Bonding bunnies and dogs

[Jenna, Chubs & Comet]

I’ve seen this topic come up pretty frequently on the forums and I thought I would share this site I stumbled across! I am finding it all very interesting since I hope to get a dog sometime in the near future.

http://dogmeetsbunny.blogspot.com/

[Beka27]

Interesting that they’re planning to document their experience. Looks like they haven’t actually gotten around to doing it yet tho. I’m not seeing any posts besides the intro post.

This is a tricky subject, and I don’t personally believe that you can “bond” a rabbit with cats or dogs (that term, in my opinion, is reserved for rabbit/rabbit combinations). But I do think with the right dog/cat, and the right bunny, and the right conditions, and lots of patience/time, it is possible, in SOME situations… to get them to a point where they can live together and respect each other’s space.

[Sarita]

Beka if you look to the right there are links. I actually think these posters have been very careful about introducing the rabbits and dogs and seem to certainly take the safety of the rabbit in consideration. I found it very interesting.

I think it seems that they are just getting them to coexist rather than really bond.

[Beka27]

Oh thanks Sarita!!! I didn’t notice that on the side, didn’t scroll down enough!

[Deleted User]

Posted By Sarita on 06/24/2010 07:18 AM

I think it seems that they are just getting them to coexist rather than really bond.

 

I agree. It is more a matter of live-and-let-live than a bond. Affection between rabbits and dogs can come about but it isn’t something you can teach with sessions or introductions. Some animals just feel that way while others never do. You can, however, teach a dog not to chase a rabbit and you can teach a rabbit not to bite a dog.

I had a person write in to me about a small dog that was being bullied by rabbits who lived in the same household. The rabbits were as large as teh little dog and acted aggressively toward her. The owner ended up having to do meetings in neutral territory to stop the rabbits’ territorial behaviors and it worked.

[Jenna, Chubs & Comet]

Co-existing is a better word than bonding I suppose! I just liked reading about the different approaches and which kinds of dogs people seem to have been successful with. I thought the bloggers did a good, slow introduction that I might take some cues from when I can eventually get my dog! Bunnies safety comes first though, clearly!

[Karla]

Thanks for the link. I will definitely check that out as I have upcoming “dog-bunny bonding sessions” ahead of me.

So far, I haven’t been doing any actual sessions, but the door into the bunny room is partly transparent with windows, so they have seen the outline of each other quite a bit. Especially because the dog tend to lie right outside the door and press his nose up against the windows. And he makes some really loud sniffing noises as well. The bunnies don’t seem to care. They can even sit right in front of the door while he is there and just go about their business, although I have no idea why they don’t find his noises scary ‘cause I sure would. Once I feel the right time is coming up, the plan is to tire the dog out and then let him search the bunny room while they are not there. And then later on, they can meet through the baby gate a couple of times when he is tired.

And may I just show some pictures – they are not mine. I got the pictures from a friend who works at a shelter. She helped a family with a bunny adopt a dog, and she sent these pictures to me of the dog and the bunny to convince me that I could get a dog as well. I love that dog by the way! It looks like there is some akita in it. I love spitzes!

[Click & Treat Bunny]

New to the forum but just wanted to quickly reply as I’m working with my dogs and bunny getting used to each other. Right now, Clover’s house is in the dining room. It is blocked by a baby gate and a small play pen covering the doorway (I have two open sides). I set up rules for the dogs from the get go (they are all obedience trained and one is deaf) where they either have to be out of the kitchen (that leads to the dining room), or they must be in downs. One of them last week, I let sniff outside of Clover’s house, again in a down and rewards both to Clover and my young dog.

All are doing very well, and Clover has gotten braver going to the gate nose to nose. My goals are co-existence. I’m taking the approach slow, and as Clover becomes more trained, she’ll gain more freedom as well (she is out 4-5 hours/day during the week) and more on the weekends.

Just like with kittens, it’s easiest to do this type of getting used to each other when dogs are puppies but it is certainly doable with training.

[corpathina]

i’m interested in this subject as i am also attempting the bunny/dog coexistence. so far, MJ is far more brave than the dog. Lira (our puppy) will sniff him through his cage bars, but when i introduced them outside of the cage, Lira rolled over and MJ came over and sniffed her feet. when she got up and leaned toward him, he charged her and he ran away. i must admit, i laughed pretty hard.

i’m taking it slowly, but they’ve been very well-behaved so far.

[MissKris&Koji]

Not about dogs, but….

Most people think I’m totally making $*&! up when I tell them this. When I had my first rabbit, I ended up with a single rat as well as the rabbit. Long story how the rat came to live with us, but rats don’t really do very well on their own unless you can give them oodles of attention. As I was getting quite busy in high school I didn’t have as much time to play with the rat, and to supervise the rabbit’s out time. I ended up letting them have their free time in my room together.

Bun was not terribly interested in the rat at first. He would kind of sit still and watch her. She, on the other hand, was afraid of nothing in the world and sweet as can be. She would run over to him, sniff him, say hello, and he would go along with this until she would try to climb his face and climb all over him. He was like, yeah, not having that, and would wander off to his own corner. As he expressed no agression and simply hopped off, and she spent most of her free time climbing on me and playing chase with me and didn’t pester him much, I didn’t try to separate them and just kept an eye out (always had to anyways since he was a destroyer of furniture bottoms). She continued to make passes at him here and there, and within a week he came around. I have no idea what changed, but he one day decided to let her crawl on him when she came to say hi, then they began to play follow the leader around a bit, and then there was laying next to one another, and then mutual grooming. I was completely baffled by the connection, but thought, okay, the rabbit never liked me, and the rat is lonely…. so….. after a bit I ended up caging them together and what resulted can’t be called anything but a bond.

Why do I say that? Here is the really weird part. Pippin (rat) developed a mammory tumor. She lived with it for a while, as the vet advised us at her age the surgery would be too stressful and would only prolong her life a few months maybe, so not worth it. She said the tumor did not hurt her, but once it got large enough that she couldn’t get around or was not able to keep weight on, we would have to put her down. It took probably the better part of a year for it to get to there, but finally we did have to get her euthanised. Bun immediately quit eating and drinking. We of course took him to the vet, who advised us to use those needle free syringes to force feed him liquid food and water. Try as we might, he wouldn’t even take that most of the time and we just couldn’t get much of anything into him. The vet said to keep trying, and he would hopefully come round. Well, sadly, he didn’t, and the inevitably he couldn’t keep going like that and passed on 4 days after we put her down (really really really crappy week). In hindsight, I wish the vet would have told me how quickly they go downhill so we could have left him in emergency care – he seemed to be hanging on but very suddenly looked poor and within 20 minutes (before we could get to the vet obviously) that was that. Well, anyhow, I don’t know how to interpret the whole thing but that the rabbit chose not to live. And I don’t know how anyone can say rabbit/other bond doesn’t really exist – at least, I think I have proof to the contrary. 

I guess it’s like the person on BB forums who has ended up with a surprise-quartet (I’ve been lurking). You just never know. Obviously not a predator/prey situation, and all advise to take care is prudent. But, life does amaze you, is the point I’m trying to make.

[corpathina]

Very cool story! I agree, that life surprises you every day, especially when it comes to animals. =)

[mapetite01]

I’m not sure about bonding dogs and bunnies, but I know one of my buns loves my mom’s dog. Chico (dog) could care less about Peanut (bun).  Whenever Chico is around, Peanut loves to hang out with him.

[Sarita]

Hi Mapetite, we ask that members do not reply to old posts – this post is 4 years old – it confuses people because they respond to the initial post.

I am going to lock this thread.

[Author]

Messages