Just been sitting outside enjoying the sunshine with black lab not far from my feet as usual, but my black and white dutch rabbit laying chilled out on his side 3 inches from her nose! I know she has been brought up from a pup to know not to harm him but ...... what would your dog do????

Well, we don't have rabbits but I think my dog would do the same as he does with cats.  He knows our cats but interlopers beware, they'd be chased away.  I think the same would apply to a rabbit.  So he'd lie beside "his" rabbit.  I think, I hope.

Mine would eat it.

Mine would round it up and then bark for me to shoot it.

Mind you if they had been brought up with it they would regard it as an honorary Elkhound just as they do my husband.

Eat it.  Unless brought up with it, and trained to leave it alone, though would never trust any dog unsupervised with a prey species.

The lurcher and terrier would kill it (unsurprisingly), Ripley the Sheltie would not see it as anything of interest and would probably wander off to lick the fence.

> what would your dog do????

This topic brought back memories for me!  I had a large stud of longhair cavies and one pet rabbit.  Also a blue merle collie that I worshipped.  The pet rabbit was a small lop with very similar colouring to my dog.

I had visitors to my cavy stud, and they were looking at show babies.  The husband, stood outside the shed, said in a disapproving tone.  Do you know that your dog is in the field next door, and he's chasing a rabbit.  I asked him to watch a while longer.  True to form, as soon as he reached the rabbit, Mick turned round, and checked that the rabbit was behind him, because it was her turn.  She chased him up the field and he loved it.

The look on the guys face was a picture when I called "Lucy come" and she raced across the field to me, with Border Collie in tow!  :-)

I don't think she ever knew that she wasn't a dog!

Funny that yours would kill Brainless, mine put a rabbit up on occasion and they work as a pack to stop and hold it but none of them have ever attacked, they do the same with pheasants who seem to fly in and totally forget they have wings once they see the dogs. I have had to pick up and place over the fence many of these 'prey' items and, it may be my imagination but it would seem my hounds are confused by my actions.

Just last week my boy got to one in the undergrowth and barked it probably to death............my girl went in and brought it out to eat :(

Karen

Ours would eat it, we have to have ours on leads in the fields if there are a lot of rabbits as they would have a field day.

Ellie's son has killed (and eaten!) a rabbit, not sure what ours would do. George mostly ignores them, though he's very interested in birds, and I think would be more likely to get to get one of those. Henry's too slow to catch anything, and Ellie is usually following at my heels hoping for a titbit and wouldn't even notice it!

My girl on her own is great with guinea-pigs and rabbits, she'll play with them, wouldn't trust her on her own with them though, but she does not go straight into prey drive, our pet rabbits she used to lick and sit with, but out on walks she will catch and retrieve rabbits but with no harm to them, she's gone into a bush a few times and come out with a rabbit in her mouth if she does it and I tell her to drop she will, she's never been on a shoot in her life, unlike other family dogs but she carries soft and the rabbits hop off afterwards unhurt.

But, when she's in a pack with other family dogs, I know she would kill a rabbit, she's displayed it even with our old pet rabbits when other family dogs have been here, she acts differently towards them.

So, my conclusion is a dog is a dog, it may be really friendly with pet rabbits but it doesn't take much for them to turn and suddenly decide it would make a nice lunch. :-D

> Funny that yours would kill Brainless

To be honest none of the present incumbents have ever caught one, but have eaten wildies.

Some of the past ones varied as to the level of interest. 

My Tula would they nd another anything, her Dam would catch and kill a wood pigeon. 

Lexi has caught a Squirrel and not harmed it, and dropped it on command.

Herd it! lol
I sat watching a group of three wild rabbits the other day, at very close quarters with my dog beside me. He was interested but didn't move. Then I silently signalled he could go - he didn't run straight at them, but in a classic sheepdog arc and sent them back down their holes.

When I owned GSDs I also had an hermaphrodite hen that had the freedom of the garden, she/he/it would sit on the dogs heads and peck at them. One day I saw Tasha running up the garden with the chicken head out of one side of her mouth and legs out the other, I thought that 'it' had pecked once too often, Tasha buried it head first in the veg garden, a short time later I thought I had better check it was dead and unburied it - it shook it's self not even a bent feather and set of looking for a dogs head to stand on, that was when I decided they really must be a bit stupid. Chickens that is not GSDs

my rott would eat it - as he has done to a vole and a pigeon so far
my staffy would chase it then not know what to do once she had caught it.

Fingers xed any rabbits come across my staffy rather than my rott!

My Labs don't take any notice of our rabbit, the Viz just wants to hump it!! so it is kept out of harms way.
It's different out of the home though :)

> the Viz just wants to hump it!! <IMG alt=eek src="/images/eek.gif">

That made me laugh!  My one and only rabbit was female, and obviously ready to be mated.  She got hold of my Mum's Yorkshire Terrier boy, and humped him half to death! 

He stood there crying for his mummy, while I rolled round on the grass laughing my head off.  I remember my mum was livid with me, picking him up and saying poor Pepe!!!  What terrier would just stand there?  I couldn't believe my eyes.

> Herd it!

My collie was brilliant at herding all the rabbits and GP's into their hutches... Mind you he herded pine cones too, they were more of a challenge, less obliging  ;-)

I don't know about my present dogs as I don't have any rabbits or GP's now... but they are dutiful slaves to the cats...

My borzoi boy regularly catches and eat rabbits. The collies love to chase them but won't touch them, although one of the collies found a myxi bunny one day, she picked it up and brought it over to the borzoi that was on his lead - look what I found for you! Milly, the silken windhound, chases wild rabbits but doesn't want to get too close, I took her into Pets at home last week and she was terrified of the rabbits there, her prey drive seems to be reserved for spiders at the moment :-)

If it moves and has fur, kill it. Rats, rabbits, squirrels, moles are all fair game.
Della- GD- has a very high prey drive but not for anything with feathers. I trained her not to chase sheep, she loves horses and does not chase them but is wary of the cow who chases her.

I have a little blue mini-lop who thinks it really funny to chase my 11 stone Leonberger : )

As with all prey speices, my dogs would dispatch it very quickly. I was nearly pulled through a hedge the other day when my pup went after a baby rabbit. So very close, I bet it felt her breath.

Without causing offence, I find it a bit disturbing that some people seem to allow their dogs to chase and, sometimes, kill wildlife. I would never allow my collies to chase any wildlife. Firstly, I would be creating a rod for my own back and secondly, why would I allow them to terrify another animal without cause? Yes, they work sheep on the farm but that's a far cry from chasing wildlife. We sit in the garden whilst the dogs happily allow pheasants, partridges, rabbits, red squirrels and toads to visit without so much as a blink of the eye. If any of my dogs dared to chase then it would be met with severe disapproval.

Sorry, but I find it disturbing that wildlife are not treated with the respect they deserve.

> Sorry, but I find it disturbing that wildlife are not treated with the respect they deserve.

Why would a rabbit 'deserve' any more respect than say, a chicken, lamb cow etc or are your dogs fed on a vegitarian diet.
Dogs like to eat meat and if they can catch it all the better. The reason why we dont want outr dogs to take down lambs in the field is because they belong to someone.

I really dont get this ' food should be unrecognisable and come in packets' thing. Sentimentality gone mad.

We have two pet rabbits that are allowed to be out in the garden hopping around merrily. My dogs therefore mix with them on a regular basis with no problems. I find pups tend to want to try and play with them as they would another pup, but my bunnies take it all in their stride lol and never look bothered by their attempts at all.

Mine would run a mile..she's scared of cats too.

My dogs would kill rabbits for food, nothing else. They are however on leads when out and about so it doesn't happen  but I know for sure what they would do if they had the chance.

What about cats? They hunt and kill rabbits, them proceed to eat them. You can't really stop a cat hunting, its  nature, so its nature for the dog too if its a breed thats got a high prey drive. And some breeds do have a VERY high prey drive where all the training in the world goes out of the window when the prey is spied. My dogs won't touch my cats but wo betide any strange cat that passes through

Yes I do agree, that terrorising and tormenting wildlife is not right but if its food for the animal its different. Dogs cannot think, I won't catch that rabbit because I have a bowl of kibble waiting at home. Instinct to eat as and when the opportunity arises is very strong. The only way to stop it, in a breed with a high prey drive is keep them on a lead. An absolute must with livestock but how many people would keep their dogs on a lead in any empty field (I do but I accept I am not the norm), just in case a rabbit popped up.

Perhaps I should explain that I do not encourage Della to chase things except rats but I have been unable to prevent it. Rabbits and other things come in the garden all the time when I am not there. I have done a lot of work with this dog who came as a 2yo and despite my best efforts I cannot stop her. There are 100's of rabbits about at the moment causing major damge to the fields and  garden. She does not eat them but despatches them efficiently enough. She is not quick enough to run them down unless the have myxomatosis.

I can't think of a kinder end to a poor rabbit with myxi than being quickly dispatched by a dog.

I have seen them sat on the road side, totally out of it, and looking awful. Poor things.

Mason would chase it and but wouldnt know what to do with it if he caught it :)

He found a sick squirrel a few day back and was so confused when it didnt run as it was suposed to. He kept looking at it as if to say "excuse me, I dont think you understand the rules to this game..."
Very silly boy :)

Kill it.

I have a pet rabbit, my previous shepherd that i lost last year would sunbathe in the garden with the rabbit laid across his chest, rabbit would also follow him into the house and have her head in the dogs bowl while he was eating!!
My current shepherd is very similar, and will lay out in the garden with the rabbit, but rabbit keeps humping her and she doesnt like that so she takes herself off inside(without the rabbit!)
My collie is an absolute nightmare, i always make sure that they are not loose togather as she will just herd and nip her constantly.
My JRT got into the garden when the rabbit was out- i  feared the worst as he is a rehome and i have no idea what he would be like with furries...luckily he was just following the rabbit around the garden, though i only tust the shepherd alone with the rabbit.

Wild rabbits are fair game to any of my dogs..and my gsd will go to great lengths to find the rabbit or squirral that ran off!

I really dont get this ' food should be unrecognisable and come in packets' thing. Sentimentality gone mad.

I beg your pardon? You are jumping to rather massive conclusions about my "sentimentality"

I would hazard a guess that I am more familiar with the slaughtering of animals than most given that I own, breed and sell sheep! I am also probably more aware of people who do allow their pets to chase as I have been the victim of losing livestock from such irresponsibility.

The difference is vast between humane slaughter and an animal being hunted down by a dog/pack of dogs. I have no appreciation for people who think it is acceptable to instil fear in a wild animal. It is unnecessary. Why would people think it acceptable for their dogs to chase down a rabbit as it squeals in sheer terror? It's wrong, pure and simple. Would you like to see your dog chased down by a predator? Or perhaps people agree that fox hunting or hare coursing should be legalised again? After all, a hunt is a chase down of one animal as it runs for it's life in utter terror.

You cannot compare a cat to a dog! Heavens, we surely have control of our dogs behaviour as we walk in the territory of the wild animals some so happily hunt down?!!

A local forest has pictures of slaughtered deer. Not too worry eh? The dogs responsible were simply hunting for their tea!

Can you really think 'sheep worrying' behaviour is what any one here is talking about?
Collie crew, this is not a forum where anyone woud condone that type of thing.....vermin and wild rabbits dont compare.  :)

Karen :)

Both my dogs would kill it - my very gentle GR has killed four squirrels, which I believe are classed as vermin (grey squirrels). I don't set out to hunt down squirrels but if one happens to run across the dogs' path I am afraid it is more than likely to meet it's end. Most of the rabbits we meet out and about are not too far from their warrens and beat a hasty retreat as soon as they spot any movement but I have no doubt that either dog would catch and kill it if I didn't spot the critters first or the rabbits were slow in spotting the dogs.

My terrier has a huge prey drive and is always walked on a long line (60 feet) in any area where there is even the remotest chance that livestock will be around as is my GR who doesn't chase livestock but I wouldn't take the chance anyway. On a long line the terrier has brought down a bird that flew up in front of him - he was left with a mouthful of pheasant tail feathers and the pheasant  flew off.

If deer were around both my dogs would be on leads and not even given the chance to chase.

Rabbits and squirrels are not easily spotted by us humans due to their size and often the dogs have caught and killed the creature before I have even spotted them - but that is just nature to a dog although it doesn't seem acceptable to some humans - larger animals are far easier to spot and thus the dogs are not given the chance to chase.

I know what my dogs would do wth a rabbit, and that is kill it. When I had chinchillas, one got out of it's cage and my Mini Schnauzer Leo has never moved so fast. It was all over in seconds, but I had problems getting him to drop the chinchilla. I had chinchillas long before dogs, and the dogs totally ignored when they were in their cages, but I never chanced having them loose in the same room

When my daughter had a bunny and she was tied up in the backyard T-bone jumped the lil fence from the dogrun and just pushed her bum with her nose and used her as a pez dispenser for poo lol yuck!! Junior well he just licked her bottom over and over and I thought he would have been the one to hurt her- Tiva and Taz just never cared treated the lil bunny just as the family.

Guess my bratts are pretty good and they all seem to enjoy the ferrets.

Depends on which dog. Simba my Golden when a fairly young pup managed to open a rabbit hutch, took a rabbit out, carried it down to the bottom of the garden, then laid there just licking it, totally unharmed. Not all that long after, a Malinois I had bred did much the same to her new owner's rabbit -opened the hutch and took it out, except that rabbit was literally found in pieces all over the garden. I've no doubt my Z would kill and eat, but his mum Ripley I have called off when a wild rabbit ran out just feet in front of her. I have photos of her with a hamster in between her front paws, and small kittens, she will pose with anything. The Papillons would be smaller than some rabbits LOL and would probably try to play with them. Like my Pap puppy Ella (17 weeks almost) who thinks Lennon the red Persian kitten (aged 5 months) is her personal plaything to be played rough and tumble with -yet Lennon is quite a bit bigger than Ella LOL.

> I find it a bit disturbing that some people seem to allow their dogs to chase and, sometimes, kill wildlife. I would never allow my collies to chase any wildlife.

Each to their own, I certainly don't think there is anything wrong with hounds chasing a bunny, in fact I'll admit that I enjoy watching them run and it keeps them fit, if they catch the rabbit it is over very quickly. The only bunny I ever heard making a noise was one that my muzzled boy caught - he was battering it with his muzzle, far kinder to let him finish it off properly. How do you feel about fishing? What about lizards that chase and eat poor 'ickle grass hoppers in their tanks?

I would never encourage my dogs to kill (as in foxhunting) but if rabbits and other wild creatures decide to live on my (and therefore my dogs) land then they are fair hunting/chasing game to my gang, and unfortunately will be killed if caught, especially by my terrier although not sure if my spaniel or GSD would actually kill it may be the fun of the chase for them. My terrier would definitely kill, she has jumped and caught a blackbird in mid flight twice. She lives quite happily with the goats and sheep as friends, we have a few chickens with bald patches (but are working on that one) but rabbits etc we allow her to chase, she has to be allowed to follow some of her natural instincts otherwise she wouldn't be a terrier.

> That made me laugh!&nbsp; My one and only rabbit was female, and obviously ready to be mated.&nbsp; She got hold of my Mum's Yorkshire Terrier boy, and humped him half to death!&nbsp;

Oh my.... can just picture it! LOL

> what would your dog do to a rabbit

Tara would probably herd it into next door's hen coop - as she does with their hens :) :) Bramble would just ignore it - unless it played ball :)

Daisy

A few years ago I had a BSD bitch who had had 1 litter and I was working at an animal sanctuary at the time when 4 orphaned baby wild rabbits were brought in.They were about a week old at the time and we were hand feeding them and I agreed to take them home every night.What I wasn't expecting was that my BSD girl tried to nurse them,she carried them very gently to her bed and they snuggled up to her in between feeds.As they got older and more mobile she got herself very stressed when they started moving around and eventually I had to separate her from them when I wasn't around as they got too big for her to carry safely.After that she adored rabbits and was always so gentle with the 2 rabbits I subsequently had,she would lie there for ages licking their heads until they got fed up with it!

This reminds of my Bullie. She managed once to catch a kitten, poor wee thing didn't stand a chance, but we also had rabbits which fought with each other, they would jump into each other runs! Bridgie the BT used to run down to them and chase them along the outside of their run, but if they weren't in the run she would ignore them. One had a huge chunk out of it's ear, but i had a photo of the rabbit and Bridgie snuggled down and it looked like the BT did the damage.

I am afraid Merlot would eat it..and has many times in the past...the baby Chablis...well I can recall her off anything and Granny Woo is just to slow to catch her own tail these days. I do not encourage them to chase but as others have said  bunnies do just hop up out of the blue and to Merlot they are food!!! Nature in the raw I suppose. Squirrels are also fair game to her and the park rangers are more than happy for her to dispatch them...saves paying thee squirrel man for doing the job...and much more natural and very quick! He traps them and then finishes them off by hand!!!
I have to say of the numerous bunnies and squirrels caught and dispached I have never once heard a noise, she is much too quick for that.
I am very carefull around stock and larger wild animals like deer and do not allow chasing if at all possible. But even deer will suddenly appear, however Merlot will only give a token chase and will recall allbeit a bit slow!
Aileen.
PS we were staying with a friend last w/end who is overrun with rabbits and Merlot even caught one while on the flexi-lead...slow bunny or fast dog?

My lot would kill, as they do every day!

My collie would not have harmed the rabbits etc he was very very gentle with them... the only thing ever nipped by him , by her pj's waistband,was my daughter when she would not be herded!!

Tau brings me myxi rabbits, if they're past it, I put them out of their misery.  I don't generally encourage them to chase wildlife at all, and have successfully recalled Tau from ducks on the ground only a few metres away, Indie's not quite so good unfortunately!!  Neither have ever been exposed to small pets, so Tau's response if we ever get close to something is to retrieve it for me, Indie would be more likely to try and eat it before deciding to respond to a recall, with a 'what me Mum, Oooohhhhhhhh, you're calling ME, thought you meant someone else' sort of attitude. 

So what would people think if it was a bunny look alike, and your dog put up a hare? 

> So what would people think if it was a bunny look alike, and your dog put up a hare?

Mine always carry an observers guide to wildlife with them, something runs and they quickly check the book...too big and ears too long....nope we won't chase that :-)