Living with small pets

Plus remember the prey drive and kill drive are usually well seperated in herding breeds, and shelties more than most.

Tully is a high prey drive dog but would never kill a small animal. She has a ball chasing hares and rabbits around the area, but if she sees one close up she will just do a play bark to tell them to run.

Dogs are smart enough to know who is part of the pack themselves. Why shelties are better than most dogs with small animals is they are small themselves so are less likely to hurt another pet inadvertantly with their weight. I have raised cats around birds and shelties around cats and never had a problem.

Perhaps you could teach your sheltie that its job is the 'guard' his herd of chins?
 
I have four guinea pigs that live in a huge open cage on my living room floor. The Shelties can easily jump into the cage, as they often hang their heads over to watch the piggies. They LOVE them. The piggies are really just some sort of entertainment for my Shelties. I believe that they know the difference between pets, and wild animals.

Randi's Bailey came over and was watching the piggies over the fence and made no move to get them even though they scurry around really fast.

I know I have posted this picture before, but I will share again :biggrin2: Here is Chloe with her "litter."
 
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I love that picture Danielle!

danisgoat said:
Randi's Bailey came over and was watching the piggies over the fence and made no move to get them even though they scurry around really fast.
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Bailey is huge a bird and squirrel chaser, but when she met Danielle's guinea pigs, she had no interest in harming them. She just sniffed the cage and watched them.

Bailey also met a rabbit once at the vet office. The rabbit was on the floor in a cage. Bailey walked over, sniffed the cage, then dropped into a puppy bow and barked at the rabbit to play. And again this is a dog, who goes nuts when she sees birds and squirrels outside. I get the impression that most shelties like to chase small animals. They can't help it. It's their herding instinct, but if they are actually able to catch up to them, I hope they wouldn't intentionally kill it. Of course you never know, so no dog should be left alone with a small animal.

I had a pet rabbit with my first sheltie. She loved the rabbit. She would chase him around the house and backyard. She'd run around him and then smack him with her paw or nudge him with her nose if he stopped moving. They were a great pair. She would never hurt the rabbit, but of course I would never leave them unsupervised. You just never know.
 
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Chris said:
I'm also a Chin Mom. All mine consider Rain their little brother -- although I don't let Rain out with th Shelties in the same room. beckon likes to play with Rain -- they bump noses, Beckon jumps at the cage, and Rain jumps right back at him. It's a riot! :lol:

They get along fine BUT I never set the Shelties up for failure by giving them the opportunity to check if Rain is a chew toy or not.
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Oh my! I don't think Marlowe would get a good response jumping at the cages. One of our chins, Kimchi, is as spicy and fiery as her name. She would give him what for for invading her personal space. At best, he will get a scolding. At worst, he will get sprayed with pee! I speak from experience :dead:
 
Thanks to everyone for your responses! I will continue to let them see and sniff each other and I will be watchful for their reactions.
 
Smudge said:
Your named your chin after a Korean dish?! Hahahahaha!


Didn't think anybody would notice, did you? :wink2:
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Our two chins are Kimchi and Mochi. If we ever got a third, we'd have to name it after Chinese food (maybe Wonton?)--then we would have representation of the three major East Asian countries :lol:

I guess Marlowe should be lucky he didn't get named something like Soba :winkgrin:
 
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Paeoniaa said:
Our two chins are Kimchi and Mochi. If we ever got a third, we'd have to name it after Chinese food (maybe Wonton?)--then we would have representation of the three major East Asian countries :lol:
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I don't know what Mochi is. My Dad refused to try Kimchi while he was overseas, and it became a big joke between him and my Mom.

"SHUT UP AND EAT YOUR KIMCHI!" :lol:
 
Smudge said:
I don't know what Mochi is. My Dad refused to try Kimchi while he was overseas, and it became a big joke between him and my Mom.

"SHUT UP AND EAT YOUR KIMCHI!" :lol:
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Mochi is a Japanese rice cake, usually sweet. Both chins match up with their names quite well :smile2:

So far, Kimchi acts like Marlowe isn't there. Mochi is a little interested him; when they sniff each other, Mochi looks like she wants more while Marlowe looks perplexed.
 
My Shelties have all gotten along with our bunnies - the bunnies have had a separate pen in the backyard but they sniff noses thru the fence. Asta has tracked down escaped rabbits for me before. I just asked "Where's the bunny?" and she showed me where the escapee was hiding. Smart dog, eh?

When the bunny comes in at night in the winter, the girls hang around his cage, but mostly ignore him. If I open his door to pet him, they'll stick their noses in to have a sniff. They don't even bark at him when he tears around his pen.

Sharon
 
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