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Behavior Can guinea pigs bond with Dogs??

Candi Brown

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jan 1, 2012
Messages
41
Our family has had it's two newest guinea pig members for a couple months now and I See the pigs are following the dogs in the cages. They will go nose to nose with both my chocolate labs. They both just lazily sniff other. Maybe they are just courageous because they are male pigs?? Today one of the dogs tails was up against while they were following me and Rainbow was chewing the hair on her tail?? I just find this very funny and am very pleased that they get along but just wanna know if this a normal Cavy behavior? I'm just saying they have a prey instinct and a dog looks like a predator to them right??? Any input would be nice. Plus my pigs are never put into Harms way with my dogs so don't worry about that thanks:)
 
Dogs are predators and that predator instinct can kick in at any time and especially if a guinea pig runs. My kids' sitter had a friendly lab. They used to bring their guinea pig out in the family room while the dog was out. They were there with them and never had a problem until one day the dog grabbed her and tossed her, killing her instantly. They thought it looked like she was trying to play. I would never trust a dog near a guinea pig.
 
My newest pig loves to watch my dogs when she's in her cage. She watches them and then they will go up to the cage to sniff and she'll run over to them and sniff. Then she'll start popcorning around. She's never been out of her cage around them, though.
My boar that has now passed also loved my dogs. I had him before I got my dogs, so they were trained from a young age that the piggie was always alpha. I might get frowned on for this, but my dogs were often around him outside of the cage, but never alone. I wouldn't do that with any other dogs, though. I trained mine from a young age, and yes even though they are predators and pigs are prey, I trusted them completely. I would never recommend it to anyone though! It all depends on the pig's and dog's personality. My boar would just hang around outside of the cage, and my dogs would lie there near him. I don't trust them with my new little girl, though. She is way more active and while I trust they would never intentionally hurt her, I'm too afraid that if she started to popcorn and run around they would get excited and hurt her accidentally.

**I just want to make sure everyone knows that I am not condoning people having their pigs with other animals. Trust me, I know all of the hazards. I am not recommending it to anyone!**
 
I used to hold my guinea pigs when my dog was next to me and my dog even kissed the guinea pig because she knew I wouldnt approve of anything more. My dog was very laid back and so were the guinea pigs at that time of my life. Now I have a very mischievous golden retriever that has a hard time grasping obedience. The guinea pig I currently have is very timid and gets frightened easily. I would never let those two near each other even if I was holding the guinea pig with my dog next to me. I think it depends on the personality. Although I would never be ok with my guinea pig out of my immediate watch with any dog.
 
my dog booty i don't let around my pigs because her pray drive is HUGE but my other dog who is a chocolate lab i let in my room while the piggies are in there cage and he just walks around and "picks up" and stray poops i missed while picking up after floor time and then he lays down by the TV and sleeps. hes never really showed any interest in the pigs other than there "gifts" before but i would never leave him alone with them.
 
They can definitely enjoy watching a dog from their cage, but I really wouldn't expect a bond to form or for them to enjoy the company of each other. As for whether or not it's safe, it depends on the dog. I have a dog who is completely trustworthy with small animals, but that's not the norm and they generally shouldn't be allowed access to each other without a barrier of some sort until and unless you are sure you can trust the dog, and unsupervised access is of course never acceptable.
 
My pig also loves going nose to nose with my dogs through her cage bars. ...but like other's say, I would never trust my dogs enough to play with them. You just never know what will happen, and they are so much stronger and larger than them. It is very cute to watch though! I am amazed how she has no fear of the dogs.
 
My pigs (especially Frank) also go up to the cage to greet my dogs. My dogs are lazy and really they are only interested in the piggies food (and the little jelly beans that they depositlol), however, they are not allowed to be around the piggies without me, and never when the piggies aren't in their cage. My pigs are more timid around me than they are my dogs. For some reason they just aren't frightened of the dogs... I have basset hounds (short) so maybe they don't look very intimidating?
 
My pigs are more timid around me than they are my dogs. For some reason they just aren't frightened of the dogs... I have basset hounds (short) so maybe they don't look very intimidating?

My new little girl was like that for her first few days with us. She would run and hide when a person came up to the cage, but if one of the dogs walked up to the cage, she would climb up on the grid to see them. I have Shih Tzus. They are not scary either!
 
My hubby's moms old dog loves one of our piggies. He will kiss her, lay down beside her and steal her lettuce. How ever, I let my Boston sniff the same pig and he attempted to eat her. So he's not a friend to the pigs. They are never alone with the dogs and their cages are hig so they can't get to them either. I don't trust Chester with them, he wants to hunt them, but Freckles thinks she is his baby, Weird animals.
 
Never had a dog, but my pigs light up when my cat comes into the room. They love hiding in his belly during lap time. He just "whines" and leaves. I'm pretty sure they love him a lot more than he loves them, but even though he's never shown a lick of aggression, I couldn't trust him entirely alone with them.
 
As others have all mentioned it all depends on personalities of both parties, instinct strength, intelligence, and definitely supervision.

With my first guinea pig, I wouldn't have let her near our dog (though they only overlapped slightly in time). However, in this case it was almost more for the dog's safety, though I wouldn't put it past the dog to have done harm if it wanted to. It had made sure we never had pest issues by instantly destroying invaders on the few rare occasions. Not pretty clean-up. Our pig ATTACKED the dog though (seriously, she jumped off my lap, charged the dog, and gave him a hard blood drawing snap to the nose- it was a midsize irish terrier), however she was a vicious little critter. We couldn't house her with other pigs for she'd try to more or less murder them on sight (flying fur and blood if given a chance when on neutral territory and far apart to start, she'd charge) and I've definitely got scars from her. Highly territorial.

With our current dogs and pigs its a completely different situation. Our small dog (~5 lb) is still unsure of the pigs and generally avoids them, he might smell them or be interested in the droppings, but rarely gets very close, preferring to give them at least a foot of space. He has tried to instigate play a few times (bowing at them from a distance and running around away from them trying to get them to chase him, not direct contact- obviously this didn't work). However, he is very food motivated and so doesn't like it when they try to steal his food, so we try to avoid that issue for whatever consequence that may spur. This is an example of a situational issue possible with dog/pig relations. Even a dog that gives distance and isn't interested normally may respond aggressively if the pig violates some sort of social rule in doggy world and (un)intentionally cause excessive harm in what might be a normal social response to teach respect to other dogs (but is too harsh for a pig).

Our other dog (~15 lb) is motherly towards the pigs. He recognizes each of them separately and behaves differently with each of them. He knows to be cautious around Tobe for he is the least tolerant and may give him and nip if he gets too vigorous in his cleaning (and that licking the mouth is definitely not a smart move with that one). So he tends to only lick him a little bit, and mostly just cleaning the ears. Meanwhile he's very close with Logan who puts up with his cleaning and quite likes Monty (the dog). Logan will actively crawl over to Monty and try to get under him, or at least snuggle next to him. Tobe will also snuggle with Monty. All the pigs walk under and between his legs during floor-time if given the chance and they definitely sniff noses between the cage bars. Monty always has to check up on them when they make noise, and comes running to lick them if they start weeking while out of the cage. He also checks on them before bed. The pigs will try to steal food from his mouth if given a chance and Monty doesn't put up a fight over it. We still don't leave them alone together and are always within arm-reach during time when they're near. Most of the time Monty just tries to steal their food (since we've gotten the pigs he's gotten very veggy obsessive- if pigs can eat it he thinks he should too). The biggest issue is making sure Monty doesn't flop his fat butt on them when trying to get close since he can be a bit pushy in getting a spot on a pre-occupied lap.
 
[GuineaPigCages.com] Can guinea pigs bond with Dogs??

This is my dog Rukus and Fat Albert. He's the only one of my dogs I would trust this close to my piggie. Rukus is 14 years old and terrified of him :) Ha! A cat that shared our house many many years ago, punctured his cornea as a pup. I think he thinks, if it's not a dog it could be a cat and therefore, a potential risk.
 
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