HELP! How do I teach my dog to not to attack my rabbit?

Question

My rabbit lives in an area where my dog can't have access to her, but every once in a while we open up the door and my dog goes in and tries to attack her. My rabbit once got an injury because of this and almost died, but we took her to the vet and she's all better now. My dog is a labrador retriever, he's 2 years old, but he will not EVER give up on the rabbit! I need help!! I don't want to give up my rabbit OR my dog!! Please help me! I want them to be able to co-exist together peacefully.

Also, how long do you think it would take to train him to not attack my rabbit? A month or two?

Answer 1

You can possibly learn how to by watching the Dog whisperer with Cesar Millan.

Answer 2

Dogs are predatory animals; rabbits are prey animals. You probably will not ever be able to teach the dog to not attack her. If you want to try everything possible, though, have a trainer come to your home to work on counter-conditioning and talk about management to prevent your dog from getting to the rabbit. A shock collar could maybe be used as a very last resort, but strict management would be my preference. If you use a shock collar, that should be done with the supervision of a trainer, as well. It is really easy to screw up with the shock collar if you don't know what you are doing.

Answer 3

Southern Black chick has the right idea-But collars can be expensive and you need to know how to use them.
if your dog is steady to a stay command, sitting and staying while you allow the rabbit to roam around him a few times a day would work eventually, the short sharp method, you shouldn't have to do this more than twice-

Tie a rope to your dogs collar-(make sure it's not long enough to actually reach the rabbit) and allow him to attack.
Once he makes a run for the rabbit yank as hard as you can on the rope-telling the dog NO!!! if you happen to flip him over doing this-while he is on the ground hold his neck and lean over him repeat the NO!! command.
A word of warning on this one-don't try it unless you are sure your dog knows that you are his alfa.

Answer 4

I have three suggestions:

Either get an invisible fence and put around your rabbits cage

Get a shock collar and shock her when she is running towards the cage

And, depending how old your dog is, in this case 2 years old. So it is possible to train your dog without any electronics, but it will be VERY hard. It will still be hard to train him/her with something, but it IS possible. Youll just have to maybe walk your dog around the border of the cage about three times a day ( without your rabbit in it ), and maybe try to show the dog and the rabbit that their the other animal is nice. So....Good luck!!

Answer 5

Somebody is gonna say this is inhumane but it is faster and safer for the rabbit and dog. A shock collar. That way you can stop it before he runs toward the rabbit until you can get him trained. Better to be safe then sorry.

Answer 6

You are dealing with instinct. It is natural for a dog to go after a rabbit.

You need to redo your set up so that there is no way the dog can get to the rabbit. Maybe two gates.

I have my yard divided into several different conpounds so that I can prevent problems between animals.

Answer 7

You should buy a stuffed animal Rabbit and throw it and teach him to get it and bring i back to you. It might take about a 2 weeks if you train him good or it depends on the type of dog you have.

Answer 8

i would try to put the dog on the leash and put the dog on one side of you and the rabbit on the other side.....try that and be calm so they know everything is okay and then try putting them closer and keep an eye out because you might know who the dog is going to react....let them get comfortable with each other♥♥♥

Answer 9

every time he barks at the rabbit, say "hey *****, gtfo my wrabbit. kthnksbyeloveyou" DIAF