15 replies to this topic

[TKCannon]

So we got our child a guinea pig. Our Cairn, Belle, is having a difficult time getting used to it being in the house. The little noises it makes drives her insane! We also have a Pit Bull, Molly, who has totally gotten over the fact that there is another animal in our house. Any suggestions on how to get Belle adjusted to having Beaver(our guinea pig) in the house. She is still just a puppy, and I am hoping that its just because its only been a few days. It would be heartbreaking to our son if we had to get rid of Beaver. I keep hoping that if we slowly introduce them that it will get better and she will get over it.

[Terrier lover]

I have no experience with small rodents and terriers. And having had terriers in the past also I cant imagine them being around small rodent type animals given that they have been bred for centuries to kill them. But not having any experience my self perhaps someone else that has can give you advise.

[The Cairn Farm]

We had a ferret and our female Cairn in the house at the same time loose and never had a problem. Outdoors, she kills woodchucks, birds, mice, moles, chipmunks, squirrels...you name it...if we have it in the yard and she gets to it before I tell her leave it, she will kill it. In the house is a whole different story. For her I never even "taught" her to be nice to him, it was just assumed that he was part of the family too I guess. Good luck!

[hheldorfer]

All I can offer is to relate my experiences in this area. I have two pet snakes that are fed live mice. (I know . . . you're all saying "ewww!" right now.) Occasionally one of the snakes won't feel like eating so we have to provide room & board to the mouse for a while. We keep the mouse (sometimes rat) in the basement in a secure cage. (Actually, 4-star accomodations with gourmet meals. Even the food eats well at our house.) Anyway, Buffy went completely crazy at the mere squeak of a mouse when she was younger and constantly wanted to go downstairs to check them out, but she has now grown used to them, to a point. She still dances around and barks/whimpers at the mice when we feed the snakes and I don't expect that's going to change any time soon. It is, however a major improvement from her earlier behavior of launching herself at the aquariums while performing the Cairn Death Screech.

If the guinea pig is going to be a long-term resident, I'd start "introducing" them right away. By that, I do NOT mean let the guinea pig loose anywhere near Belle. That would end tragically. Belle was bred to kill the guinea pig and will probably always want to kill the guinea pig, but you may be able to train her to calm down in Beaver's presence. Maybe you could work this into Belle's training; allow Belle in the same general area as Beaver and work on sit-stay-down (or whatever) and praise/treat her generously when she ignores Beaver and obeys your commands.

Here's hoping you can keep peace in the family!

[Lynn in TN]

Cairns are very smart. I believe if introduced slowly she will eventually calm down around it and treat it like family. I can't guarantee that her prey drive won't kick in some time in the future,but it has been my experience that you can train a smart animal to do just about anything, but their is always a risk
when you have an animal with such a powerful prey drive. I wouldn't ever let them both roam freely with out your supervision. Good luck.

[kjwarnold]

My niece had a guinea pig and every time we went to her house, Packy would go ballistic trying to get at it in it's cage. Years later, the guinea pig is gone but he still runs right over to where the cage was kept and looks for it. He wasn't exposed to it every day and any attempts at introducing it to him were met with the Cairn screech of death and attempts at murder. My friend with a ferret keeps telling me to bring the boys over because her ferret isn't afraid of dogs. That ferret has no idea... I don't think it would work for us, but maybe you'd have better luck.

[Terrier lover]

(That ferret has no idea... I don't think it would work for us, but maybe you'd have better luck.)

With one shake of a Cairns head that ferret would meet its maker! I watch Jock play with toys .... thank goodness they are stuffed animals and not the real thing

[bradl]

As others have said, I think if you watch Belle like a hawk and take steps to make disaster impossible, a Cairn puppy can possibly grow to be acclimated to a household guinea pig. However, should they ever meet unattended, or when you yourself are not able to physically intervene, if your dog should kill the guinea pig, I don't think she is to be blamed.

Barley and Haggis once escaped the back yard through a gate that had blown open. After frantically searching the neighborhood, both dogs were found in places that utterly matched their personalities. Haggis was found sitting in an adult's lap at a nearby youth soccer game; Barley was found working (barking, growling, muttering) at a guinea pig in a cage on the porch of a house two blocks away.

[Hawkeye]

When my kids were growing up they had hampsters and we had a cairn and a westie at the same time. We had to keep the hampsters in the kids room in their aquariums. The dogs would try to get up to see them but did settle down with them in the house. When the kids took the hampsters out of their aquariums the dogs would be on alert, very excited. Usually they played with them in their rooms with the doors closed. We would let them run through the house in those hampster balls, that was kind of fun to watch them roll around and the dogs were chasing and sometimes pushing the balls around. Sounds a bit cruel but it wasn't that bad. I would never trust either dog with a rodent unsupervised but they did forget about them while in their cages overtime.

[Idaho Cairns]

Never had this dilemma but knowing my two beauties, I suspect the score would be Cairns 1--Hamster 0.

[Ivysmom]

I would too be skeptical of letting a cairn around a guinea pig. I would keep them separated. Ivy lives to catch little animals outside-now my golden retriever is another story. He would probably make it his best friend.

[TKCannon]

Thanks everyone for your response. I have no intention of allowing Beaver out while Belle is free roaming the house. We have put Beaver in the walking ball and Belle goes nuts with it. I just hope that she calms down with the guinea pig being in her cage. I would totally put the cage in our sons room if he was a little older, he is only four. I don't think I can talk my husband into letting it sleep in our room. Belle just sits and stares at the cage and whines. I almost feel like I'm torturing the poor dog. Both our dogs are kennel trained and sleep in the kennel. They are put up when we are not home, being a stay at home mom, they are hardly ever in there except at bed time.

[_whits_]

I don't have specific Cairn + small mammal experience, but I do have terrier + small mammal experience. The Jack Russell Terrier I had when I was a small child hunted, killed, and ate every single one of the hamsters my brother had as pets. And she did her best to get to his mice and lizards too.

That being said, my dog trainer has a Cairn mix (emphasis on the mix) and a rat, and hasn't ever had a problem.

My advice: be very, very careful because a terrier prey drive is very hard to overcome and a terrier's intelligence can get them into a lot of trouble. My Jack Russell was so determined to get my brother's small animals that she broke out of her crate at night, found her way onto a fairly tall countertop, knocked the hamster's cage off, and got to the hamster. And she did it multiple times over a period of weeks (with us trying to secure the crate and hamster cage better every time) until she'd killed both hamsters. And this was an incredibly smart and well-trained terrier who knew without a doubt how mad we were very time she even looked like she wanted near the cage.

I would HIGHLY suggest keeping the guinea pig and its cage in a room completely inaccessible to Belle. Even in its cage, I really don't think the guinea pig is safe unless it's in a different (and locked room).

[lindasue]

I agree w/Idaho Cairns - it would be Pegi 1, Hamster - 0. No doubt about it.

[pkcrossley]

to me, a cairn living peaceably with a smaller animal means the cairn is not in a screeching hunting mode and trying to undo the cage latches all the time. i have guinea pigs and rabbits, and there was even a period when a kitten kept opening the rabbit enclosure and the rabbits were out and about the house. they were not killed by my cairns, but that was just lucky (the rabbits hid under firewood frame till somebody came home and rescued them). redmon does seem to have a different attitude toward rabbits in the streets or gardens than he has towards squirrels or chipmunks or other animals he does not see in the house. he does not take after them in a rage to kill, he looks at them with mild confusion, as if he considers them to belong to me, but is not sure why. but there are no circumstances under which i would let him and the rabbits or the guinea pigs be in the same space. it would be a quick moment of prey impulse for him to finish them off, before he had had time to think about it. any dog would, and we had an unfortunate situation in my family in which the dog of one member killed the guinea pig of another (the cage was opened for only a moment, and the dog reached in... very bad scene).

dogs must be separated from small pets by strong bars.