Dog & chinchilla stare down

First…remember a dog is a “prey animal”…so all you’re seeing is his instincts coming forward…Chinchilla’s move fast, have that “rodenty” look…and in a dog’s eyes, he sees dinner.

What I’d do (and I did do this with our cat aggressive Rot/Pit cross)…start out with the Chinchilla in a cage on the floor, your dog on a leash. You can tell the difference in a dog who’s “looking at dinner” and one who is simply curious. Intense STARING, or FIXATING equals dinner…the second he moves from curiosity to fixation…say “SHHT” or “HEY!”, and jerk his collar…this breaks his thought process. You’re going to have to stay right there, and work with him, to let him know that the hunter part of him is going to have to take second place to YOUR wishes.

Say in a couple of days of doing this exercise over and over…like 3 or 4 times a day, have someone hold the chinchilla, to protect it, and let him sniff it…a dog who’s “sniffing” is curious…and curiosity is ok…don’t be tense, just vigilent to the dogs eyes…if his nose stops moving correct him with the leash and collar.

This doesn’t mean that the Chin and the dog should be left to run the house together alone, but it could mean an easier coexistance while you are there…there did come a time in our Rot/Pit’s life that she and the cat finally got to be great buddies…but we made sure first, thru lots of time spent watching their interactions, before we ever let the cat be unprotected or alone with Ruby.

phrannie