Dogs & Rabbits - can they live together?

dogs and rabbits

I have four rabbits. My last dog (a collie x retriever) was wonderful with them. He would let them crawl all over him and share food with him. He used to chase wild rabbits - but when he caught up with one (the poor thing had myxi) he simply sat there and stared at it and then nudged it a bit when it sat still. I introduced him and my partners collie to the bunnies carefully though (explained in a book I wrote called Bonding Rabbits).

I now have a collie x Lab puppy and for the first week I had him he was lunging at my cat - a week of training later and he was fine. He has been introduced to the rabbits throught the fence, then face to face on lead and finally off lead and is fantastic.

BUT i specifically chose him because I know the breeds Lab/retreivers/collies are generally good with small animals.

Hope this helps.

RubyTed said:

Yes, and it's also a possibility that if I let my child cross the road on his own that he'll get run over. The solution......I don't let him cross alone by supervising him. It doesn't mean that I don't let him cross the road at all.

Click to expand...

If a dog and rabbit were together and the rabbit bit the dog and the dog snapped back you wouldn't be able to do ANYTHING AT ALL. The rabbit would be DEAD within seconds. Your supervision of dogs and rabbits together offers no protection to the rabbit whatsoever.

Stator said:

If a dog and rabbit were together and the rabbit bit the dog and the dog snapped back you wouldn't be able to do ANYTHING AT ALL. The rabbit would be DEAD within seconds. Your supervision of dogs and rabbits together offers no protection to the rabbit whatsoever.

Click to expand...

Actually it does, because the dog's on a lead at all times so can't actually get to the rabbit. He hasn't an aggressive bone in his body, and I don't doubt for a second that he'd never so much as nip the rabbit (or anything else, for that matter), but I still wouldn't risk it....just as I wouldn't leave unsupervised him with another dog in case he got hurt.
The rabbit wouldn't bite the dog. She's never bitten anything before, and wouldn't attack for no reason..........Do your rabbits randomly walk up to someone and bite them?

He won't be allowed off lead until he completely ignores the rabbit. If he doesn't go near her then he can't do any harm...intentional or otherwise.

Many people have dogs and rabbits co-existing happily together. That doesn't mean that their pets aren't perfectly safe or that the owner hasn't thought very carefully about the safety of their pets.

RubyTed said:

Actually it does, because the dog's on a lead at all times so can't actually get to the rabbit. He hasn't an aggressive bone in his body, and I don't doubt for a second that he'd never so much as nip the rabbit (or anything else, for that matter), but I still wouldn't risk it....just as I wouldn't leave unsupervised him with another dog in case he got hurt.
The rabbit wouldn't bite the dog. She's never bitten anything before, and wouldn't attack for no reason..........Do your rabbits randomly walk up to someone and bite them?
He won't be allowed off lead until he completely ignores the rabbit. If he doesn't go near her then he can't do any harm...intentional or otherwise.

Many people have dogs and rabbits co-existing happily together. That doesn't mean that their pets aren't perfectly safe or that the owner hasn't thought very carefully about the safety of their pets.

Click to expand...

Yes, quite frequently, as a method of communication :wave:

Sorry, im so very much with Tim on this. But its good to have opinions, makes us human

(9lo l99- Snowy says 'Hello')

It's ok to have different beliefs and ideas as long as you read all viewpoints and make your own informed decision. We all have different ideas on what is needed to keep our families (furry and human) safe, and that's ok too. It's ok for people to do things different ways and it's also ok to disagree and not do those ways yourselves. Doesn't mean anyone needs to try and 'convert' anyone else though.

At the end of the day, often the way people learn the best is through personal experience.

GrahamL said:

Yes, quite frequently, as a method of communication :wave:

Sorry, im so very much with Tim on this. But its good to have opinions, makes us human

Click to expand...

All rabbits are different.....mine have never ever done this. They "nudge" or "headbutt".

Yes, we're all allowed different opinions. None of my pets are at risk from each other, as they only ever have limited contact and never without being restrained, but at some point in his life I expect to be able to allow Howard out for a supervised wee when the rabbits are free ranging or leave him and the cat in the same room together whilst I make a cup of tea. It's up to the individual as to whether that's unnecessarily risking the life of my rabbits/cat/dog.

Having seen pics of stuff ( a macaw was friendly "Playing" with the family dog and came to a VERY sad end), I am pretty much of the view that nothing can really be trusted.
Ive been lucky enough that my bunnies and Ruby have been safe with my cats....but closed doors do help.

Hi, I've been sitting out of this thread for a while. I've always been a multi animal household, grown up with cats and dogs and bunnies and lots of other critters who lived together.

I had an old english who was brilliant with all our other animals, heck they snoozed together and all that lark.

We got Sherry a JR Cross and she was fine with, walking around the house, cat walking around the house no problem. Bunny free range in garden and us gardening with dog at side - no problem. Sherry however was food obsessed and was easily jealous if the cats got to share human food or even if they got affection. Still she was perfectly fine, then one day out of the blue...Bob my then cat walked past Sherry in the living room, he just wanted to go sit on the window sill, Sherry lunged at him and held him again the fireplace.

This was unpreventable because although we were the room there was absolutely no tell tale signs, no change in body language nothing. Thankfully Bob was physically unharmed, a little shaken up but tough as old boots.

You never can assure anything, supervised, unsupervised. I've seen it from both sides and I do have 2 cats who live with my parents, when the bunnies visit the cats are there but they leave each other alone, my old cat Pingu groomed the buns.

I at my own home have 3 (soon to be 4 again) bunnies and a tortoise. I'm even cautious about Tinks and the bunnies as Tinks beak bites hurt and the bunnies may bite or dig Tinks so you have to be careful. There is a risk in anything and any animal can change or snap, supervised, unsupervised it doesn't matter.

I take a risk when I visit my parents with the bunnies, I take a risk every day walking out the door. You can never be 100% certain of anything; supervision is advisable if you do chose to have any animals and you allow different species to interact, but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to prevent sudden mishaps.

Sky-O said:

At the end of the day, often the way people learn the best is through personal experience.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately so and in this case learning through experience may mean dead rabbits.

And yes RubyTed, rabbits do bite for no apparent reason, I've been bitten on the nose and it bled. I looked stupid for days.

Stator said:

Unfortunately so and in this case learning through experience may mean dead rabbits.

And yes RubyTed, rabbits do bite for no apparent reason, I've been bitten on the nose and it bled. I looked stupid for days.

Click to expand...

Thank goodness most people dont share this opinion otherwise the rescues would be over run with rabbits.
As has already been said... its all just a matter of being sensible and not putting ANY pet under unecessary risk.

littleboots said:

Thank goodness most people dont share this opinion otherwise the rescues would be over run with rabbits.
As has already been said... its all just a matter of being sensible and not putting ANY pet under unecessary risk.

Click to expand...

Completely agree, my parents have always had dogs and rabbits, they don't mingle but they are used to each other, the rabbits are in fox proof accommodation and when they run around and bark it actually gets the bunnies excited and they run around binkying

Some posts on this thread really have made me laugh, slightly over the top in my opinion.


Can't wait to be in a position to have a dog myself one day

littleboots said:

Thank goodness most people dont share this opinion otherwise the rescues would be over run with rabbits.
As has already been said... its all just a matter of being sensible and not putting ANY pet under unecessary risk.

Click to expand...

At last! someone with a sensible comment, of course you can have multi animal households, you just need to take the necessary precautions and be vigilant

Makes me laugh that the ones that are so negative about it are the ones who haven't tried it:lol:

Snowy said:

At last! someone with a sensible comment, of course you can have multi animal households, you just need to take the necessary precautions and be vigilant

Makes me laugh that the ones that are so negative about it are the ones who haven't tried it:lol:

Click to expand...

Perhaps because those who haven't tried it have weighed up the pros and cons and made an educated decision not to do so?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, as i have stated on numerous occasions, being flippant about it doesn't help.

Threads about this always end up like this, some agree, some dont agree, its always going to be the case

This video is of Tess as a baby being put in her place by a very dominant Willow.I must add no animal was hurt,just one learnt a valuable lesson in life

littleboots said:

Thank goodness most people dont share this opinion otherwise the rescues would be over run with rabbits.
As has already been said... its all just a matter of being sensible and not putting ANY pet under unecessary risk.

Click to expand...

:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:

GrahamL said:

Perhaps because those who haven't tried it have weighed up the pros and cons and made an educated decision not to do so?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, as i have stated on numerous occasions, being flippant about it doesn't help.

Threads about this always end up like this, some agree, some dont agree, its always going to be the case

Click to expand...

But that doesn't mean that those that do have multi-pet households haven't also made an educated decision.

RubyTed said:

But that doesn't mean that those that do have multi-pet households haven't also made an educated decision.

Click to expand...

Correct, but i was responding to the comment made, i actually completely agree with you and that decision is up to those people, im just being objective

littleboots said:

Thank goodness most people dont share this opinion otherwise the rescues would be over run with rabbits.
As has already been said... its all just a matter of being sensible and not putting ANY pet under unecessary risk.

Click to expand...

If you already have rabbits then getting a dog IS an unnecessary risk and that is what this thread is all about. Someone who has rabbits but no dog. Should they get one? No.

Stator said:

If you already have rabbits then getting a dog IS an unnecessary risk and that is what this thread is all about. Someone who has rabbits but no dog. Should they get one? No.

Click to expand...

Sorry we will have to agree to disagree..
Who are we to tell anyone they should not get a dog if they want one, because they already have rabbits.
The point we should and hopefully have got over is that if that decision is made, then care and supervision has to be of utmost importance

Stator said:

If you already have rabbits then getting a dog IS an unnecessary risk and that is what this thread is all about. Someone who has rabbits but no dog. Should they get one? No.

Click to expand...

So are you saying that basically nobody should have more than one type of pet per household? For instance a dog could nip a cat, a cat could scratch a dog, a horse could kick a dog etc. It is all about being sensible, most people are not silly and would not put their animals in any risk at all. You could also go so far as to say people with children should have no pets because a dog could bite a child and so on.