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Do your dogs kill wild animals?

10K views 54 replies 35 participants last post by  Chocx2  
#1 ·
Well what I mean by that is if a wild animal should stray onto your property or whilst out on a walk would they attack? Stanley loves to have a go at hedgehogs and always ends up with a bloodied mouth and doesn't seem to learn that hedgehogs 'hurt' anyway obviously the instinct is strong as yesterday morning he went out in the garden and attacked a big hedgehog killing it. Husband was a bit upset as he said he could hear it dying. I had a look after it had died and there were no puncture wounds on its belly so he must have chomped it somehow on the outside and it died of internal injuries maybe.
Last week we found Stanley standing (looking sheepish) next to a big dead rat that had come from somewhere. He doesn't spend alot of time outside on his own so we were really lucky that he got it (where the hell had it come from or where was it going was my first thought) and wasn't sure whether we were going to be cross with him or not (we were pleased) but as we have many cats around the place I do worry that he will get one one day and that would be awful.
 
#4 ·
All my guys are small but yes, they certainly do. Bailey has killed squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, birds, and opossums. If she's gotten anything else I don't know about it. She is extremely prey driven and I know she'd kill a kitten if she had the chance. I don't know if she could kill an adult cat but she'd sure give it a try. I can't have her around my 2 cats at all. A couple of my Doxies have gotten a bird here and there as well as a squirrel or two. Even my older Chihuahua caught and killed a baby opossum a couple of years ago. I live with a group of tiny assassins....
 
#6 ·
I think Jackson would. Well, he did kill a bird once... it was a sort of by accident thing. It was stuck on our porch in a big blizzard in early 2010 and Jackson got it because it couldn't fly very well, and he leaped off the couch and caught it, lol. I really think the bird went into shock and died, or maybe he broke it's neck. Because there was no blood or anything, but yeah, he chases rabbits and squirrels and I think if he caught up to one... he'd kill it.
 
#7 ·
Well, if you count moths then Snorkels is a crazed killer.

She cornered a chipmunk once in the rain gutter and I was terrified she would actually get into a fight with it. I think it could have taken her. But she tries.

Not so much Rebel. He just likes to bark at the varmints, not eat them.

My last dog, Dawg, was extremely smart. He had lived in the country most of his life and we moved him to town. He figured out pretty quickly he couldn't chase rabbits down in the yard, so he would sit right inside the open garage door and wait from them to come through the gate and then cut off their escape path. He caught several rabbits that way.
 
#8 ·
Yes, Tuffy has eaten spiders. Ended up in emergency. Face was puffed up to double size and he was vomiting more than his stomach should be able to hold. He chases cats, but doesn't really know what to do after than. He got clawed once, which just made it more fun for him. The blood just added to the thrill.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Uno has an extremely high prey drive, but I think he's secretly afraid of other animals. This one time he caught a squirrels by the tail, it shrieked and Uno freaked out and let go.
Other times when we're on walks and he sees a cat, he wants to chase it, but some cats either stand their ground or are super friendly and when he approaches them and realizes that they are not running, he loses interest.
He just likes the thrill of the chase.

My roomate's dog, who is a lot calmer then Uno, has killed 2 rats and a bird at this point, my neighbor has chickens so theres been an increase in rodent activity due to the grain laying around.
 
#11 ·
yep, the only cat that's ever lasted out here was one who didn't run from the dogs, and she lived well over 20 years. She would give any dog that came up to her a good swat. But all the feral cats that showed up got killed by the dogs because they ran.
 
#15 ·
Ok, mine chase rabbits but I always call them off. My friends dog killed a rabbit and got tape worms? I don't think mine 4 pack of fur friends would take down anything. However my aussie might kill a cat, he hate cats.

I wanted to rescue one, cat that is, and try, but I am scared he will kill it.
 
#17 ·
Two of ours found a nest of baby rabbits in our tree line and killed and ate those. I am positive that if anything came into our yard they would attack it. A few years ago I let the dogs out at night to do their last pees and poos and didnt realize there was a raccoon on the front lawn :( All 4 went into pack mode and attacked it. I was screaming trying to get them off of it, the dogs were screaming as the **** was biting them over and over. There was no way I was sticking my arms out to pull them off of it. It managed to get to a tree, the snow covered ground was covered in blood from the dogs and the ****. I was crying like a baby trying to get everyone in the house. I frantically called my husband who was on his way home from work. We ended up loading all 4 dogs into the truck and headed into the vets at midnight. Two needed stitches and all 4 got the rabies shot just in case. The health unit had to be notified and we were put under a 6 week quarantine, lol. The following spring we fully fenced in our backyard and now the dogs go in there. Being out in the country they have been skunked several times and the **** was the final straw, lol.
 
#18 ·
Bonnie trees squirrels like she was part black-and-tan ******* (albeit not a good one I guess, running trash! LOL). If she gets ahold of them they're in for it. She kills them and then Abbey steals the carcass from her usually, which is a pain in the arse to get away from her. I don't want them to eat squirrel, at least without freezing it, as it's LOADED with all sorts of parasites.
 
#20 ·
My dogs haven't but man I have the best team of mice catchers out there when it comes to my cats!

I do think that if given the chance, Raj would kill small prey, Willow would probably lick the small prey to death...and then go after the bear hiding in the woods....shes a little confused as to her role as "smaller dog" lol
 
#22 ·
I have taught mine, including the hound, that wildlife is NOT to be chased under ANY circumstances. We have a four foot, chain link fence and, although they don't go outside without me or Nick and Buck has never attempted to leave the yard, I have no doubt that Buck could easily scale the fence if he really wanted to. I don't normally like to teach a dog to do the opposite of what he was bred for but we keep Buck busy enough doing other things that hunting isn't a necessary outlet for him.

Dude would never try and jump the fence as he is uncomfortable... ok, scared out of his wits... with anything less than all four feet on the ground. Buck could but hasn't tried. We were outside and a **** walked by the yard and they just calmly watched.

My grandfather's late doberman, Xena, was an excellent hunter. She lived on a fenced in ten acres and there was always a carcass on the back patio. We watched her catch bunnies, rats, mice, squirrels... We couldn't believe it when we looked outside one day and there she was, up on the hill, stalking a bird. We didn't think she had any chance of catching it. Boy, were we wrong! She got close enough to it that, when it took off, she launched herself up into the air and snatched it out of mid air. We saw her catch many birds after that. The kicker is that Xena had a thyroid issue and was fat, fat, fat. Her body was like a barrel.

The dobie before that killed rattlesnakes. Her first experience with them was when she got herself bitten on the neck and on the lip. My mom wanted to take her to the vet but my grandfather said she'd be alright. Angel disappeared for a few days and reappeared good as new. She got herself bitten several times after that but, other than a little swelling, she showed no signs of pain. For all the time we had her we had no rattlesnake problem because all the ones we found had already been torn up and killed by the dog. She never attempted to eat them though.
 
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#23 ·
When Bailey catches something she's ripping and eating probably before it's totally dead. Last time I saw her catch a rabbit it was early morning and she gutted it so fast steam was coming out of it. I hate to see the rabbits get killed but at the same time it's kind of impressive to see this little older dog be so stealthy and fast.

It can be a somewhat like wild kingdom at my house though on a small scale. I was outside yesterday in the front yard with my little old Dachshund waiting for her to pee. She was about a foot in front of me squatting and a hawk flew down, landed on the bird bath, and then jumped to the ground about 3 feet from Madison. I was so stunned I almost peed myself. I thought hawks were supposed to see everything! Such as, the fact that a person was standing with this little dog. Well, it seemed to suddenly realize I wasn't a yard ornament and flew away. I guess it was sizing up the old dog. If it's not a fox trying to snack on my babies it's a flying predator. Seriously, my dogs are not gonna be on that end of the food chain...
 
#25 ·
When I lived on a hay and grain ranch, we had "retail day" on saturday. We all hung out in the huge hay barn and helped load hay.

Well when they lifted the stacks with the squeeze, a BAZILLION rats would scurry around from underneath. Mikey would run after them snapping one after another after another. He didn't eat them, he just killed them. He could get 10 to 20 before they all got away.

Gunner...never

Sprocket...I could see him killing something because he is very aware but so far I can't recall him killing anything.
 
#32 ·
Annie thinks she is a hunter. Tucker is just her back up, he only does it because its what she is doing. Or maybe she is teaching him? We live on a small farm and have alot of animals. Over the last year they have killed many groundhogs, opposums, *****, skunks (thats ALWAYS a FUN one), moles, rabbits, mice, snakes, squirls, and a few barn cats that are mean and attack our cats and strangely enough try to attack the dogs for the heck of it. I usually let them have their groundhogs, squirel, moles, rabbits and mice, but take the meat eating animals away. I can stop them, but usually it is with someone else that they get theses animals.

The largest thing they caught (Being Annie, Nalah, Bella (my boxers at the time) Brinx, Piper (my friends boxer and lab) Dudits and Borris (Other friends boxer and great dane) was a DEER! We were running with them in the woods and they ran over top of a doe that was lieing in the woods- didnt even knotice her. She took off, they turned around and despite trying to call them off, the 7 dogs caught her and pulled her down and killed her with in minutes.. It was like a real live wolf hunt! It was interesting to really see the wolf in our dogs. But we all felt bad for the poor girl. Since then we have worked on both "leave it" and the recall. They are much better. They will chase deer, but come when called.
 
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#33 ·
That would be something to see! And it would be really something to see if it was happening with my dogs. There's no one in the bunch taller than 14 inches. Were you feeding raw at the time and if so did you use the deer meat? Way to make the dogs work for their own dinner huh?!
 
#36 ·
We don't have too many small and fuzzy critters around, but lots of birds. Blaise has caught a mockingbird fledgeling, but he was more playing because he would grab it then let it go, chase it down and grab again. I stopped the game as quick as I could. Mockingbirds have to be fairly tough because it survived. Scotty caught a grak (nasty, medium sized, black birds that "travel" in flocks). He found out that was not a good idea when the rest of the flock came after him (think their grouping should be called murders like ravens). We had to go "save" him. Weird birds, Graks, came after him when he caught an adult, but only sqwacked when he cornered a fledgeling.
 
#37 ·
We have plenty of rabbits that Cupid runs off and the squirrels are some tame around here that they almost approach her at times,but she will lunge and they go up the nearest tree,also a possum will appear out back sometimes and she really barks at them alot,i do think she would grab one of those,but as far as we know she has never really killed anything in her 15 years,and as far as cats i think she likes them and knows that they can be very friendly.
 
#39 ·
Long time no see. Hows your girl doing you should start a new thread. Sorry to hijack.

So I'm on track I would have freaked if my dogs killed a deer and butt spankings for sure. they have to learn NOT to chase deer and antelope.
 
#38 ·
We don't have a fenced yard so he's never had the opportunity to kill something out there (not that I'd want him to, we have a rabbit family under the deck that I'm attached to and a Chipmunk too) but I'm fairly certain he would at least try and probably have success. When he's on his long line I'll let him stalk birds and squirrels if they are near a tree and he's GOOD, a very controlled stalk, he can get extremely close before he has to chase, It's just like watching a Cheetah. When the squirrel takes off up the tree he starts screaming at it. I sort of feel bad that he puts in all that hard work for nothing lol. Got SUPER close to a rabbit once too (I stopped him because he got too close). But that rabbit has sort of gotten used to my uncle's dog because the rabbit lays outside of the screen door and the dog lays inside of the screen door and they just sort of watch each other. I think if he stalked up to an animal and it didn't move he might not grab it, but he'd likely sniff, jab, nip, poke, etc. and it's almost guaranteed to move after that. Maybe a possum would be okay.

The only thing he's caught is a mouse in our house. The two cats found it first and were busy batting it around when Tucker saw it and went after it, grab, shake, eat, done. Probably a better way to go then getting played with to death I suppose. I've always wondered why they don't have a service where people come out with dogs to deal with rodent problems.
 
#40 ·
That would be a definite yes. I've never met a dog with such a strong prey drive. He's caught, in mid air...only when they swoop down to our yard, and killed 3 crows, a couple thousand possums crossing our fence, one rat, one squirrel in big bear, a couple hundred tiny lizards, and I can't remember what else. He did have a go once, we didn't let him...my dad accidentally let him off leash, at a goat at my dad's ranch when he was barely a year old! But that's another story...
 
#41 ·
Rocky got himself two moles that he dug up when he was younger. He killed them and then left them on the grass for me to admire. He used to get the urge to chase cats but we spent a lot of time teaching him 'no kitty' so we've pretty much cured that. He has very little prey drive now that he's 3 years old and 'mature' (lazy).

Shade has a really strong prey drive and chases everything he see's in the yard, including squirrels, cats, giant OWLS, deer. I have no doubt that he would grab anything he could catch. Whether or not he would kill it and eat it, I don't know. He's never actually caught anything yet. Sometimes Rocky will follow behind him, if he's feeling especially energetic that day :becky:
 
#42 · (Edited)
Surprisingly my mastiffs are pretty good hunters.

My older female, Fahren, thinks she is a hound/hunting dog. I live on 10acres and she's always out there with her nose to the ground "tracking" stuff. She's caught/killed a full grown wild rabbit and kills babies when she finds them. I hate when she gets a hold of rabbits, luckily it isn't that often.

My male is an excellent mouser. I don't know how many mice he's caught and killed, but that is one thing I don't mind them killing. I hate mice and if he catches them out in the field it keeps them out of the house! He's also caught a chipmunk before :-(

Neither of mine eat their "kills" though. My male gets bored after they're dead and no longer moving.

They will chase just about anything they see - there's a cat that likes to come into the pasture as well as a couple ground hogs they they are always going after. As well as *****,squirrels,deer. Luckily they haven't caught any of those. What's really funny to see is my male chasing after butterflies, which he has done before. Pretty funny to see a huge mastiff chasing after butterflies.