# Help dog is killing small animals!



## pepino (Apr 15, 2008)

Hello:

I have a 3 year old Maltese/Poodle who catches and kills small animals such as rabbits, birds and mice. (I honestly dont know how a 10# dog catches and tears apart a rabbit.) I dont know what to do to stop him. He and my golden retriever have free reign of a 1/2 acre fenced in yard. I dont leave them out all day, only for doing their business and playing with each other. I have tried putting bells on the poodle/Maltese as a deterent but its not working. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I am also wondering about diseases the dog can bring to my small children who are affectionate with him. The dog has all his shots and gets his heartworm/flea medicine.
Thank you.


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## Dog_Shrink (Sep 29, 2009)

There aren't many diseases your dog can bring back to your family that will affect them. Anything that can survive on a dog or rabbit or bird, generally will not be able to live on a human host given the difference in our body temperatures. Things such as rabies could be a concern depending on where you live, or parasites such as ringworm, tapeworm, coccidia, giardia, lice, and some mites that could be living on or in the animals killed. 

if they have a half acre fenced in area to play in maybe consider using a baby saver wire or a smaller gague wire on the lower section of your fence to avoid small animals from getting in your yard. I know I use a cattle fence that has 1-3 inch openings and we have no problems with rabbits getting int he dog run, but there's not a lot you can do about mice and birds. Baby saver wire might be able to keep mice out since the gaps are really small (as to prevent baby bunnies from falling out of the cage) but I think mice would either dig or climb if they really wanted in the yard. You can also try spreading moth balls about 6 inches to a foot outside the fenced area. They tend to keep rodents and cats away, not sure about bunnies or birds tho. Again also as long as it is outside the fence you can lay down mouse poison, but make sure it is at least a foot away from the fence line so there's no way of it getting to the dogs in your yard. Most rodent poisons do not have a secondary toxicity, meaning mouse eats poison, mouse dies, dog eats mouse, dog will be ok.


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## Jack Russell Mommy (Sep 3, 2010)

I have the same issue with our two jack russell puppies. They are 6 months old now and have all ready killed 7 birds (baby and teenage birds) and just today, they got a baby squirell! I cry every time like a nut job and have to get a neighbor to remove the animal from our fenced in back yard.

Our fence is chain link with small holes, however the squirells jump from tree to tree to top of fence and down into the yard. The birds can fly in, but the babies were not strong enough to fly right away back to the nest.

Unfortunately, this is the cycle of life and we are going to have to get used to it. I wish we could remove the killing part out of their DNA, but then we wouldn't have dogs. Jack Russells are especially known for their hunting, but I never thought it would be this bad


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## tw1n (May 12, 2009)

You need smarter rabits... How can they not get away from a dog with a bell on? LoL. 

My biggest question is how exactly a rabit gets in through the fence? Could be as simple as some fence repair.


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## snowbreed (Feb 28, 2010)

well i have a question of my own i live in an area where we have a lot of pigeon ( the gray with green heads ) so part of going raw can i feed my dog these pigeons ? i can trap as many as i want on the roof of my house ( where the dog is staying ( and the birds r pretty healthy since they feed near a Grain Silo "Dagon" (Haifa) )


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

I don't see any reason that you could not feed the pigeons to your dogs. One farm we lived on for a while was over-run with pigeons in the barn and we shot them and ate them ourselves. There is not much meat on them but I would think it would be like feeding your dogs chicken.


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## snowbreed (Feb 28, 2010)

im thinking of making some arapuca bird traps to catch some defeather the birds ? or leave them all natural ? or should i clean cur and defeather ? what do u think ?


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## Pai (Apr 23, 2008)

I'd defeather them, since I'd worry about the dog choking on the feathers.


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## tskoffina (Jul 23, 2010)

I might think about testing periodically some of them, around here people sometime try to poison them... I find it awful, but I can't do much about it.


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## doginthedesert (Jun 18, 2010)

tw1n said:


> You need smarter rabits... How can they not get away from a dog with a bell on? LoL.


I was going to say.... You sure the bell makes noise? Maybe he could get the mice with a bell, but the rabbits and birds, they must have forgotten they are prey animals or something.


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## DelAa (Dec 15, 2016)

I have Canus montanus and the same problem. He kills bees (unbelievable), cats and birds.Don't know how to solve this problem.


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## Hiraeth (Aug 4, 2015)

DelAa said:


> I have Canus montanus and the same problem. He kills bees (unbelievable), cats and birds.Don't know how to solve this problem.


If you'd like help with this issue, I'd recommend starting a thread of your own to ask for assistance. This thread is over 6 years old.


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## JohnnyBandit (Sep 19, 2008)

Dog_Shrink said:


> There aren't many diseases your dog can bring back to your family that will affect them. Anything that can survive on a dog or rabbit or bird, generally will not be able to live on a human host given the difference in our body temperatures. Things such as rabies could be a concern depending on where you live, or parasites such as ringworm, tapeworm, coccidia, giardia, lice, and some mites that could be living on or in the animals killed.
> 
> if they have a half acre fenced in area to play in maybe consider using a baby saver wire or a smaller gague wire on the lower section of your fence to avoid small animals from getting in your yard. I know I use a cattle fence that has 1-3 inch openings and we have no problems with rabbits getting int he dog run, but there's not a lot you can do about mice and birds. Baby saver wire might be able to keep mice out since the gaps are really small (as to prevent baby bunnies from falling out of the cage) but I think mice would either dig or climb if they really wanted in the yard. You can also try spreading moth balls about 6 inches to a foot outside the fenced area. They tend to keep rodents and cats away, not sure about bunnies or birds tho. Again also as long as it is outside the fence you can lay down mouse poison, but make sure it is at least a foot away from the fence line so there's no way of it getting to the dogs in your yard. Most rodent poisons do not have a secondary toxicity, meaning mouse eats poison, mouse dies, dog eats mouse, dog will be ok.



Dogs are carnivores... And PREDATORS.... The prey drive is HIGHER in some breeds and some individual dogs than others...


Bottom line.... Any small animals in an area you let a high prey drive dog run.... is fair game to the dog... Eventually the prey animals will avoid the area.... For the most part anyway....

As far as size goes.... Dogs are very powerful and efficient predators.... A 120 pound wolf (though they most often hunt in a pack) can and will take down and kill a 600# or more Elk.... Alone...


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