my mum's dog loves chasing squirrels and has killed one previously, yesterday she chased one again but this time it gave her a very vicious bite on the nose (required antibiotics and painkillers, blood everywhere), is there anything we can do to stop her ? would a bell work ? to give the squirrels a chance i mean. or would she never forgive my mum for embarrassing her with a dinky bell :D

sarah
x

Gus is a sod for chasing squirrels although he hasnt a hope in hell of catching one ;)

Ummm, cats, rabbits, squirrels - copper's main mission in life is to chase and hunt them all down.  Some dogs just have to do it, its in their nature I think.  The funniest thing was though when I had cops down at the prom/wood, when he was sniffing around, the squirrels were all dancing around behind him.  The minute he turned around, they all scooted up the trees.  He knew there was something happening but he just couldn't figure it out.  Squirrels 1 - Copper 0   Guess it won't always be that way!!

CG

Id give it a medal, :) not a bell.  Its a hellish good dog that can catch a squirrel...but yes they do give bad bites. :(

Asa just loves hunting Squirrels! We go to a place every morning that is overflowing with them and he spends the whole walk hunting...great exercise.When he finds one he stands at the bottom of the tree barking..exactly what hes supposed to do until I get there and tell him 'good boy,enough now' and then he goes search for the next one.
Kasper on the other hand has only 'found' one squirrel...well ok...it crossed the path about 10 ft infront of us,sat down ,flicked its tail and walked off...Kasper cocked his head on one side and looked at me as if to say...what that?
Archer
By the way Asa comes from 'show lines' and Kaspers Dad was bred in Norway from strong hunting lines....don't suppose they've read their pedigrees!!LOL 

luckily she seems to have forgotten about her injury now, and she's back on form chasing the squirrels out of her garden ! she'll never learn !
:)

sarah
x

Great idea but how would you persuade all the local squirrels to wear bells? :-D

We've got a whippet whose mission in life is to rid the world of squirrels,crows,seagulls,rabbits you get the idea, we've found the only thing we can do is try and give them a head start by clapping,whistleing and shouting when we see anything.
Of course everyone will think your mad but its better than the look they give you when your dog runs up to you with a 20lb seagull sqawking in its gob.

Steve

hi my dog chases them too, why dont you try taking her on a different walk where there are not too many squirrels, it worked for my dog, i did this for about a month and then went back to the original walk and when she saw a squirrel she ignored it, it might not work for your dog but its worth a try.

Flipping 'eck, a 20lb Seagull!  I doubt 10 Seagulls would weigh that!
Dawn.

you should come to the seaside to see them we were thinking to have one instead of a turkey lol, just dont let one poo on you!!

Steve

You must live in Whitby!!  I saw seagulls there that would make you scream.  They were bloody huge!!  Too many fish suppers maybe :D

I have a retired racing greyhound and he does exactly the same!  In fact, anything that runs, he'll chase it.  It's not very nice when he does catch a squirrel as he eats them, but it's their nature and you'll never be able to get them out of the habit.  I find it hilarious when the squirrell runs up a tree and my dog is left wondering how it managed to disappear into thin air!!  He sometimes sees it up the tree and then stands and barks at it.  I'm sure he thinks it'll just fall out of the tree and into his mouth!!  He's not the brightest spark but he is fast enough to catch them if they don't shoot up a tree!!

AAHH bless him - he probably expects them to run in large circles :D