# why do things like this happen?



## chickensnake (Oct 12, 2010)

So i just got home to find that the STUPID MUTT was munging out on my rat colony....grrrrrrrrrrrr the first thing i did was try to get the rat the dog had (as the only one it could catch was 1 of the 2 that where actually my pets not breeders:evil then went up to the shed (which i just got put up and just setup for my rats to be bigger space for them instead of tubs...theyre in a big spa bath) and the mesh was caved in and i counted them 2 where missing, one had been accounted for(my pet) and the other was under a piece of tin. The doors blew open due to the heavy wind and the dog just went on in. why do theese things happen? i would of rathered she ate every single one of them bar my 2 pet ones as i have had them for a few years and they where lovely.
just need to vent pretty much, as im verry peeved at the bloody dog


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## Grogshla (Oct 12, 2010)

thats a shame bro.
Im sorry


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## chickensnake (Oct 12, 2010)

the dog will be sorry when i figure out how to punnish it without being too mean.........mabey give it a bath it hates those to shreds


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## Pythoninfinite (Oct 12, 2010)

Ummm... I'm not sure the dog will make the connection at this point in time. If YOU had a secure door, maybe it wouldn't have happened...

These things do happen to all of us from time to time, it's up to us to make sure it can't happen again.

Jamie.


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## chickensnake (Oct 12, 2010)

the door was pretty secure but obviously not secure enough, the wind today has been pretty hectic here and im getting it fully fixed once the wind dies down but iv tied the doors together with some rope fornow


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## KingSirloin (May 4, 2011)

Its frustrating but unfortunately dogs have to be disciplined instantly. Sometimes I have found dirty pawprints all over a freshly washed sheet set on the bed and with so few sunny days to hang out, my blood boils.


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## damian83 (May 4, 2011)

was chatting to najanaja the other night and his dog took his rats as he was wrapping them and ran off, must be common!


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## snakelady-viper (May 4, 2011)

I thought things like this only happens to to me. I feel your anger. Kingsirloin is right dogs need to be disciplined straight away


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## Snakewise84 (May 4, 2011)

only way to teach the dog would be to tie him there to watch them, it will make the dog go crazy at first then settle down after it has gotten use to them. plus its the hunter instick in the dog. sorry for bad spelling.


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## Wild~Touch (May 4, 2011)

Don't blame the dog


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## Snakewise84 (May 4, 2011)

we know but its one way to teach it that they are there and are not food. my mini foxy is a snake kill and i have stop from going for any of my pet snakes.


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## lace90 (May 4, 2011)

haha i threw my 'neice' tandia (staffy x kelpie) a rat that a snake had refused...and she snobbed it too!! haha suppose it is a good thing that she dosent like rats then


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## sookie (May 5, 2011)

my 2 chiahuahua's are cricket hunters.small dogs hunt small things.hahahahahahahahhh.


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## saximus (May 5, 2011)

Like others have said, whether or not you believe in punishment he won't understand what he's being punished for unless it's done straight away. I have a foxy and when I first got rats he would stare at the cage and his entire body would literally shake. It was one of the strangest things I've seen. As upsetting as it is, it's in their blood to hunt so you can't really blame him for doing what comes naturally


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## notechistiger (May 5, 2011)

I don't think the dog should be punished at all. You can't blame him when the door wasn't secure and he wasn't previously trained to not go for the rats.


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## cadwallader (May 5, 2011)

lol gotta lock the door im on the dogs side here...


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## kawasakirider (May 5, 2011)

I hope he wasn't punished after the fact. If you want to teach him, put him in a controlled environment with a rat that doesn't have any sentimental value, and train him not to touch it. If he goes near it, give him a smack, when he finally leaves it be, I believe that dogs go whacko for schmacko's 

Put it down to a learning experience and buy a pad lock, mate. Sorry it happened


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## guzzo (May 5, 2011)

I had a dog that broke into my chicken run and killed some chooks.....I got a beach fishing rod and ran wire up through the runners and tied it around the neck of the dead chook.....It was like a chook puppet......then i attatched a low volt electric fence to the wire so the chook was live...I then bounced/walked the chook past where i had the dog chained up and of course it ran out and attacked the chook and got a ZAP!!.....the dog looked in disbelief at what had just happened he thought about having another go then i could see him make the decision not to try his luck again ....He assosiated the Zap with the chook...not me.....I then went and let all my chooks out and that dog was actually backing away from them....he never touched a chook again after that......not sure how it would work with a rat though!!!

Ps the dog was not Rosey our Tibettan Spaniel


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## kawasakirider (May 5, 2011)

Sounds like a lot of work to electrify a chook corpse for the sake of training a dog, haha.


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## saximus (May 5, 2011)

lol you're ingenuity astounds me sometimes Guzzo. That sounds like it could work with a rat. Just a smaller puppet to dangle. You're right, if it's a smart dog it only takes one or two zaps to learn. We had an electric fence to stop the foxy escaping (digging and jumping over). After a couple of months it didn't need to be turned on any more


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## Snakeluvver2 (May 5, 2011)

Wait until you cat gets in the herp room


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## kawasakirider (May 5, 2011)

Jannico said:


> Wait until you cat gets in the herp room


 
Did that happen to you? :O


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## guzzo (May 5, 2011)

saximus said:


> lol you're ingenuity astounds me sometimes Guzzo. That sounds like it could work with a rat. Just a smaller puppet to dangle. You're right, if it's a smart dog it only takes one or two zaps to learn. We had an electric fence to stop the foxy escaping (digging and jumping over). After a couple of months it didn't need to be turned on any more



I think it was better that it made it's own decision about the chook.....I am guilty of setting him up to fail though but the means justified the end in this case.


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## Tristan (May 5, 2011)

chickensnake said:


> the dog will be sorry when i figure out how to punnish it without being too mean.........mabey give it a bath it hates those to shreds


 

its too late now unless you punish the dog at the time whilst its doing the wrong thing it wont associate any later punishment with that wrong thing and you will simply be reinforcing the wrong message.

if it were I, the first thing would have done is smacked the dog and yelled firmly at it and sent it running. and i grantee it would run tail between legs and know exactly that what it had done was wrong.


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## guzzo (May 5, 2011)

kawasakirider said:


> Sounds like a lot of work to electrify a chook corpse for the sake of training a dog, haha.



Well for what it's worth I copped a good zap setting it up haha


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## kawasakirider (May 5, 2011)

guzzo said:


> I think it was better that it made it's own decision about the chook.....I am guilty of setting him up to fail though but the means justified the end in this case.



Lmao... My dads dog killed a rosella once, and to freak her out he put it in her dog bowl. She ate it...



guzzo said:


> Well for what it's worth I copped a good zap setting it up haha


 
Hahaha, when I was in HS, my ag class was "rewarded" by people being allowed to link hands and have someone touch the fence...


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## guzzo (May 5, 2011)

My farmer freind was going to try it with a rubber snake to try to get his dogs to stay away from snakes as he had lost a few to EB's


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## veenarm (May 5, 2011)

The dog needs to know not to do it again.

The same as kids when they do something wrong get punished (smacked or sent to room yada yada)...

The kids don't know what is right/wrong half the time growing up, how can you expect a dog too. you don't condition your kids before things go wrong, how can you expect to condition your dog as well. Everyone learns through their mistakes and misfortunes, kid/dog does something wrong they get punished and they learn not to do it again.

You can't always be pro-active about things and go oh I have rats, condition the dog now!...

Most of parenting/pet owning etc is re-active...

(I'm not comparing having kids to pets... well in someways I am  )


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## marteed (May 5, 2011)

I agree with a lot of the threads that have been posted. You cant punish the dog now as it will have no understanding of what it is being punished for. Not only that you should never lay a hand on a dog. This will lead to other behaviour problems. 
Setting up an electric fence will work or an electric training collar. This will make sure the dog doesnt associate the punishment with you. The timing has to be timed well. A dog has no association to its behaviour after 7seconds. 
Another thing you could try is putting mouse traps in the area, a snap on your dogs nose will soon deter it (just hope it doesnt stress out the rats, lol). Sorry for the long thread, dogs are one thing I am educated with


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## Fuscus (May 5, 2011)

Pythoninfinite said:


> .. If YOU had a secure door, maybe it wouldn't have happened...


Agree. You have to assume that you will get visitors had have to plan accordingly. So far my rats have been visited by carpet pythons, goannas and cats. So far all the rats are safe (well.. as safe as a rat farmed by a python keeper can be  )



guzzo said:


> .. and got a ZAP!!.....the dog looked in disbelief at what had just happened he thought about having another go then i could see him make the decision not to try his luck again ....


 Standard aversion therapy . If done properly ( and it sounds like it was ) it can be very effective on dogs. Cats can be a different matter though, trying to teach the neighbours cat not to come into your yard in a non-lethal manner can be very frustrating.


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## kawasakirider (May 5, 2011)

Fuscus said:


> trying to teach the neighbours cat not to come into your yard in a non-lethal manner can be very frustrating.



If you're a half decent shot, you could aim for the leg


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## notechistiger (May 5, 2011)

You sure as hell can condition your dog and kids to not kill something before it happens. Training a dog to not kill rats and snakes and birds isn't hard. As soon as I got a bird, I trained my dog not to touch them (even though he previously liked to catch and eat them), same with snakes.

Whilst kids can be naughty, you can certainly try and teach them about things before they meet them without you around. If you don't teach you kids "don't go near snakes in the wild", then unfortunately you're doing it wrong.

Of course much of the education that goes in with animals and children are reactive, but to not include any kind of pro-active lessons (and teaching dogs to not do things before they do it is not hard at all) is totally incorrect.



> The dog needs to know not to do it again.
> 
> The same as kids when they do something wrong get punished (smacked or sent to room yada yada)...
> 
> ...


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## guzzo (May 5, 2011)

" Cats can be a different matter though, trying to teach the neighbours cat not to come into your yard in a non-lethal manner can be very frustrating.[/QUOTE]

I'ts funny you shoud say that Fuscus as I had a dog (kelpie)from down the road that kept jumping my fence at night and eating my dogs food. I told its owner but he did not even know where he was let alone his dog!!....So....I chained up my dog and put out a piece of lino on the lawn...I put a big chunk on mince on it and plugged the electric fence into it ( I was going through an electric fence stage in my life) via a 5mtr length of insuated wire. I was woken at about 2.00am to howling and yelping....the dog never came back and stole food again.....my flat mates cat however was also never seen again so i am not sure if i was to blame for that one....

Electric fences.....they are your friend!!!


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## veenarm (May 5, 2011)

notechistiger said:


> You sure as hell can condition your dog and kids to not kill something before it happens. Training a dog to not kill rats and snakes and birds isn't hard. As soon as I got a bird, I trained my dog not to touch them (even though he previously liked to catch and eat them), same with snakes.
> 
> Whilst kids can be naughty, you can certainly try and teach them about things before they meet them without you around. If you don't teach you kids "don't go near snakes in the wild", then unfortunately you're doing it wrong.
> 
> Of course much of the education that goes in with animals and children are reactive, but to not include any kind of pro-active lessons (and teaching dogs to not do things before they do it is not hard at all) is totally incorrect.


 
Yes, but you yourself have to remember to pro-actively teach them. If you forget (which most people would do) then the lessons learned growing up etc are mostly re-active.

You can't punish someone for something, they were unaware was a bad thing to do, e.g the dog in this case was 'yes' wrong but the dog never knew that. If it had been pro actively conditioned and he did it then yes punish him. But now its time for him to be taught that its bad!


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## KaotikJezta (May 5, 2011)

Another good way that works for dogs and cats is to rub the dead animal in either chilli powder or pepper. I have trained dogs and cats out of killing things this way.


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