Terriers And Toads

[bekker13]

Hi there, I have a couple of Cairn Terriers, rescue dogs that have come to me in Brisbane from Canberra, where there are no toads. The Cairns natural hunting instinct has seen us once having to rinse our boys mouth out ourselves and more recently a trip to the Animal Emergency Hospital and an overnight stay. The Vet at the clinic even said to us that Cairns are likely to always go after toads as it is their natural instinct. We are diligent and always check their enclosure before toileting at night but we cant watch them 24/7, especially if we want to survive summer with the doors open. Does anyone have any solutions or suggestions on how to avoid any future toad encounters?? :D Thanks

Edited October 16, 2007 by bekker13

[Jed]

Two suggestions. If they are locked up at night with a pen with access to the outdoors, you will need to toad proof it. This can be done by putting chicken wire, or shadcloth from the ground up 60 or 90 cms. Toads are not great jumpers, and should not be able to jump in. If you have"normal" wire, they simply climb through it. Then simply check the enclosure before putting the dogs in it at night. Keep the grass (if there is any) short.

The other thing which has worked for me is to buy a bottle of Pine O Clean disenfectant, and a spray bottle. Spray liberally any toad you find. This kills them pretty well straight away, and the dogs tend to leave them alone when they smell of disenfectant.

Not only are you helping to solve your problem, but you are doing good for the environment. The world needs fewer toads.

RSPCA recommends catching them, putting them in a plastic bag in the freezer (which kills them). This is supposed to be kinder, but there is NO way any toads are going in my freezer, and I don't think being frozen to death is altogether humane. The disenfectant seems pretty quick to me.

The latter is not a short term solution, but if you spray the ones you see at night on your lawn, you will reduce the population, which means there are fewer for the dogs to find. It might take a summer or two, but you will eventually have none, or very few.

You can try saying "no" to the dogs when they have one, but I have found the prey drive is stronger than the will to obey me. The one which likes toads simply waits until I am not around!

I lock my dogs up at night, with no access to the outdoors to stop them finding the occasional toad which comes in.

Good luck, they are pesky

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

That's one reason our dogs are kept inside our house. Toads kill dogs. If you're not there to intervene, it's a tragedy. :rolleyes:

[bekker13]

Thanks guys, we are planning to put clear perspex around the bottom of the pool fence [the fence in the dogs enclosure is set on the ground so we are OK there] We did do the dettol spray bottle last summer and that has made a difference to numbers this year, so we will keep up with that [there is no way that I would catch the disgusting things alive and put them in my freezer....YUCK!!!] Toads deserve to die a horrible death. We never let the furkids out at night without supervision and when we are out at night they are kept inside, I would much rather clean up the very occassional accident than loose one of my precious babies :D . Both our incidences have happened when we have had people around for BBQ's and the dogs have been wandering in and out as they please without direct supervision, very hard to avoid, but hopefully once the fence is done things should be safer. I know for an absolute certainty that the 'leave it' command would not work with my guys, the hunt and chase instinct is too strong, although I was hoping there was a miracle cure out there to actually stop them wanting the toads in the first place!!!