# Rat bit my dog



## cocothesquid (Dec 11, 2011)

so I had one of my girls running around on my bed, when my big goldie put his paws up on the bed to check her out. Jisabel ran over to him and they were sniffing each other. All of a sudden, she latched onto my dogs nose. I got her off and said "No" firmly and blew in her face, but by then my dog was bleeding a little. the bleeding stopped fairly quickly, but my sister (who still thinks rats are disease-ridden vermin regardless how many times I've told her otherwise) freaked. She thinks my dog is going to die from the plague now. My dad has been meaning to take the dogs to the vet anyway so he said he was going to get our dog checked for any infections.
Anyway, how should I treat this behavior? My dog didn't do anything to scare her other than just standing there staring at her. Even when she bit him he just gently shook his head to try and get her off. Jisabel has alway been a bit bitey(I wouldn't even call what she does biting. She just puts her mouth on things I'm assuming so she can see if it's edible. I've been nipped once but that was when I first got her) She doesn't act aggressive or anything. Do you think she just got scared by my giant dog? I'm going to make sure to keep my dogs away from my rats from now on(At first I was worried for the rats but now I'm worried for my dogs)


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## Patientzero (Jan 12, 2012)

My ratty girl Zero did this to my dog(a big softy of a staffy) once, they were sniffing noses peacefully and then she nipped his nose, he didn't yelp made a little mark but nothing to worry about. I believe she might have thought his nose was edible, especially with all the things dogs stuff there noses in to sniff about, so there is probably lots of interesting smells on their nose. There isn't much you can do for a rat nipping a nose, they don't exactly understand discipline to well.


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