hadj2887

My miniature dachshund recently slaughtered 3 baby rabbits that were burrowed in my backyard. Then a few weeks later, a fourth baby rabbit was running around my backyard and my dog slaughtered it too Now everytime I let my dog out, it runs right to the rabbit hole and eagerly looks for more rabbits to kill. My dog is not a vicious dog at all and is actually very sweet. I'm pretty surprised that she would slaughter four rabbits. It was pretty sad.

Tom

It is just instinct that makes a dog go for small animals like that. I have heard a myth that once a dog tastes blood, it will crave it for the rest of it's life.
Tom

sirdarksol

Also, Dachsunds were bred to hunt burrowing animals.
The only way that I've ever seen the "killer instinct" beaten out is when the human is directly involved. My cat learned not to kill either of my hamsters or my guinea pig because I acclimated them to each other. One of the hamsters even escaped regularly, and my mom would periodically find the cat calmly watching it in a corner, like he was keeping it safe until one of us found it. However, if he sees a vole or squirrel, he's after it like a rocket, which is pretty amazing considering how old he is.

gammerus

Yeah, dogs still have natural instincts, and those instincts tell him you are family and rabbits are prey.

Sabi

To kill Rabbits are dogs main insticts. Our dogs chase wild rabbits when ever they are in the bush and they are not nesserly aggressive...

Mollygurl

i remember when our toy poodle was chasing this baby bunny that got in our screened-in porch.Lolli ended up chasing bunny into a stack of 2X6 boards where the bunny got stuck and i had 2 rescue it. my dad used to have a male rough collie(SOOOOO pretty-blue merle with big ruff and 2 blue eyes!!!) that could catch squirrels in the woods.

vin

That's part of the breed....The miniature breed was developed specifically to hunt rabbits.....It's just in her nature, nothing more.

lolagurl

well obviouisly its in her instinct to kill the rabbits..but i cant help feeling sorry for all those poor babies

gammerus

If it bugs you so much train her not to. I think season 1 of the dog whisperer (DVD) had an episode about a dog that ate the family chickens and they seemed to be able to curb the behavior.

Sabi

I itl be very hard to try and take away an instinct...

vin

I agree...It's in their breed...It's like trying to teach a cat not to hunt birds or mice...

Sabi

Exactly.

Howeyg

my whippet trys to kill things all the time. Her attempts are foiled by my other dog who runs in and ruins her chances by scaring the rabbits away. Tehya(whippet) is so fast she does catch them occasionally she caught a pidgeon once