My 2 Dogs Just Had First Fight

[4 Paws]

My daughter got a rabbit a few days ago abd he has been housed in side in a rabbit cage.WE also brought an outside hutch so he can get a bit more exercise and hubby just finsihed it so we put it out side and placed bunny in it and let dogs go up and smell etc while supervised.we plan to only put bunny out there while we can supervise or out dogs away

Anyway,after a few minutes of dogs sniffing cage and bunny the older shepherd who is the pack leader in the yard suddenly went for the other bitch and it was on.They were both going for it and only managed to seperate them with hubbies help.I have placed them in seperate crates but just wondered what the best way to reintroduce them.Hubbu does have some blood on him and I can see one dogs has a bit of blood near eye(not on eye)so can't seem to see much damage(more to me I think,have a bit of a scratch and a bruise on my hand)

I'm not sure if it was the bunnies presence that brought on the fight.The older bitch who started the fight does tend to put the other bitch in her place from time to time and the younger one submits but not this time.Dogs are 7 years and 6 years old

Obviously the bunny will be inside when they are let out of crate

Suggestions???

[poodlefan]

Put the outside hutch somewhere separate from where the dogs can get to it.

My guess is even the smell of the rabbit might trigger another fight.

Without knowing what triggered the fight its hard to give advice but it seems that the rabbit is stimulating them to very high levels of arousal - something to be avoided at all costs for both the dogs AND the rabbit's sake.

If it were me, I'd be returning the rabbit.

Edited July 5, 2010 by poodlefan

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

Put the outside hutch somewhere separate from where the dogs can get to it.

My guess is even the smell of the rabbit might trigger another fight.

Without knowing what triggered the fight its hard to give advice but it seems that the rabbit is stimulating them to very high levels of arousal - something to be avoided at all costs for both the dogs AND the rabbit's sake.

If it were me, I'd be returning the rabbit.

x2 especially because they havent fought before.

[persephone]

If it were me, I'd be returning the rabbit.

x3

Oops- fighting over fresh rabbit dinner

Your daughter may be very upset- but this rabbit's presence may well cause ongoing resource guarding fights... mind you they may now fight without the rabbit there too - things have now changed.

As for reintroducing - I usually take offenders for a walk outside the yard... no tension- just a walk - preferably with one person per dog ..somewhere neutral, somewhere they both enjoy

[megan_]

it would also be very stressful for the rabbit to have two high prey dogs eyeing you off (the rabbit doesn't know that the dogs are under supervision!)

[4 Paws]

rabbit will probably be more an indoor pet and will just be brought outside for exercise when the dogs are locked away anyway,just thought that we'd let them have a smell while we were outside

We have had guinea pigs in an outside cage before and caused not tension as well as chooks

I do have muzzles for the dogs so maybe worthwile popping a muzzle on for a while???

Edited July 5, 2010 by 4 Paws

[persephone]

perhaps the rabbit smells more like food?

[beagie]

My daughter got a rabbit a few days ago abd he has been housed in side in a rabbit cage.WE also brought an outside hutch so he can get a bit more exercise and hubby just finsihed it so we put it out side and placed bunny in it and let dogs go up and smell etc while supervised.we plan to only put bunny out there while we can supervise or out dogs away

Anyway,after a few minutes of dogs sniffing cage and bunny the older shepherd who is the pack leader in the yard suddenly went for the other bitch and it was on.They were both going for it and only managed to seperate them with hubbies help.I have placed them in seperate crates but just wondered what the best way to reintroduce them.Hubbu does have some blood on him and I can see one dogs has a bit of blood near eye(not on eye)so can't seem to see much damage(more to me I think,have a bit of a scratch and a bruise on my hand)

I'm not sure if it was the bunnies presence that brought on the fight.The older bitch who started the fight does tend to put the other bitch in her place from time to time and the younger one submits but not this time.Dogs are 7 years and 6 years old

Obviously the bunny will be inside when they are let out of crate

Suggestions???

I think you need to make a choice rabbit or dogs. The reason I am saying this is (there was no fighting) as only one dog however the dog was kept away from

the new kitten until the dog got used to the kitten being there, different methods of intro were used, however after about six months the kitten now grown

quite a lot got out and went straight to the dog, yes you guessed it dog killed cat before anyone could even move. kids very upset etc. unless the dogs have

grown up with a rabbit trouble will happen if not today sometime in the future, someone will leave a door open dogs will get in where the rabbit is. I would

never do this to my dogs especialy after the house has been theres for a no of years. Beagie

[Nekhbet]

bah. Get a couple of E-collars and someone who knows how to use it. Teach them slowly, one dog at a time, that the rabbit is totally off limits.

If they have tolerated other animals then they can learn to tolerate this one. I wouldnt be jumping to getting rid of a pet without trying first.

[4 Paws]

bah. Get a couple of E-collars and someone who knows how to use it. Teach them slowly, one dog at a time, that the rabbit is totally off limits.

If they have tolerated other animals then they can learn to tolerate this one. I wouldnt be jumping to getting rid of a pet without trying first.

thanks for the suggestion NekhbetI do actually have e-collars and know how to use them so may try again later

At this stage dogs are put away when bunny is in his outdoor cage as it has a small play pen attached to the front which they could easily jump over into so I think we will just stick with bunny out-dogs in.Don't think I would risk it any other way as one shepherd has a fairly high prey drive for small fluffy things

After the fight I did keep the dogs seperated from each other incase it was going to be an ongoing dominacne issue but a couple of days later I popped muzzles on each dog and reintroduced with no problems and never been an issue since

The dogs come inside of a night while we watch tv and we get the bunny out to sit on our laps and dogs are not overly worried about him being only about 1 1/2 mts away from them so it may have just been a freak thing that set them off and may never happen again hopefully.They are not allowed to gte off there beds while inside

Edited August 3, 2010 by 4 Paws

[Nekhbet]

sounds like over excitement on both their parts and the older bitch layed into the younger, either because she went over her threshold or the younger did and to tell her off. If they really had a fight it would have been more then a scratch near the eye, trust me.

Introduce the bunny slowly and dont let them decide how to deal with is. Supervised interaction all the way, if you cannot shut the dogs drive down verbally then use the e-collar. Still, you're right to not have dogs outside alone with bunny, it could escalate again. I think it's doable and you sound like you have the skills.