This morning I was out with my border terrier and a friend with her two dogs. First time ever, one of hers caught a rabbit. She was hysterical and screamed at her dog - which of course caused both of hers to go mad and run around. The poor rabbit was squealing, being thrown in the air etc. Luckily, my boy was too interested in his tennis ball to bother initially and only ran over to find out what was happening at the end. We managed to get all three dogs and a chap who heard the screams came over and destroyed the injured rabbit. If it ever happens when I'm out on my own can somebody advise me on the best action to take. I appreciate that it's just a dog doing what comes naturally, but it's not nice !. Is it best just to call your dog and praise it, would he then release the rabbit ?. When my friend screamed at hers I was concerned that they'd just run off with their prize so I wouldn't want to do that. I tried to calm her down, we'd only just walked past the place where the rabbit was caught, it made no attemp to run at the time so I should imagine that it was a sick or injured animal anyway. However, if my boy ever did manage to catch one I would like to know what action to take.

Thank you.

Val

I'd take it home and clean it before giving it to him for breakfast but I know people who would just let the dog have it and then not feed them when they get home. Probably the second way is most natural but I still feel I'd rather check the meat looked OK before letting mine eat it. A fresh bunny or pheasant is probably the most natural meal your dog could have.
My boy chased a deer the other week - not really sure what I'd have done if he'd caught that:D

Couldn't do that !. I've got a pet rabbit and my dog licks her face (I wouldn't leave them on their own together though !). Also, I never buy him food that's got rabbit in !.

Val

When my dogs catch them I do what Bullphi does, and take them home, gut them and pressure-cook them for the dogs.

gut them

i would be no good have to wear marigolds to remove giblets from chickens/turkey much to OH halfs amusement. :D

thankfully i dont think my dog would catch the rabbit, more likely repilcate the bouncing and running (boxer)

:-)

you could take it home etc , but be carefull of who sees your dog doing this as this could be classed as part of the hunting bill,
this is not a joke, someone at club brought this to our attention,as she has two terriers and they are mean ratters at ther stables,and she was told that if the hunting ban came into force she could be prosecuted if someone reported her dogs doing what came natural to them.I don't know how far the law extends maybe someone could let me know.
Carol

Rats are classed as vermin and if the dogs are hunting them on her own land or with land that she has permission from the owner to hunt on she would be ok, same applies to rabbits,
So best thing to do if you have a dog that catches is rabbits is have a word with the landowner and get their permission to carry on.

Ingrid

I hadn't thought of all this - it would have been difficult carrying that deer home without being spotted :-)

the hunting bill does not apply to rabbits/rats, they are considered vermin and if you have the permission of the landowner you are allowed to hunt them. it is hares and foxes which are protected, but hunting still continues, and probably always will.

staffiehappy says "foxes which are protected"

Oh no they are not!!!

Too true.  Free lunch :)

my friends dogs killed two of her mums rabbits that had escaped from their runs - my friend skinned them and ate them she said the meat was whiter than wild rabbits. no, no, no - i could never eat my Roger

So wheres Jessica then? :D

In the cage next to him :D and on the other side are the two Belgian hares: Scarlett O'Harer and Chester (Chest Hare) ;) ;)

:D :D

Not Jeannie, then? (As in "I dream of Jeannie, she's a light brown hare") :D :D

Thats a new one...I thought we were out of hare jokes in our house "oooh look, I'm brushing my hare" etc etc :D :D

Dang i get the 'hare' jokes ALL the time as its my sirname!! nightmare! the best one i got at school was pubic hare.:D

Glad you raised this point, as when my lurcher catches rabbits, I get in a bit of a panic.  Luckily he kills them instantly, but then insists on carrying them round as long as he can, at which point my staffies get very excited and try and steal it off him.  I don't think I could ever bring myelf to skin and gut a rabbit, especially as I've got 2 pet rabbits! 
But don't know how else to get the rabbit off him without all 3 dogs then trying to gobble it up as quickly as possible.

Our whippet is a nightmare he had 2 this morning,  in a week he regulary gets upto 8 !!! we do gut a couple of those and give them to him the rest get given to a little old woman down the road who asked us for some when she saw us carrying them.
I hate it when he catches them but our only other option would be to have him on a lead all the time because once he's chasing there's no way to call him back. If he doesn't kill them, I could never do it but luckily my friend who is a farmer can and snaps their necks but I still have to walk away as he does it.

Steve

OMG :D - for the first time I'm glad that we have such a good fox population round here that we don't have rabbits :D :D :D :D

I'd die if one of mine caught a rabbit :D

Daisy - you are such a wimp :D

Just back from work - thank you for your replies.

With any luck my little lad will never catch one. It wouldn't be so bad if it was killed instantly but the one this morning was making such an awful noise, horrible.
No, I couldn't take it home to eat or for my dog to eat - and the subject of the hunting bill did cross my mind too !.
I'll just have to hope that if he does ever catch one that I'll be able to attract his attention and encourage him to drop it.

Thanks.

Val

We have loads of foxes and loads of rabbits perhaps their just lazy foxes around here, I was just thinking to myself, when will the rabbits be having baby rabbits because I hate to think of little baby rabbits starving because our murderous hound has eaten their mum.

Steve

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Nobody told me about this before I got a dog!!!!

Lol, Dear Father, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray my Millie doesn't ever catch a rabbit!! Amen

(Bullphi, you crack me up! :-))

the first rabbit tess caught she got off afox, we startled the fox who dropped its rabbit, it was still alive ( must have only just caught it) tess went after the rabbit rather than the fox and killed the rabbit outright, the second one she was pregnant who on earth she managed i dont know as she was 8 weeks gone, but where as normally she gives her kill up easy this one was not easy, i was at work at the time and ended up getting someone to hold her while i took the kill they then lead her away from me while i chucked it on the fire,
As there arent that many rabbit on our walks we are lucky, but tess does kill them outright, the only problem is now is foxes, one time tess saw a fox in our garden near the rabbit hutch, she chased over the 4ft fence into the kids part of the garden over the 3ft fence to the 'dump' at the end of the garden, over my neighbours 4ft fence, then over a 4ft double fence with about a 2ft gap between them onto the private land behind us i run in went 'fox,tessgone need shoes, half an hour later i found her wandering back home, luckily the fox had a head start, if she ever caught one god knows what woul happen
tanya

I only wish my GSD would catch a wild rabbit i know she would love it but i would have to gut it first and prolly skin. I think it was someone on her who said they got a rabbit for the dog took it home and it had a huge tapeworm alive in side it's gut.
Perhaps something fresh would stop her eating road kill eeewww!!!

Cordelia

I read about all these dogs doing doggy things.  Then I look at Norman - pulling worms out of the grass.  ** Sigh **

I'd just like to add, here, that my aunt had a whippet who regularly chased things. One day she didn't come back. After searching for days, they eventually found her body, it looked like she'd been kicked in the head by a deer, and most probably died instantly.
Please be aware that they are dangerous.

thank fully there are no deer near me, while tess barks at horses, not aggressively she cant understand them, but she has been known to jump over a stable door in with horses!! she never barks at smaller livestock, mainly as she is a month younger than my eldest goat so had always been round animals of that size, when she was a pup she attempted to chase the goats but after being butted a few times didnt try again now if she gets in to the gaot pen she ignores the goats and likewise with them
tanya

LOL :D :D do they stretch as he pulls them

Ah Norman! :D Bless him. Morse and I love daxies as we had 2 at training classes and they were a right pair of little characters, so strong willed and frightened of absolutely nothing. I love watching long haired daxies wiggle along on their teeny feet like Dougal off the Magic Roundabout.  Morse is a disgrace to the Hunting group as he chases rabbits like mad but never catches them. He does chase foxes and if he ever corners one he'll get sparkled by the fox, so he gets called off.

Mine have a tendency to catch rabbits when there is a lot of myxomatosis around and the bunnies aren't quite up to speed.  A few years ago I actually changed where I walk to avoid them as they were catching four or five on a walk.  I was taught by a gamekeeper how to despatch them to that big ole rabbit hutch in the sky and was also told to paunch them in the field because of the smell - ugh!

I do quite often take them home and my son skins them to use the skin on training dummies.  We did cure the skin with salt a couple of times but now just leave it to dry and discard it when used.  I don't mind cooking the meat if it is taken off the bone for me but I have a problem with meat on bone and would prefer not to either eat or cook it like that, just my preference of course.  I know plenty of people who cook rabbit.

What I can't cope with is when they bring me little snack sized bunnies fresh from the nest.  I can't quite bring myself to despatch them in the same way.

I don't have that particular problem, jackyjat - the snack-sized 'oncers' are eaten on the spot, it's only the 'main meal' that is given to me.
:)

My mutts have the annoying habit of only catching rabbits when in public. I find it never goes down too well when someone is out for a walk with their children and then see my dogs playing tug of war with a rabbit. However carrying the rabbit home with me is a great way of keeping the dogs to heel.

.. it often happens when there are small children and squeamish adults around to scream hysterically!  With dogs that retrieve there is little chance of just throwing the offending article into the bush surreptitiously because they do that boomerang thing and suddenly appear infront of you again!  However many times you tell them to leave it, they always manage to find it again, the flipside being that you get funny looks walking along the street with a handfull of rabbit, or opening your boot to load them in!

I keep a "Tesco" carrier bag in my pocket these days for any catchs, though I get funny looks from walkers out on the cliffs as I walk along with my full bag, they're probably wondering where the nearest Tesco's is :)

My two have managed four rabbits and two pheasants between them in the last twelve months, they don't seem to realise that these are actually edible, and once they have chased and caught them, they tend to lose interest. Both are very good at releasing to hand, and the first bunny Moog caught, right in front of us, we got her to give us, hoping it would be OK - No chance though, think its back was broken, but fortunately it was only a tiddler so I could break its neck. Hate it when they manage to catch something, they are both rubbish killers and tend to wander round holding the back end of the 'prize', while the front end screams and twitches. I'm never sure whether its better to leave the dogs to finish the job, or to get them to hand it over and do it myself. Fortunately, they've never brought me a big live rabbit, as I'd have no idea how best to despatch it. Any tips? We have to keep a good eye out for deer in the woods round here, they would certainly both chase, and their 'chase-recall' is certainly not 100%!

My two Mastiffs are too slow to catch rabbits and the JRT's are scared of them.
The cat on the other hand, who weighs 18lbs, brings quite big bunnies home in the spring and summer.
Sometimes they are still alive so my son dispatches them. We don't feed them to the dogs but the ferrets enjoy them immensely.
I must admit I have been known to save one or two and release them when they recover.

Did you hear, the Giant Schnauzer at the final line up at Crufts, was said to have a great coat as it had caught and eaten a rabbit!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or was I imagining things?????
Lea :)

What would you do if they caught someones pet cat???

See earlier answer for bunny rabbit:-)

Unlikely to happen as cats have fearsome weapons at all five corners and are much harder than dogs. Ask anyone that owns both cats and dogs which one they are most scared of.

<<What would you do if they caught someones pet cat??? >>

Hide the evidence quickly?

Be amazed my cats only get caught out by the schips if they happen to be in an enclosed enviroment and even then the dogs back off when they spit at them, I do know of someone who's dog killed her cat but again that was in a situation where the cat couldn't get away.

I have a friend whose Staff hated cats.  One day whilst he was in the house alone, a neighbours kitten climbed in the window....

The dogwalker arrived later on to find the living room...erm...splattered in red substance....(trying not to be too graphic so as not to cause upset but its part of the story!).

The question is....did they or did they not tell the cat's owner.....answers on a postcard!

I've also heard the tales (allegedly true ) of why it's not a very good idea to leave a chihuahua puppy unattended with a cat :(
Lara x

my bosses elderly cat used to take no notice of the dogs so when dogs were out cat came in and was put in a crate, one day cat outside and vistors the two rottis that were in the house at the time had to be put out, the dogs went running out just as the cat came over the fence, for those of you with  a good imagination i need not go any further and for those of you with out an imagination think yourselves lucky you havent ;)
tanya

Yes lea i heard that too! good advertisement for feeding a barf diet ;) I heard them say it as the judge was looking over him/her.:)

Have any of you read the post horrible dogs off lead? Then you will know that any dog that chases any thing should be kept under control and maybe teaching the instant down would be a good idea. If your dogs chase anything, be it a rabbit, cat or small dog, ie Yorkie then you must take responsibilty for your dogs actions.

Jumbuck,

I appreciate your post, its quite true about taking responsibility for your dogs actions, but I would just like to point out that there are occasions when even the best trained dog could be in the situation where they could chase things, instant down or no instant down. My dogs are both very well trained and both know an instant down, even the pup (who stays on the long-line anyway!), but there are times when my bitch, Isla is away from me and if a bunny runs across her path, then of course she'll give chase. However, the difference is that when/if she catches the rabbits, she brings them back, usually unharmed and gives them to me.  It is then up to me what I do with them.  (The health ones go back to live out their bunny lives, but the injured ones get sent to bunny heaven).
Ali :)

ps don't ask about the squirrels though !!!!!

Yes Jumbuck - that would be a good thing to do, in an ideal world.

In an un-ideal world (ie my house) I don't have to worry about the dogs catching wild rabbits...because the rabbits themsleves come over from the field with myxi and plant themselves on the doorstep. I then have to get my friend to come and shoot them because I can't bear for anything to be dying. If I was a rabbit I'd rather get caught by a dog than have that terrible disease :(