I'm so stupid, need some advise

[Krissa]

So I put some oats on the floor of my rabbit's cage for him to snack on. My dog can in the room, wanted the oats and attacked my rabbit. As my back was turned, I did not see the incident so I have no idea what she did to the rabbit. It is my fault, I know my dog is food aggressive - I just didn't think she would want oats! The rabbit made a little squeal - not a loud or long one.

Anyway, Zander is laying down in his cage, his head is a bit wet but I can find no wounds at all on him. Should I watch him for the next few hours, or run him to the vet as soon as they open, or just give them a call? I gave him a baby carrot and he jumped right up and ate it. I hate that it is 7am - I can't call anyone!

My dog has done this to each of my cats in the past, when they were trying to eat out of her food bowl. She has never bitten them, just slobbered all over their faces. They looked just like Zander does now with the wet face. The cats have always been fine, and learned not to bother the dog while she is eating.

He is up moving around now, hopefully she just scared him to death and slobbered on him.

I have a zero tolerance for any type of aggression toward the rabbit, even stalking behaviors. I am so upset with myself. I have been crying since it happened. It is all my fault - I know how my dog acts around food.

 

[Krissa]

Arg I have to head to class now. He is hopping around and has eaten his breakfast. My hubby said he will come home at lunch and check on the bunny.

I am going to call the vet after my exam

 

[GorbyJobRabbits]

Not to lecture and come off rude, but you've delt with it before, you NEED to do something with that dog and teach it some manners. One of these times SOMETHING is going to be killed.

 

[SOOOSKA]

I hope Zander is Ok.

My suggestion is don't let the dog in the same room as the bunny. Some dogs are known for going after small animals many are bred for that. Like you said you have zero tolerance for this behaviour which is great.

Susan

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Or, you can teach the dog that only his dog dish is his. We have a bull-mastiff that would eat everything in sight including the Danes food--they have separate dishes. Took a while, but she won't go near the other dogs treats or food. Good luck.

 

[Must_Love_Pets]

This is a serious matter and needs to be delt with immidiatly. I would band the dog from the being anywhere near the bunny and start focusing on behavior modification for the dog. Food agression is a EXTREEMLY dangerous behavior and can take quite some time to resolve. I know that you said that he only slobbers but he WILL bite one day and it can be lethal. I have spent several years in behavior modification in both dogs and cats and have seen many sad cases where family pets have been severly injured and in some cases killed over this type of behavior. I am so sorry that you have to deal with this. I hope it all works out for you. But certainly keep the dog away from the bunnies area at all times. One way that you can start to modify this behavior is to hand feed your dog away from his bowl or any other feeding bowl or area. Eventually you will get closer to the bowl still hand feeding. He needs to sit and wait for you to tell him it is ok to take the food/kibble from your hand and rewarded verbaly each time he does it at your command. This will take a some time.

 

[Krissa]

Just back from the vet and rabbit is fine. I took him in anyway, even though the vet said it was up to me, just to ease my mind. The vet thinks she just barked in the rabbit's face, which is what she normally would do in the past to other dogs.

Yes the dog is banned from the rabbit's room. I got out the baby gate and put it up for when the rabbit is out of his cage.

Please though, do not assume that I have not attempted to correct her food aggression issues. I have put 2 years of obedience training and a year of one on one classes with a trainer. She is not food aggressive to humans, I can do anything to her bowl, I had thought her issues had been resolved. I will be calling my trainer up for some sessions. I am sure I have done something wrong recently that made her regress.

Some issues are multifaceted and not easy to solve with just a bandaid or "teaching her some manners." If it was as simple as that I would be so happy.

I have put a lot of money and time into my dog's training so please do not assume that I have been sitting her blissfully ignoring the issue. I truthfully thought that I and my trainer had corrected her food aggression issues as they had not presented themselves in over 3 years.

On that note, I do take full responability for my dog's actions, I put the food out, I allowed the dog in the room. I also will not allow the dog in the room anymore.

I understand that everyone was worried about the rabbit, but when I read the posts this afternoon your responses upset me greatly. I wanted reassurance about what to look for in MY RABBIT as the vet was not open and I received advise about my dog.

I was very upset because of the incident and that made me hypersensitive to the posts. Please in the future if something like this happens to anyone it may be better to wait until you find out if the rabbit is ok before everyone starts preaching. I will remember this experience when I read other's posts and I will be more sensitive in the future as well. Like I said, when I read the posts I was a bit oversensitive at the time, but I now understand how someone would feel in a situation like this.

 

[Must_Love_Pets]

So sorry Krissa I certainly did not mean to upset you. I guess in the back of my head I figured from the sound of it that the bunny was ok. I have just expierienced so many horror stories I instatnly reacted.

I am VERY happy to hear that your bunners is ok.
:big kiss::hugsquish:

 

[Krissa]

Not a problem, I was just pointing that out. I try to learn things from every situation and try to look at it objectively. When I was doing that I realized how upset I was - mostly at myself. I defiantly learned some things about empathy today.

Zander is still doing great, the vet gave me some things to look out for and he is acting normal and healthy. I even saw a binkie this evening.

 

[Krissa]

Just wanted to update - first Zander is still fine so I am very happy.

I talked with my dog trainer and she feels that Arwen, the dog, did this because I just started a graduate school program 2 weeks ago and our schedule changed abruptly. She feels that Arwen is trying to regain some control. The last time she acted like this was in her 'teenage' years right before her spay.

We are going to crate Arwen during the day to make her feel more secure when I am gone and also reassert that my husband and I are the head of the house, not her. We are going to work on down-stays, who leaves the house first, and removing her food after we give it to her. I am going to miss her sleeping on our bed, but she has to head back to the crate for a while. I am also going to increase her grooming session from once a week to every day for short amounts of time as she loves being groomed and it gives her one on one attention.

I also noticed that Arwen started chewing on her leg, which she only does when she is bored or scared. Since we have not changed her exercise schedule, it must be that I am going back to school. Poor dog was all worried and I didn't even notice I was so busy.