# A Dog and a Rat Oh My !



## imperfectboi (Aug 2, 2008)

My dog has recently gotten very protective of my rat Adele. Max is my puppy and Reggie is my boyfriend's dog. Whenever Reggie gets close to the cage or close to Adele when she is out of her cage Max will growl a little bit until Reggie walks away. I just wanted to know if this could be a good or a bad thing. Neither dog has ever attacked the rats. Also Duffy my other rat is very shy. I think. She doesn't like to be out of her cage and usually when I let her out she runs back in. When I let them out tonight it took me 10 minutes to get Duffy and put her back in the cage. When I finally got her she was all like oh its you and was all loving but I had to chase her around the room first. I was wondering if it could just be bad eyesight and she didn't know it was me trying to get her. Adele is brown and white and Duffy is gray.


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## radlations (May 24, 2008)

how do your rats react to the dogs?

I love your blue rat with the white things.


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## imperfectboi (Aug 2, 2008)

Ha that's just sunlight on her. It would be awesome though if she had white spots. They both had about an hour and a half of time outside the cage and now they are both passed out it's so cute. They don't sleep in their house anymore. I took it out to clean it one day and forgot to put it back in and when I did Adele went in it and threw a hissy fit. Apparently she didn't want it back in there. Adele doesn't mind the dogs at all. She tries to eat Max's collar and climb on top of him and he likes to sniff her butt. Our other dog Reggie nips at them and of course I shove him away and I'm very cautious when Reggie is out with the rats. I don't think he would ever actually bite them but still. I'm hoping that since Max is still a puppy and will most likely grow up with rats that he will be ok with them.


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## Marysmuse (Apr 28, 2008)

I would be extremely cautious, especially with terrier breeds, as the dog in the picture appears to be. They were, after all, bred as rat-catchers.
It may be that the dog sees the rats as oddly-shaped puppies. :lol:

Still... I'd advise against allowing the rats and pups free-range time together. A tragedy can happen in an instant, when a loving dog decides to "play" with its little friend. 

Good luck with them. He looks like a very sweet little dog, and lovely rats. 

Rejoicing in the day,
-Mary


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## begoodtoanimals (Dec 6, 2007)

It's resource guarding, meaning that the dog sees the rat as his possession, which is not always a good thing..... Most likely it's not the heroic protection we like to think of. I would immediately send him out of the room as soon as you see the first sign, actually I would not even let the dog be in the same room as the rats.
This is from a dog trainer's point of view.
My dog, a Whippet also stood growling in front of the mouse tank to the other dogs; no, no! he wanted to kill them himself.


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## Halokitty (Aug 16, 2008)

I would definitely not allow the dog access to the rats. I have a papillon who were bred to catch and kill vermin before Marie Antoinette found them and brought them back to Paris to be lap dogs. The catching/killing is still in them (evident by my dog killing a mouse) and as much as I know she's fascinated by the rats, I would never allow her a chance to be near them outside of the cage. 

It does not take long to kill a rat or other rodent and terrier breeds do not hesitate.


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## junior_j (Jan 24, 2008)

My dog Ozzy (rip) was 8 stone of german shepard and was scared of my rats , i have pictures of him cowering near the rats lol..

Yes a huge huge german shepard who was put to sleep after attackin some one actually cried and whipermed and submitted to a rat!
Jess x


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## OnlyOno (Apr 4, 2007)

i have terriers who "love" my rats as well, and i managed to get a couple funny pics of them, but i would never leave them unsupervised, or let the dog get too comfortable with them. the only reason that it worked for me was that my dog was so uncertain about the rats that she let them get near her, but i can tell that if she realized that they were small fast creatures, they would be dead.

i know that there is always the exception to the rule, so possibly this one dog is actually pretty tolerant of rats, but it only takes one curious nibble to kill your tiny sweet fur-babies, so be careful! other than that, cute pics, we are all jealous, lol, but we are also all a little scared for your rats.


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## imperfectboi (Aug 2, 2008)

Thank you guys for all the info. When I do let my rats out I usually sit on the bed with them and the dog and so far the only thing my dog has done is try and lick their butts. He has never nipped at them though. I'm hoping that since he is only a year old he will get used to them being there but either way I'm now gonna be extra careful. I really am hoping for that one puppy who will be just fine. My puppy is half Jack Russel and half Shih Tsu. Two of my friends have Jack Russels and they are both very possessive especially around food and thank god my dog is nothing like that. I just gave my rats some cheese and they both passed out. Sorry this post is very random but I'm exhausted. YAY for closing and then opening the next morning.


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## imperfectboi (Aug 2, 2008)

Ok so this morning's freetime was awesome. Adele and Duffy were all over the place and Duffy is letting me pet her more and doesn't freak out as much. She is also a lot more interested in my puppy Max. I was sitting at my computer when I turned around Duffy was grooming Max's tail and climbing all over him and he just sat there and looked at me and didn't move. We had freetime in the living room the other day and tell me if this is good or not but after about a half hour Max completely ignored the rats. Don't worry I put my cat downstairs and shut the door. He likes sleeping down there anyway. Since I have looked outside and found a chipmunk in his mouth I am not taking any chances even though he seems to completely ignore the rats now doesn't mean he will continue to do so and there is no way in **** I'm letting them out together and I'll stay happy with him just ignoring them. As far as Max goes, he has stopped being protective of the rats and hasn't growled for at least a month. I also got my rats a wheel and yeah they ain't diggin it so I think I might just take it out.


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## imperfectboi (Aug 2, 2008)

That's so sad. Poor Ozzy.


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## zoe9 (Oct 3, 2007)

To be honest I still wouldn't risk them together unsupervised, and with your back turned at the computer, that's unsupervised.

I love my dog and I like to believe she would never hurt my rats, but I'm never going to trust her 100% and I'm never going to leave her with them unsupervised for even a few seconds. It's just not worth it.

I may be overly cautious but better to be safe, and it only takes a split second for everything to go horribly wrong....


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## imperfectboi (Aug 2, 2008)

Ok you have a point. Anyway ok so I was sitting on my bed with my rat and my puppy who just had a birthday. He is now 1yrs old. YAY. Okay so anyway. I was on the bed with them(not at the computer) See I'm learning. It's just hard because you want to be able to trust your animals. Ok this is so gross but neither of my rats ever pooped outside of their cage until today. I let them out for like 2 hours and Adele decided to take a shadoobie right on my bed. I was like whatever it's cool I'll just pick it up and out it in their litter box. MY PUPPY ATE IT INSTEAD. UMM EWWW ! LOTS AND LOTS OF EWWW. I also started a new thing today. If I have the puppy and the rats out at the same time SUPERVISED of course I'll let my puppy sniff Adele for about 5 minutes and then stop him. If he gets really excited then I'll stop him till he's calm. I'm able to write this because Adele is in my lap and Max would normally3G9\;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; be at my feet wanting to sniff Adele but is actually in5 the corner about ready to fall asleep. Oh I got my first rat grooming today. It's not really all that comfortable, cute but not comfortable. I'm also thinking about getting the rat mansion. Should I ? I have two girls and it seems like they have enough room but I want them to have the best home they can. I want a wider cage not so much taller cuz I don't want them to accidentally fall. Anybody have any suggestions ?


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## imperfectboi (Aug 2, 2008)

Oh 2 more things. The random numbers and ****, Adele decided that she wanted to add a few things by climbing on my keyboard. So I just left it in there. Lame I know but whatever. The other thing is my cat. My cat who's name is Rat Yeah umm he hardly ever comes in my room where the rats are but even when I take the rats to the living room (in their cage of course) my cat ignores them completely. I even had Adele in my hand and my cat came up and didn't so much as glance at her. The thing I wanted to know is. Does my cat just not care and is it good that he ignores them. I mean its better then him attacking them but what's goin on here ?


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

My cat could generally give a diddly about the rats. They bore him.

My dog goes mad for them.

I'd never let either alone with them, though... the cat would promptly decide maybe they aren't THAT boring... since that's just him. :lol:


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