dogs(esp. shelties, collies) and piggies

[sara85]

I have three female guinea pigs that I love to death, and two hamsters. I know the piggies at least will be with me for a while (the hamsters are dwarfs and i know they'll only live a few years, cute little guys) but in a few years, when I have a bigger place, I want to get a dog, and I was wondering if anyone had experience with how dogs respond to piggies. I have heard some breeds are better than others (i.e. the hunting breeds not so good) but I have my heart set on a sheltie, collie, or other "herd" dog--anyone know how those breeds respond to small animals in the house?

Keep in mind this is all hypothetical, I'm not actually getting a dog like right this second, just doing a bit of research on a sunday.

[Cherry Sparkle]

Well, i own a flat-coated retreiver of 5 now, and we got the pigs when he was 4. He at first had no clue they were around (because they live up stairs) but he did meet them when we had a first floortime incident, don't worry the pigs were in perfect condition. But whenever he comes upstairs (naughty dog!) the pigs don't care, and he is just curious at what they do, he has never attempted a cage break in. However he did leap at the run once, i think he was just excited though. Hope this helps

[Toadies]

Hi Sara! I have a male Border Collie, who is nine, and a female Aussie, who is eleven. They are very good when I have my pigs on my lap, they sniff, the girl cleans their ears and then they are on their way. I've only had the "toadies" 2 - 2 1/2 years, but have never had a problem with the dogs. BUT, my dogs have been taught to not bark at or chase wildlife (the squirrels walk right by them). They are allowed to bark at coyotes, bears, mountain lions, bobcats and hawks (Yes, they all pass through my back yard). I personally prefer the herding breeds and have found them to be very trainable and are able to distinguish what's okay to harrass and what's not okay. Their desire is more to round everybody up (which my cats just "love") than to kill. But no matter how good a dog is, it is still a dog. You will need to be vigilant. I do know of a stupid woman that let her gp out on the floor and her German Shepherd killed it. She "didn't know that he would do that". I wanted to slap her. Enough ranting. Alot depends on your relationship with your dog, its dispostion and how well you train it. There is no reason to not expect success.

[Alusdra]

Breeds that have been bred to hunt rodents (eg.Jack Russell) are more likely to kill your piggies than others. But every dog is an individual and it depends a lot on training, too. For example- my herding mix dog that almost killed my gerbils once completely ignored my parrot. Go figure. So really, the key is to get a dog that either ignores or shows minimal interest in the piggers and then keep up on training the dog and never let them be together unsupervised. I use Jack Russells as a particular example since as they were bred to kill rats they are very efficient at it. I've heard stories of them killing rats and other small animals in a split second with a head toss. That's instinctive. Just like my parent's birding-mix dog caught my parrot with a "soft mouth" a desired pointer trait and thus my parrot is still alive and they are never ever allowed out without two doors between them.

Since you are in the position to adopt any dog in the world- ask if they test for small critter aggression and if not (or even if so) if they have a try-out period. Though it is tough on the dog to be returned, better that then you stressing out all the time about your pets' safety for however long they live. And you have the piggies first- so they come first, right?

[Ally has U's]

Hello,
I have a chorkie half yorkie half chihuahua (I didn't buy from a breeder, just putting it out there!) and I know right away you are thinking my goodness a chihuahua will go crazy around piggies even half of a chihuahua. But my puppy is so very sweet to them. I have, for the time being, and open C&C cage on the floor that he can clearly jump into (and does sometimes even though he knows it isn't suppose to). Even if he gets in all he does is lay down and watch them run around. I can even leave him home alone with the open cage now. When my bunny is out they chase each other and play, this part I have yet to leave them unsupervised; we only just got the bunny and it is the first time my puppy has even seen a bunny. So I rather watch them and all their silly antics then walk away and leave them alone. Eventually I think we will get to the point that my pup will learn not to play rough with the bunny.

It really depends on the personality of the dog and how you raise him/her. If he is always around the small animals he/she will get use to them and instead of looking at them like they are a snack they treat them like a brother or one of their own pup's.

[Meeko]

I have a red heeler and when she first came home from the pound, she had no idea what the pigs were. She did get in the cage a couple times, but it was to get a better look. Now she has had the pigs climb over her and she doesn't even care. Our other dog however, is 11 (Welsh Cardigan Corgi, also a herding dog) and we can't let him downstairs much less in my room because he'd chase the guinea's till they had cardiac arrest. It really does depend on the dog and whether they respect the animal as your personal property or as something they can eat.

[ferndalezoo]

We have 3 dogs. Our Mastiff (6 years old) and Shepherd mix (11 years old) ignore all the small-and-furries. Our australian shepherd (10 years old) does try to "herd" the guinea pigs, so we had to put their cage up on a table (it was previously on the floor). She hasn't tried to hurt them in any way, but it stressed them out.

[LadyBelle]

"If he is always around the small animals he/she will get use to them and instead of looking at them like they are a snack they treat them like a brother or one of their own pup's."

My dog looks at small animals like they are a brother or friend. Unfortunately my dog also thinks she is a small animal, not a 45 pound goofball. She is able to wrestle our adult cat, so she wants to do the same with other small animals. To here there is no aggression, she simply doesn't have any concept of her size or strength. I have seen this dog tuck tail and run from cats, chickens, dogs close to her size, and various other animals. There is one squirrel that teases her to the point of insanity though, so squirrels aren't her favorite.

Aggression isn't the only problem when getting species together, especially when there is a size difference. There is a thread on here about bunnies and pigs being together and the pig accidentally being killed because the bunny startled and hit the pig with it's back legs. Accidents can happen.

That doesn't mean you can't have both animals, just be very cautious and supervise diligently.

My dog isn't a herder btw. She is a redbone coonhound that was trained to hunt mountain lions before I got her. If she ever chased a cougar it was to see if it wanted to play with her. My last dog was a border collie. I never had small animals around him, but when I brought him home as a tiny puppy we had a 20 pound cat that stood a head and shoulder higher then the dog. The cat trained the dog to have enough respect that even when the dog hit 50 pounds he would still either cower down to a cat, or refuse to deny the cat existed and sit directly on top of the cat in an act of passive aggressiveness. A mix of training and personality can make each dog different regardless of breed.