and there were definitely predator-prey disasters (including a particularly horrible time where our dogs killed one of the cats). We had chickens and goats and pigs and ponies and the whole nine. It has taught me caution! But these particular oldsters are pretty chill about nearly everything, especially the female who is half blind and deaf and would prefer to sleep 24/7 and have everyone and everything leave her alone except to be by and be warm.

by GabbiLuvsMice Sun 01 Jan 2017, 9:50 pm

Sadly one of my girls, Whitney, was killed by my grandma's dog. Just a reminder that you can never be too careful

by Degare Mon 02 Jan 2017, 11:42 am

I think we spend "too much" time training our dogs.
I know I trust Gypsy completely, but all new things must go slow.

Growing up, our two little dogs were basically trained that anything in the house is "un-touchable". We would frequently have our dogs and hamsters "playing together" (by which we pretty much tortured the dogs by placing a hamster on their head and pretending that the hamster was crawling on a giant monster... the dog sat there and tolerated it with "sad face"). A wild mouse even ran across our living room, and the dogs just watched it go... Outside the house however, was a different story. Our yard was certainly filled with dead moles, mice, squirrels, woodchucks, raccoons, and anything else they could catch.

Then again - none of my dogs have had terrier in them; which I would assume would be like trying to train a cat not to eat mice (good luck with that one).

by CinnamonPearl Mon 02 Jan 2017, 6:32 pm

I don't have a dog anymore, but when I did, I did show him a mouse once but would never do it again. Even with the most mellow dogs, you just never know. And if something were to happen? The guilt would be crushing.

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