Adult Lab Joins Family With Guinea Pig? (shepherd, toy, aggressive)
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I am used to mostly mixes with shepherd or herding dog. A guinea pig joined our family and it was just a matter of letting our current dog know that "No, leave it." and she seems to act like it smells bad. Also, the guinea pig is not active outside the cage but the cage is large and she does rattle, rock and roll in her safe place. We just brought home an adult lab female and she heard "Sparky" weekweekweek and was VERY interested. I have never been around a lab and this one is very obedient but will the breed make a difference in how aggressive she could get? The lab, Daisey, is no more aggressive about squirrels and cats than our other dog, Rinnie (they both don't care for them) so maybe with a watchful eye, this will work?
Location: ๏̯͡๏﴿ Gwinnett-That's a Civil Matter-County
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The thing to remember is many dogs have strong prey drive instincts.
They are hardwired to chase things that are scurrying away, especially little furry things.
I would highly recommend that you do not, I repeat, DO NOT let your dog be together with the guinea pig outside of a cage. Even if the dog seems totally cool with the GP, the GP may be frightened and take off and that's the end of that. They're just programmed to do. Even the sweetest dogs in the world.
I would get a very secure cage w/ a screen top and put a big rock over it and put the cage on top of a high piece of furniture and maybe get a plastic gate to keep the dog out and the guinea pig/s safe. As far as I know, those plastic balls are for smaller animals like hamsters, guinea pigs w/b too big for them plus might serve to tempt the bigger dog if he thinks it's a temping toy w/ the smaller animal inside it, I just wouldnt want to take the chance. Yrs ago our dog c/h cared less about our guinea pigs but had virtually no prey drive (except when it came to other dogs which is a whole 'nother story) and I doubt it w/b a problem w/ our present small dogs today but some dogs are more 'interested' in other animals than others.
I think it will work. I had pet birds when I got my first dog. I read about testing for prey drive (low to no interest in squeaky toys) and selected a dog with low prey drive. He had no problem ignoring the birds unless one of them stole his chew flip. Then he got pretty mad.
For subsequent dogs I also selected ones with low prey drive. All worked really well with birds. I just had to watch really closely at first. The key was to make sure they were not allowed to stare at or look directly at the birds. If they did then I would make an 'ert' noise to get their attention. If the birds started to bother or pick on the dogs the dogs were trained to leave the room. If you can interrupt the dog when they first try to stare at the guinea pig they will likely learn he is off limits pretty quick. Of course I never left them out unsupervised together.
And when I got a new dog the birds heavy, bolted together steel cages were securely fastened to table tops with bungee cords and I barricaded them in a room with furniture so the dog couldn't get to the cage when I was out.
Thinking about this has brought back some good memories. One of our dogs liked to 'watch bird tv' which means he wanted to look at the birds. We trained him to put himself into a crate first as that was the only location he was allowed to look at the birds. But then we had to close the door as sometimes one of my birds who was more outgoing would try to go and make trouble by jumping on his tail or trying to steal a toy. Our other dogs have gotten along well with the birds. I think they figured out pretty quick they were members of the pack and accepted them as part of the family. Make sure your dogs observe you interacting with the guinea pig and holding him. They can do this from a safe place like a crate. This helps them understand that the guinea pig is part of the family and is under your umbrella of protection.
Thank you for all the ideas. One day I came in to find my son had Rinnie and Sparky on the bed together and Rinnie was ignoring the both of them and in her eyes I read "This was not my idea." Years ago we had 2 dogs, 2 cats and a guinea pig and that was an experience but it worked in odd ways I never expected.
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