Interaction between pets?

[Ripple]

I have a dog and I am thinking about getting a hedgehog. My dog is very nice and has never bitten a living thing. Should I let them interact?:hmm:

 

[autumn5930]

If I was you I wouldn't. Maybe you could see if your dog goes after the hedgehog or not. To introduce them you could hold your hedgehog and let your dog sniff him/her. But never leave your hedgehog alone with your dog no matter how much you trust your dog. And if I was you... I would post this in the New Owner Questions or General Topics......
Hoped I helped!

 

[smhufflepuff]

I wouldn't let them interact either. Even a playful little nip could serious injure or kill a hedgehog. Also, consider that hedgehogs are prey animals. Every instinct is telling them "argh! that thing is going to eat me!" I wouldn't want to stress out my little ones like that.

 

[Ripple]

Thanks guys1

 

[akane]

You have to know your pets. 1 dog I don't let near the small animals. If she got spined by a hedgehog she'd probably snap at it. She'd bark and bounce on to cats if they whacked her so we can't have cats because we don't have the space to keep them separate. The other dog I just let her learn her lesson because I raised her to be very gentle with small animals. She has helped raise orphan kittens, guinea pigs, and rabbits. If she deems something dangerous she looks to me to see if she should get rid of it or leave it alone. So when I had Loki out she came up to sniff him, he balled up and popped upward, she got her nose whacked, I told her to leave hedgehogs alone, and I don't have to worry about her touching the hedgehogs again. She won't go within 3' of the containers we put them in while cleaning their cages.

 

[Shooper]

I think each dog is different. I do let my dogs interact with my rats, chins, hedgie and glider. Two of my dogs just ignore the small critters and my lab/chow loves everything as if they were her babies. If I ever had a reason to worry, I wouldnt chance it though!

 

[PpunkTheHedgehog]

When I was still with my parents, we had two dogs and two cats, and I had my hedgie, many mice, and a bird. Although I never left my hedgehog out of his cage alone with any other pets, I didn't kick my dogs or cats out of the room to play with him, clean his cage, ext. My cats were almost never in my basement, and my dogs were very well trained. But I don't think it was my dogs training that kept them from bothering Ppunk, I think Ppunk kept my dogs at bay himself! My hyper yellow Lab was almost afraid of him because she didn't like getting pricked in the nose, and ever since has kept a wide distance from him. My Australian Shepherd mix is interested in him, but also never gets too close. They're both rather intimidated by his huffing and puffing, despite their large size.

Now he stays in my boyfriends basement while I'm at school away from home. His Shih Tzu wouldn't even come down the stairs for a few days because he was so afraid of my hedgehog! He's happily lived here for a year now and every time he's out, his dog either goes upstairs or watches him carefully... from behind someone else.

That being said, every dog is different. My dogs and my boyfriend's dog are really just big babies. But I don't think either one would hesitate to go after one of my mice. You have to know your dog really well to make that decision, and even after you've made it, I wouldn't let them become best friends and trust them alone or anything.

 

[konotashi]

I have a dog who is fabulous with my ferrets, but would eat my hamster in a second if I let him.
He knows he can play pretty rough with the ferrets (he's a Pomeranian), but he goes into complete prey drive and I can tell he just wants to kill my hamster when he sees him.