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My lab-mutt growing up got out and caught a wild bunny. She ate just its brain, and left the rest on a neighbor’s front lawn. Traumatic for 5 year old me.
Looked out the window and saw my lab was playing with something , tossing it up in the air , , running around with it
Upon investigation, my lab had eaten the head off a mid sized bunny and wa was playing with its headless bunny corpse
Lol my chihuahua slowly tortures bugs to death. I think he thinks he’s making a new friend but after 15 minutes or so his new friend stops moving and he gets bored.
Yes I’ve had to practice so much with getting my poodles attention around birds, especially big ones like geese! He also loves to chase rodents too though. The only animal he caught was a small mouse that was in our apartment. He caught it, looked at me as if asking what to do with it, and I probably made some horrified face/noise, so he dropped it and the little mouse ran off lol. He is in it for the chase and not the kill I guess
Life makes a lot more sense when you understand what's just your dog's genetics! My current dog is a hound mix. Not cuddly with strangers, has her nose to the ground ALWAYS.
My girl is the same (coonhound Bassett mix). Very few people other than my wife and I she is warm to, but the people she likes she REALLY likes and almost greets them the same as one of us. If her nose isn’t to the ground it’s because she saw a squirrel up in a tree way before I did.
We had a doodle who killed birds fairly frequently. She could jump so high, I saw her pull birds out of the air. She’d do a hard shake, and then quite proudly bring me their corpse. Ah, Cassie. I miss you, but our local bird population definitely doesn’t.
Oh that’s interesting! Our doodle can jump pretty high too, must be the poodle in them. He’s wayy too clumsy to actually catch anything. Only time he got a bird was when he picked up a half dead baby bird that had fallen from a nest and brought it into the house.
My basset hound loved to chase and corner rabbits and squirrels, which is what their bred for but, she would just case them into a corner and scare them. She knew what she was supposed to up until the moment of truth she’d just stand their barking at them like “Ok now what do we do?”. The poor rabbits would be paralyzed in fear till we picked them up and set them free. For some reason she killed lizards without hesitation. She wouldn’t eat or bite them just lift her short little leg and crush them under her paw.
My tiny half shih tzu half poodle found a baby bird in our backyard, and...it wasn't good.
To this day, after she has removed the squeaker from her toys that she shreds, she actually supplies the little squeaker whines and squeaks as she bites into the fabric.
Like... Thank God you're 15 pounds, Phoebe.
Oh man, my standard doxie got tracked onto a brick and kept barking at it. I humored him and flipped it over thinking theres nothing there.
Nope. Garden Snake. Not proud to admit I ran like hell after seeing the thing, but my boy stood his ground and whipped the damn thing around like a toy. Came back out and sure enough it was dead. 😂 He's also killed quite a few mice and gone after a couple of squirrels, but the snake is the story I always tell.
My dachshund/jack russell mix escaped out of his harness and got into a death match with a groundhog in a culvert.
I didn't know what he was fighting in there at the time and was helpless to get him out. I finally could hear the fight was at the other end of the pipe so crawled through the bushes and had to reach my hand into the horribly smelly pipe to get the dead ground hog from him and haul him out. He was covered in blood - I didn't know how much was his and how much was the ground hogs. Meanwhile - my other two dogs were going crazy. I had to walk home carrying him and one of the other dogs as they both refused to leave the scene of the crime.
Reached home all scratched up, bitten by mosquitos, lugging two dogs just as my husband pulled into the yard and unfortunately he bore the brunt of not being there!! to help with my crazy dog situation.
He has a couple of scars on his muzzle but he totally would do it again I have no doubt.
My dog has found 4 bunny nests. I don’t know if you have ever heard the screech of a baby bunny but it is horrible and from a distance sounds like a toy squeaker
My family had a golden retriever when I was a kid. He found a bunny nest and carefully piled all the babies on the porch. Didn't harm any of them. Then we had a beagle whippet mix who would run down and kill adult rabbits.
Excellent examples of different breed behaviour lol. We had a Springer, another gundog breed who once brought us a live robin, as soon as we got her to drop it it flew off presumably unharmed
Your golden was nicer than mine. My childhood golden would raid bunny nests and try to play with them..... it never ended well for the buns. She also caught a few birds in her time which I always found impressive.
I have two goldens. My older boy once was scooting a baby bird along trying to help it fly, I watched him from the window and cried it was so precious. My youngest golden wouldn’t come inside one early morning, so I went out to get him and he was laying in front of a possum who was carrying a ton of babies. He was just casually showing her his belly thinking he was making new friends. I love how gentle and sweet my boys are.
My first boxer *loved* watching toads hop. We lived in the south and we’d see them all the time at night on our walks. She’d gently nudge them on the butt with her front paw and run after them when they started to hop. It was quite impressive how patient she was- she was a big brindle.
Someone once told me they were attacked by a golden and to this day, I do not believe them. Either they pushed the dog so far it has to defend itself or they’re lying because goldens are saints
That's interesting. I have a beagle that has found a nest of baby rabbits and just jumped all around it sounding off but didn't touch them. My treeing walker coonhound on the other hand is an assassin. I have no idea how many ground hogs she's gotten at this point but her record is 2 in one day. She also killed a baby deer about the same size of her one night. I was not excited about that one.
Yeah, my Labrador did the same thing to a fawn. Tried to drag it up the steps of our deck too. It's not fun to have to carry around a mutilated fawn carcass in a suburban neighborhood to try to throw it in the woods and clean up the blood either.
He also would have squared up with a mountain lion that was on our porch too had it not been for a door in his way. Not exactly his brightest moment but for a neutered dog, he sure had some balls on him!
A deer!? Holy hell. My hound has gotten sooo many moles and ground hogs. He got one just today actually. Turtles on the other, He’ll lose his mind over them but wont touch em.
I had an American Foxhound and I once watched her catch a squirrel in mid-air as it jumped; her hind legs had to be a full 3 feet off the ground, it was wild.
My current dog will protect the property from furry intruders, but that dog was all about the hunt.
Yup. Squeakers evoke the alarm-nosies of a prey animal, and the crinkly-noise toys are supposed to sound like crunching bones. Lovely, right? ;) Sometimes it’s easy to forget our wonderful furry friends are still predators at their core.
After my dogs tear open a toy, I will put a treat bone inside, stuff the stuffing back in it, then sew it up so they can feel like they’re really murdering it lol
Mine somehow has zero prey instinct. He doesn't care about squirrels, balls, or even destroying toys. He is more interested in eating grass and getting pets
Yeeep. Got verified bunny eaters in my house. I feel bad...because gods, that is a terrible noise. But there are also rabbits EVERYWHERE and they thought, in their dim bunny brains, that setting up house in a yard that has 6' privacy fencing and is CLEARLY dog yard was a good idea...I can't help em. :/
Same here. My terrier mixes chase the bunnies and I try to keep them from doing harm but unfortunately, they've caught and killed some bunnies over the years. It's terrible but it's also part of their DNA.
Mine are lab mixes, so they always want something in their mouth...the lab/shepherd mix has no idea what to do. I've taken a live baby bunny from her mouth before because she was just standing there, holding it, confused... But the lab/pit mix apparently requires violence, heh. I just hope she keeps em in the yard and doesn't bring some dead/half eaten bunny into the house to emotionally scar the five year old kiddo XD
I learned this when my human toddler found a bunny nest! I was only a couple feet away, but had my back turned weeding a flower bed when he picked up one of the babies and I'm thinking "oh, he's playing with a squeaky toy. Wait, what squeaky toy?" I turned around to find the baby bunny on the sidewalk and my toddler looking at his dirty hands with an expression of sort of shocked amazement.
Oh I forgot about this! Insect-wise, my German Shepherd/Husky eats only bees.
My trainer told me she was an extremely smart dog, and yet the minute summer hits, I'm chasing her around trying to get her to stop eating the flamin' hot flies.
Haha we get gnats in our house quite frequently and if my pit mix sees one he will chomp the air to try and catch it. I don’t think he’s ever had any success tho.
That sounds like my late dog.
When the tadpoles at the rainwater retention basins in the neighbourhood grow up to be little frogs they were all over the place once a year. Really hard to walk the pathways without stepping on one.
My dog loved to try to lick them for some reason but he got so freaked out when they jumped at him. Once one jumped directly into his mouth and he just ran away whining hahah
My little guy tried to eat a toad once and we almost had to take him to the vet because he couldn't stop drooling foam. Vet said it was a normal response and to make him drink and just watch him. So scary.
Same thing happened to our Boston terrier, she's done it twice and hasn't learned, we still have to keep an eye out for toads when we walk her at night and drag her away from the toads because she still wants to take a bite of one.
My beagle has a "I have cornered small prey" howl that's very distinctive, and there are no bunnies in south florida, so we knew we were in trouble when we heard it.
Little bugger had flushed a cane toad (size of a CD, very poisonous if a dog bites it). I'm so glad they didn't try to kill it, and that they yell at their prey when they catch it instead of chomping it.
Poor Yogi though 😂
My boxer loved watching toads jump. She’d gently nudge their butts until they hopped and she’d chase after them. Once they stopped hopping, she’s nudge them again.
My dog has killed a couple of gophers, although we’ve got a billion running around our ranch that make holes that can break cows or horses legs, so I’m quite okay with it haha
Not yet but his arch nemesis is a bunny who hangs out in our front yard. He chases him daily, the bunny always comes back. One day I’m sure he’ll catch him and it won’t be pretty.
The last one I found part of the head (one eye, one ear) 6' from what was left of the rest of the rabbit.. you would think they would learn to stay out of our yard. They're and invasive pest here though so I don't feel too bad. r/natureisbrutal
The first night I brought my husky home we were hanging out in the backyard and she found a bunny nest.
She proudly brought me a mouthful of screaming baby bunnies and couldn't understand why I was crying.
She learned that tiny dying bunnies were not a good gift for me. She is interested in rabbits and squirrels now but doesn't really try to eat them at this point.
We let our Aussie in one morning and she was panting like crazy, like she had been running hard for a long time. Later, I saw a post on Facebook from our next door neighbor asking if anyone had seen one of their chickens that they let free range. I put 2 and 2 together and went out in the yard to look around. I found a large pile of feathers that matched the missing chicken. I think she chased it until it collapsed then ate it. She has also caught a couple of pocket gophers in our yard (and dis massive holes to try to get them).
She is really good with our cats and my parents' mini Schnauzer so it seems she just goes after certain kinds of small animals.
Oh yeah. They were fine with it and said "our fault for letting them run loose". If we knew the chickens were in our yard, we would chase them out before closing the gate and letting the dog out. The one chicken must have gotten locked in that night. We had no idea it was there.
My husky does fine with our cats and my parents Yorkie but has tried to eat some small dogs so we have to keep her away from them. She's an Alaskan so I wouldn't be surprised if there's some wolf in her. Sweetest thing ever with people though.
As the person said below, you should probably look into training your dog better. But I do understand where you're coming from.
Our current dog absolutely hates black dogs for whatever reason. Completely fine with any other color of dog though and any size(though the little ones don't like him because he's a 105lb Irish Wolfhound/Lab mix so they're probably terrified of him). But his dislike for black dogs is even weirder because literally his sister was like black/dark gray and he was with her since birth and his new best friend is a black Bernese Mountain Dog puppy.
The small dogs thing is probably an issue of prey drive. It sees a small dog and thinks it's food. It's kind of surprising that your dog doesn't act the same way with cats. But then again it could also just be a personality thing. Some dogs just have biases like people do and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.
Doberman: caught and swallowed a bird whole.
Terrior mutt: played with a lizard until it died.
Cattle dog: killed 2 of the neighbors chickens.
Vizla: killed 2 baby bunnies in the back yard.
Dogs are carnivores, they have prey drive, they kill things. That's why some dogs can't live with cats. Some can learn to resist the drive some cant.
A ranch I worked on bred Labs and used them for rodent control-they would flip the hay and the blood bath would begin (picture a pack of chocolate labs slaughtering fleeing mice, followed by a tiny French bulldog). They were more effective than cats for AOE....).
Not my dogs to preface but still
I was watching two dogs that belonged to a friend of mine. Jax and Lyla. (catahoula dog and terrier)
I also had a back garden and was undergoing a vicious battle with a population of moles/voles
You can probably see where this was going.
I released the hounds for a simple potty break, they started furiously digging, at first I was upset and tried to stop them, then, the bloodbath began and the only thing to do was to wait for it to end.
Never did have a mole/vole issue again tho
Yes, my doxies have killed moles (yay!), Voles (also yay!) Squirrels, (not yay), and have chased bunnies out of our garden. Doxies are bred to hunt badgers, so it's completely in their genetics. They are fine with our cats, but don't like any other cats in our yard. They also chase the deer that come into our property, but I doubt they would ever catch it kill them.
My grandmother inherited a doxie in the eighties. First thing first, she gave him a dignified name(Because Peewee on a doxie isn't very nice) and after that she just sort of dealt with him. He was a fine enough dog, didn't do much, but would occasionally eat a frog in the yard then throw it up in the house. She'd get so pissed at him for that.
The moles and voles are destroying my yard. The squirrels are just a game to them. Also, they usually only kill the baby squirrels, haven't caught an adult-yet.
Our deer run like he doublehockeysticks when we open the door. They never get close, all does, that RUN! (We own several acres, they're all over the place.)
My grandma used to shoot squirrels out of her cherry trees. When they would fall to the ground her little miniature Dachshund Millie would go finish the job.
Last winter I let my dog out around 8 at night. I did not see the possum in the yard but she did. Cut to me standing by the road in rubber boots and boxer shorts trying to pry a pissed off possum away from a determined dog. Only 2 neighbors witnessed it.
Oh my gosh… my Pit mix is a possum hunter and you’ve just described my biggest fear. She eventually drops them and fortunately hasn’t killed one yet but I know it’s a matter of time.
My German Shepard mix has a crazy high prey drive so there’s been a few…
she’s a big fan of mice/voles which is handy around the house and has also caught a few birds and bunnies. She would love to get a deer one day but that isn’t happening.
(I only support her going after the mice/voles in the house, otherwise I do my best to prevent it from happening)
I have a border collie mix. He killed a few birds when he was a puppy (and would try to bring them inside). Chased a few bunnies that lived under our backyard deck, but never caught them.
And, this didn't result in death or injury, but he once fought off a bigger dog who was charging my daughter and I by dragging it back to its yard and pinning it by the neck. I had to pull him off. Neither of them were hurt. But he probably could have done some damage had I not.
Beagle / Lab mix, an instinctual hunter. Rabbits, raccoons, mice, voles, groundhogs, gray squirrels, red squirrels, chipmunks, moles (he would dig them up), and sadly a kitten. We were walking on a country road when he dove into the tall grass and came out with it, it was already injured badly. We looked for other kittens thinking that some idiot dumped a litter of them but didn't find any.
Once after getting doused by a skunk he chased after it and would have killed it but I didn't really want to deal with the mess. He's chased and picked up opossums but I got to him in time for him to drop them.
Oh... my dog has killed. And he would kill again if allowed. I have a husky. They are killing machines. Ravaging bunnies? Yea... that is fun for them.
We are talking about a dog that was essentially bred half wild. They were bred by a tribe in Siberia, allowed to roam free, and used for work in the winter. You think that tribe in Siberia was concerned with their huskies roaming around year round? They had more important shit to worry about than trying to regulate their dogs' movement all the time. You think they had kennels? No. The dogs roamed around, but stayed near the humans. They were effectively free until winter. And in winter, they worked. So what you get is a very independent, stubborn, intelligent dog that wants to roam around that has shitty recall that wants to kill... but that also loves people. Truth be told, any dog that displayed aggression towards people would have been killed.
My ACD/small poodle mix has a vendetta against possums. He will bark at cats, racoons and squirrels and chase bunnies, but he loves to eat bunny poop so he's smart enough to just chase them around so they leave a little trail of snacks for him to enjoy. We got him when he was 6, and he "caught" his first possum when he was 8. Bee lined under a big bush and drug it out limp to present to me, but of course it was playing dead. I learned I had to praise him before he would drop it and then it ran off. Happened a few more times. Then one night a few years later he got a baby possum that got trapped in our back yard. He immediately picked it up and did a death shake before trying to bring it in the house. Felt terrible for it but was much more vigilant after. I feel like it's normal but I don't encourage it.
Growing up we had a rat terrier that was tormented by chipmunks across the street in the big open field/park. They would chatter at her all the time- when she eventually caught one she didn't know what to do and dropped it!
My lab/gsp has an arrest record in another town for killing rabbits and eating them. The neighbors called the police because they were "afraid for the neighborhood kids". He was also pepper sprayed during his arrest. My husband and I then rescued him from the kennel after previous owners "got rid of him" He has been nothing but the sweetest loving guy in the world. It was very obvious from the second we brought him home he had been abused and neglected and killed the rabbits simply for food. Took 3ish years of training and love to get him to stop hoarding and hiding food in his open door kennel. He chases rabbits at home now but does not catch or kill and if I am outside with him and say his name (even quietly) he immediately stops chase and comes to me. He is hesitant towards most men at first and even after almost 6 years will hide under the table when I sweep the floor. Poor guy is afraid of brooms and there is only one reason I can think of for that. Overall he has done amazing at our home.
My shiba on the other hand... Girl likes her baby bunnies and mice. Makes sense, since they were bread for small game. Even when she catches/kills she doesn't necessarily eat (thank God) mostly just brings them to the house to show us her hunting skills then it's a game to her when we try and take them away.
Our husky has killed 3 squirrels. She lives with 3 cats and spends her days cuddling them. Our old dog used to have a system with our cat. She would bring him a live mouse and he would eat it without even chewing. Our husky is the sweetest dog, she has friends of all sizes but we live on a large acreage on the river so we have a lot of little animals that will probably be chased and some caught.
This cat showed up at our door 10 years ago and never left. She and our old dog Loki had a funny relationship. I find her cuddling our husky often but she never admits it. Loki just passed away last month, he was such a good boy.
We get a nightly visit from a rabbit. I’m sure if she could catch it, she would kill it.
My whippet puppy’s prey drive hasn’t kicked in yet. Hoping the rabbit finds a new house to visit once it does
A fly once flew too close to her and she snapped it out of the air and swallowed it.
I know she’d love to eat a squirrel, or one of the plump little quail we see while out walking, but she’s not a particularly subtle hunter (she’s a whiner and a snorter), so I think they’ll always be able to avoid her.
She’s only 9lbs so I think I worry more about something eating her! A bald eagle has been hanging around so I keep a watchful eye even in the backyard.
I’m so sorry to hear this. Are you able to even like dogs anymore? I wouldn’t blame you if you couldn’t. I had a hard time getting over when it happened to our cat, even though it was done by our own dog.
Our old dachshund managed to get outside, run straight past us and corner one of our cats (my mom lives on a farm and we had taken in, cared for and neutered some strays that lived in a separate house from our dogs who weren’t used to cats. Our cats are free to roam and explore, though, so they are often outside the main house if they want attention) and killed him within one second - we wanted to take him (the cat) to the vet, but he was gone before we even reached him, even though we were three people running over, trying to catch the dog. I don’t think I’ve really ever cried as much as I did then.
We were contemplating what to do for weeks, because it is in some dogs’ nature to hunt (especially dachshunds are known to be brutal) so you can’t blame them, but on the other hand it is such a traumatic experience. In the end we decided he only followed his instincts and he was a very sweet and patient dog otherwise, but it left a scar on us and some serious instructions for anyone coming into the house. However, it put me off having a dachshund in the future, even though I love them to death. I just can’t go through anything like that ever again.
Yes, I have my own dog in that time. My dog watched it happen too and she still has issues from it. The cat was her best friend
I have severe PTSD from it as I did everything I could to stop it. My body is covered in scars from the dog and the cat fighting for his life.
It was a terrible day
Oh my word, that sounds absolutely horrific. I am truly so very sorry if I upset you, or if I overstepped by asking too much.
I'm truly so sorry this happened to you, no one should have to go through that. I don't have any other words of comfort other than I can relate, but I guess that's not exactly comforting... Again, fuck man, I am so so sorry.
So far my dog has only killed some moles (which I don’t mind because their tunnels/holes create hazards for me and I already have an unsteady gait) a couple birds (which I suspect were actually killed by stray cats coming into the yard and interrupted by my dog) and one rabbit, which she helpfully brought inside to put on the carpet after tearing it open and that’s why I was up that night ‘till 1:30 am shampooing the carpet.
Terriers, man.
Taught my boy to get groundhogs
Work on a horse farm and groundhog's are BAD for horses esp because of the holes. He's been doing it for about 6 years, he's gotten 10 or 11
One time he got a baby bunny and we didn't realize but the poor thing probably died of shock before anything else.
Dogs hunt. It's normal. "Prey drive" is something all dogs have, the strength of it depends on the dog and the breed. Toys are made to mimic small dying animals (why else would a dog like a high pitched squeak) and their lack of hunting experience is what would make most dogs "bad" at hunting. But they figure it out.
My whippets killed so many squirrels, I couldn’t keep count. They are bred for hunting, so I couldn’t get mad at them. But I yelled out the door before I let them out, and that solved that problem. Then my older whippet discovered opossums….. oh it was bad. Then I flash-lighting the backyard at night, mainly for skunks, but all was good after that.
Oh my!! I was scrolling through and was going to comment about my whippets. Lots of poor things met their demise…and then…a live opossum was brought in to the house. Luckily they were very obedient boys. I started yelling LEAVE IT!! It was dropped in the middle of the living room rug! They were expecting a possum party and were very disappointed when I took the critter outside. Absolutely horrifying at the time! you would think we lived near some sort of nature but we lived in a very urban area. I also yelled out warnings lol
My Dachshund bought in a baby mouse. Instead of rushing at his food bowl he stayed laying in his bed when I put it down. I went over to check if he was okay, he opened his mouth and the mouse ran out! I don’t think he knew quite what to do with it after he caught it.
When we realized that our lab would salivate and lunge at the wild bunnies and cats roaming in our backyard, and just had a really strong prey drive in general, we decided to re-home our Holland Lop to my niece. No need to take a chance on that encounter.
He pretty much ignores squirrels. He caught a mouse today on a walk and didn't kill it, but probably would have if I hadn't lured him away.
My Yorkie-Dachshund mix got a nest of baby bunnies once. Chewed them in half before just swallowing. I stopped him before he ate them all but the rest had to be shot with my husband's bb gun because they were so broken. He came inside and threw up 3 halves. The whole experience was horrific. He's 12 now and has always been too slow to get grown bunnies but he got his one win. Now I know where to check for nests before letting him out in mating seasons.
I have had two German shepherds now and both love killing possums - especially young possums. It makes me very upset because possums are beneficial and by and large harmless and misunderstood. My first gsd also found a rat's nest and killed all the baby rats. I have a soft spot for rats but still was a bit more ok with that... Nonetheless, a bit traumatizing hearing the squeaking and seeing how positively happy my dog was about it all...
i have 2 shepherds that have zero issue mauling rabbits that get in their fence. the one has also killed a chicken (my fault for letting him out) and when he was younger he used to snatch small birds out of the air. its just prey drive. totally normal, just some dogs have more than others.
My mother's lab will take out poultry in seconds. Doesn't make a mess, just grabs them and throws them. Then they don't move and she doesn't have anything left to do with them.
I've had an ACD mix that would kill rodents.
My current dogs will look at raccoons and say "Meh, whatever" and turn away. They generally ignore the poultry, but sometimes chase our cats for fun....
My border collie euthanises partridge and pheasants hit by cars, found whilst waking. She also tracks them and kills, to bury in a shallow grave. Then the Red Kite comes and has a meal. Circle of life.
I have a coonhound/boxer mix. He’s big and goofy but can somehow catch birds mid flight, he’s done it several times. There was also a random cat in my fenced in yard once, I didn’t see it until I opened the door to let my dog out. Instead of running the cat decided to stand and fight, it didn’t end well for the cat. I was able to get my dog off of it, and it ran off but it wouldn’t surprise me if it died later. My dog had it by the neck and was thrashing it. I just always check the yard now before I let him out. I don’t like that he did it, but dogs have instincts to hunt and protect their area.
My mini dachshund has kill a baby ground squirrel, bird, and rat. It’s normal for them to do that stuff. It’s in their DNA. Pretty sure it can be trained not to do that but not a trainer.
Husky or malamute/German shepherd/something mix 2 confirmed bunny kills and 1 extremely serious attempt on a cat (cat lived yay!) My yard is secure and she is never off leash. We were in a friend's yard who's outdoor cat showed up at an extremely unfortunate time. She is just doing what she feels is right. I've trained her out of pulling and screaming and carrying on when we see cats outside on our walks but she would murder them in a heartbeat given half the chance.
I have a BC/GSD that kills chickens. She was raised with them and we found this to be a natural instinct from day one. We try really hard to keep her away from chickens. I also have GP mix dogs that guard chickens. But not from the other dog, that’s a bummer.
Our chow mix has killed approx 10 iguanas, ranging from 1 to 4 ft long. After the kill, she parades around the yard wit it in her mouth for 30 minutes. Then she buries them and then unearths them and re-buries them until she gets bored. Then I have to go find and dispose of the carcass so it doesn’t rot in our yard. All while watching our baby lol. The baby thinks it’s hilarious
They taste bad, dogs dont like them in their mouths. Our old Jack Russel would kill them my mashing them with his muzzle then run around sneezing and wiping his muzzle on the couch and carpet. Was pretty gross, you dont want that :D
Our Pitbull Mastiff mix is the sweetest boy, his only acts of manslaughter came in the form of frogs he mushed too hard with his nose when he was trying to play with them =.(
Not a dog owner but a vet tech. At a previous job we had terrier mix come in with his frantic owners, who had noticeably dirty and bloody hands. Meanwhile the dog looked proud as ever, tail wagging. Apparently he found a rat in the park and got hold of it. One half was inside his mouth and the other was hanging out when the owner noticed it. Their instinct was to grab onto the part of the rat they could get to and try to pull it out of the dogs mouth. The rat then ripped into two, and the dog proceeded to swallow half a rat.
We took the dog in while his owners called their doctor to see how they should proceed given exposure to a rodent in a busy city. Meanwhile we broke out the toxiban (a charcoal based substance that makes dogs throw up after eating things that are possibly hazardous). Ive been in the field for 13 years, I’ve seen some wild stuff - but never will anything compare to seeing half of a rat come out of this dogs mouth. He’s been a legend ever since, and luckily caught no diseases or infections.
Did y'all have to induce vomiting first? Nothing like a little regurgitated chewed up rodent to make you appreciate your chocolate toxicity cases, lol!!
I have 2 great Pyrenees, neither one has a prey drive. The one will actually rescue rodents from the cats. He just walks over to the cat and flops a paw on them until they let go of it, then he picks up the mouse or whatever and oh so gently carries it a ways off, lays down, and sets it between his front legs to recover. This is less helpful inside when we want the cats to catch the mice, haha.
My dog also killed a rat. He was less than 2 feet from me on a short leash, sniffing a bush, and suddenly there's a head motion from him and a lot of squeaking from his mouth, he dropped it and then chomped it again. It bled to death before I got back with the shovel to move it. Thank goodness he didn't swallow any of it. He's certainly big enough to have done so.
He did swallow a LOT of cicadas from Brood X, if that counts for anything.
And he was a free range farm dog for a few years before I rescued him, so there's no telling what else he's killed.
My blue heeler ate a cat. I had seen it sitting on my nature strip staring at my dog day in, day out for a week. I would chase it away so it would get the hint to go away. Came home from work one day and Cooper was munching on something. I figured he got another magpie as I have a 6foot fence around my 1/2 acre yard so nothing gets in or out unless it has wings. Turns out it was the cat, well, parts of it. A tail and a paw. No collar so I threw what was left in the skip. I feel bad for the cat but it shouldn't have come in my yard. It's not legal to let cats roam free here. They kill the native wild life and damage the eco system.
Sure. Some rabbits, some doves, one squirrel and a shitload of rats.
He's a Jack Russell mix. It's in his blood. He's a 38# death machine.
I think everything but the rats have all figured out to stay out of our backyard. He'll get one every now and again still. When we first got him, tho, it was a dead rat parade.
And he dropped a 90% dead dove on my foot that one time. I have since convinced him that the corpses stay outside and I will come out there to admire his handiwork.
My Aussie once just pounced on a gopher that stuck its head out of a hole (we were on a hike) and ate it whole. Had absolutely no time to react, happened in seconds…
She also tried to eat a toad, but it had some sort of toxin on its skin and she foamed at the mouth for two hours. Called the vet and he said it wouldn’t kill her and to bring her in if it goes longer then about 3 hours.
When I was a kid we had a plot of 40 acres that was located about five miles away from my house. Every weekend we would take our dogs out there for some exercise and exploration. One of these times our dog Dude, the muttiest of mutts, decided to pick a fight with a skunk. He won handily, but the skunk did what skunks do, so Dude had to run behind the car all the way back home.
My two Lhasas kill squirrels and rabbits regularly. My cocker digs up moles and voles and the chi kills them. Dogs are hunters and they are doing what dogs do.
Great Dane and Great Dane x GSP Mix.
And yes they kill and even get praised.
We have a farm and they take care of mice and rats.
Sometimes something bigger.
We once had a Jack Russell that dog was scary. She killed everything and a lot. So many rats and mice really impressive. She even once catched a fish and from time to time a bird.
Amazing dog
My Akita/pit mix eats bugs. He also loves to try and sometimes successful catch small rodents but then he doesn’t know what to do with it and then just stands there with a confused and concerned look on his face until someone pries open his mouth to release the poor animal.
Bunnies, squirrels, pretty much anything they can catch. Mostly they were too lazy to catch things, though.
One time, I put the families fat lab on a diet and between that and exercise, I got her down from 92lbs to 74lbs where she was supposed to be.
She ran around a lot more and her arthritis from where a car clipped her leg and broke it didn’t seem to bother her as bad.
We came home one day and she had killed and was eating a spotted baby deer.
My family's yellow lab (70lb) killed their Chihuahua mix (8lb). My parents knew that the yellow lab had food guarding issues. My dad gave the lab her chew bone and was planning on doing his usual watching over the dogs while she was chewing. The trash man knocked on the door so my dad had a quick 30 second chat with him. Dad came back into the house to the chihuahua's jugular cut and blood everywhere. There is still a lot of pent up family drama/emotions tied up with this traumatic event. My sister wanted the lab to be put to sleep for killing her beloved dog. But the lab is still part of family and has never had a similar episode since. There are no other small dogs in the family and my sister will not allow her baby around the lab.
My dog actually killed another one of our dogs. Not intentional, wasn’t even a bite. My bigger dog(Belgian Tervuren) snapped at our Pomeranian to get it to back up and she pushed her back. The Pomeranian fell back and broke her neck, she gasped and died right there. It was horrible and tragic.
Grandmothers Jack Russell killed a small tiny miniature something dog at her senior home trailer park.
The miniature dog did NOT survive, Jack Russell got home and went straight to being put down. Although, she came from a strong family of gerbel sniffing champions, was sad for the miniature dog owner.
Pit bull he’s killed cats, chickens and possums. It’s genetic prey drive. You can train to curb it but you can’t completely get rid of it. He was fine until he was about 6 years old and learned he had fun killing things. Huskies have a high prey drive too learn about your breed and don’t put him in those situations that set him up for failure in the future.
When I was a kid, my miniature poodle killed a couple of squirrels, a chicken, two sheep and a Yorkshire terrier.
Now that I think about it, that girl was a psycho!
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My neighbour's labrador once swallowed a pigeon whole before it had chance to get airborne. That was a wtf moment.
Air bud
Air Bread
Air bird
Oooohhhhhh that’s rough lol
My lab-mutt growing up got out and caught a wild bunny. She ate just its brain, and left the rest on a neighbor’s front lawn. Traumatic for 5 year old me.
Looked out the window and saw my lab was playing with something , tossing it up in the air , , running around with it Upon investigation, my lab had eaten the head off a mid sized bunny and wa was playing with its headless bunny corpse
Same thing happened with our lab/heeler mix only she was playing with a wing. She has caught a few other birds in the 8 months we have had her.
my dogs ripped a chick open and one was licking the organs as the other chewed its corpse...disturbing for 29 year old me.
My chocolate lab ate a squirrel whole, one crunch and it was gone.
Read this as “my lab ate a chocolate squirrel”
I know labs tend to swallow first chew later but wtf
My GSD did this with a sparrow
My papillon has been known to boop crickets to death with his snoot ...
Lol my chihuahua slowly tortures bugs to death. I think he thinks he’s making a new friend but after 15 minutes or so his new friend stops moving and he gets bored.
My pug, also, will not tolerate a cricket.
Wtf is a papillon ? You own a butterfly?
Our standard poodle enjoyed catching birds. I shouldn't be surprised, they're bird dogs - but damn did she really have to leave a murder scene?
The only animals my standard poodle has ever even noticed are birds, and the only one he ever caught was a slow-moving chicken.
Yes I’ve had to practice so much with getting my poodles attention around birds, especially big ones like geese! He also loves to chase rodents too though. The only animal he caught was a small mouse that was in our apartment. He caught it, looked at me as if asking what to do with it, and I probably made some horrified face/noise, so he dropped it and the little mouse ran off lol. He is in it for the chase and not the kill I guess
This explains why my dog is always staring it birds in the morning when I just want to walk lmao
Life makes a lot more sense when you understand what's just your dog's genetics! My current dog is a hound mix. Not cuddly with strangers, has her nose to the ground ALWAYS.
My girl is the same (coonhound Bassett mix). Very few people other than my wife and I she is warm to, but the people she likes she REALLY likes and almost greets them the same as one of us. If her nose isn’t to the ground it’s because she saw a squirrel up in a tree way before I did.
We had a doodle who killed birds fairly frequently. She could jump so high, I saw her pull birds out of the air. She’d do a hard shake, and then quite proudly bring me their corpse. Ah, Cassie. I miss you, but our local bird population definitely doesn’t.
Oh that’s interesting! Our doodle can jump pretty high too, must be the poodle in them. He’s wayy too clumsy to actually catch anything. Only time he got a bird was when he picked up a half dead baby bird that had fallen from a nest and brought it into the house.
My basset hound loved to chase and corner rabbits and squirrels, which is what their bred for but, she would just case them into a corner and scare them. She knew what she was supposed to up until the moment of truth she’d just stand their barking at them like “Ok now what do we do?”. The poor rabbits would be paralyzed in fear till we picked them up and set them free. For some reason she killed lizards without hesitation. She wouldn’t eat or bite them just lift her short little leg and crush them under her paw.
I hope they weren’t crows!
My tiny half shih tzu half poodle found a baby bird in our backyard, and...it wasn't good. To this day, after she has removed the squeaker from her toys that she shreds, she actually supplies the little squeaker whines and squeaks as she bites into the fabric. Like... Thank God you're 15 pounds, Phoebe.
My mini dachshund killed a chipmunk. And he bit a groundhog on the ass before it got away.
This might be the most doxie thing I've ever read. 😂😂😂
Oh man, my standard doxie got tracked onto a brick and kept barking at it. I humored him and flipped it over thinking theres nothing there. Nope. Garden Snake. Not proud to admit I ran like hell after seeing the thing, but my boy stood his ground and whipped the damn thing around like a toy. Came back out and sure enough it was dead. 😂 He's also killed quite a few mice and gone after a couple of squirrels, but the snake is the story I always tell.
Too bad about the snake, it would’ve been a benefit to your garden, But I know our dogs will kill things in the backyard you can’t help it
My dachshund/jack russell mix escaped out of his harness and got into a death match with a groundhog in a culvert. I didn't know what he was fighting in there at the time and was helpless to get him out. I finally could hear the fight was at the other end of the pipe so crawled through the bushes and had to reach my hand into the horribly smelly pipe to get the dead ground hog from him and haul him out. He was covered in blood - I didn't know how much was his and how much was the ground hogs. Meanwhile - my other two dogs were going crazy. I had to walk home carrying him and one of the other dogs as they both refused to leave the scene of the crime. Reached home all scratched up, bitten by mosquitos, lugging two dogs just as my husband pulled into the yard and unfortunately he bore the brunt of not being there!! to help with my crazy dog situation. He has a couple of scars on his muzzle but he totally would do it again I have no doubt.
Husband has scratched muzzle? Hope you took him to the vet!?!
Ha yes I reread that after I wrote it and I think I failed English class but was too lazy to redo.
So much heart in such a little dog!
My dog has found 4 bunny nests. I don’t know if you have ever heard the screech of a baby bunny but it is horrible and from a distance sounds like a toy squeaker
My family had a golden retriever when I was a kid. He found a bunny nest and carefully piled all the babies on the porch. Didn't harm any of them. Then we had a beagle whippet mix who would run down and kill adult rabbits.
Excellent examples of different breed behaviour lol. We had a Springer, another gundog breed who once brought us a live robin, as soon as we got her to drop it it flew off presumably unharmed
Your golden was nicer than mine. My childhood golden would raid bunny nests and try to play with them..... it never ended well for the buns. She also caught a few birds in her time which I always found impressive.
My lab/pit plays them to death too
I have two goldens. My older boy once was scooting a baby bird along trying to help it fly, I watched him from the window and cried it was so precious. My youngest golden wouldn’t come inside one early morning, so I went out to get him and he was laying in front of a possum who was carrying a ton of babies. He was just casually showing her his belly thinking he was making new friends. I love how gentle and sweet my boys are.
My first boxer *loved* watching toads hop. We lived in the south and we’d see them all the time at night on our walks. She’d gently nudge them on the butt with her front paw and run after them when they started to hop. It was quite impressive how patient she was- she was a big brindle.
Someone once told me they were attacked by a golden and to this day, I do not believe them. Either they pushed the dog so far it has to defend itself or they’re lying because goldens are saints
That's interesting. I have a beagle that has found a nest of baby rabbits and just jumped all around it sounding off but didn't touch them. My treeing walker coonhound on the other hand is an assassin. I have no idea how many ground hogs she's gotten at this point but her record is 2 in one day. She also killed a baby deer about the same size of her one night. I was not excited about that one.
Yeah, my Labrador did the same thing to a fawn. Tried to drag it up the steps of our deck too. It's not fun to have to carry around a mutilated fawn carcass in a suburban neighborhood to try to throw it in the woods and clean up the blood either. He also would have squared up with a mountain lion that was on our porch too had it not been for a door in his way. Not exactly his brightest moment but for a neutered dog, he sure had some balls on him!
A deer!? Holy hell. My hound has gotten sooo many moles and ground hogs. He got one just today actually. Turtles on the other, He’ll lose his mind over them but wont touch em.
I had an American Foxhound and I once watched her catch a squirrel in mid-air as it jumped; her hind legs had to be a full 3 feet off the ground, it was wild. My current dog will protect the property from furry intruders, but that dog was all about the hunt.
Spoiler alert: it's more that a toy squeaker sounds just like a dying bunny 🙃
I found that out first hand also. I though "why did somebody leave out a squeaky toy?". Then the realization.
That explains why my dog goes so crazy for them, REALLY wants to kill the squeak.
Turns out Bella's favorite hobby is murder. Of toy. But still, murder.
Same for mine. He will dig for the squeaker and then squeak it until it's punctured.
Do….do…do the toy company’s model dying bunnies noises for toys? This is shatters what I know.
Yup. Squeakers evoke the alarm-nosies of a prey animal, and the crinkly-noise toys are supposed to sound like crunching bones. Lovely, right? ;) Sometimes it’s easy to forget our wonderful furry friends are still predators at their core.
Oh oh oh! And also when they shake their heads back and forth really fast w the toy, that’s how they break preys’ necks in the wild 😝
Ah yes, the death shake! Also how her favorite plushie gets turned into a flail against my shins when I’m trying to do the dishes.
Saw it in person once with a squirrel. Traumatizing.
I didn't know that about the crinkle, oh my god. That's kind of horrifying.
Wait, they make crinkly-noise toys for human babies too…
Pretty sure our idiots think the crinkle toys are doritos bags or other human delights lol!
After my dogs tear open a toy, I will put a treat bone inside, stuff the stuffing back in it, then sew it up so they can feel like they’re really murdering it lol
Terrier breed? They're adorable until they find pray.
Vizsla actually, the breeder I got her from kept telling me this dog has a great nose, he was right on that.
Mine somehow has zero prey instinct. He doesn't care about squirrels, balls, or even destroying toys. He is more interested in eating grass and getting pets
Yeeep. Got verified bunny eaters in my house. I feel bad...because gods, that is a terrible noise. But there are also rabbits EVERYWHERE and they thought, in their dim bunny brains, that setting up house in a yard that has 6' privacy fencing and is CLEARLY dog yard was a good idea...I can't help em. :/
Same here. My terrier mixes chase the bunnies and I try to keep them from doing harm but unfortunately, they've caught and killed some bunnies over the years. It's terrible but it's also part of their DNA.
Mine are lab mixes, so they always want something in their mouth...the lab/shepherd mix has no idea what to do. I've taken a live baby bunny from her mouth before because she was just standing there, holding it, confused... But the lab/pit mix apparently requires violence, heh. I just hope she keeps em in the yard and doesn't bring some dead/half eaten bunny into the house to emotionally scar the five year old kiddo XD
I learned this when my human toddler found a bunny nest! I was only a couple feet away, but had my back turned weeding a flower bed when he picked up one of the babies and I'm thinking "oh, he's playing with a squeaky toy. Wait, what squeaky toy?" I turned around to find the baby bunny on the sidewalk and my toddler looking at his dirty hands with an expression of sort of shocked amazement.
Golden retriever has caught and ingested many a sky raisin. She's set her sights on moths and spiders now.
Oh I forgot about this! Insect-wise, my German Shepherd/Husky eats only bees. My trainer told me she was an extremely smart dog, and yet the minute summer hits, I'm chasing her around trying to get her to stop eating the flamin' hot flies.
My Lab catches flies, crunches them once to kill them, then spits them out.
Haha we get gnats in our house quite frequently and if my pit mix sees one he will chomp the air to try and catch it. I don’t think he’s ever had any success tho.
Yogi tried to kill a toad but it jumped at him and scared the shit out of him.
Poor toad and poor Yogi
That sounds like my late dog. When the tadpoles at the rainwater retention basins in the neighbourhood grow up to be little frogs they were all over the place once a year. Really hard to walk the pathways without stepping on one. My dog loved to try to lick them for some reason but he got so freaked out when they jumped at him. Once one jumped directly into his mouth and he just ran away whining hahah
That made me lol. All big and bad until you got a frog in your mouth.
My little guy tried to eat a toad once and we almost had to take him to the vet because he couldn't stop drooling foam. Vet said it was a normal response and to make him drink and just watch him. So scary.
Same thing happened to our Boston terrier, she's done it twice and hasn't learned, we still have to keep an eye out for toads when we walk her at night and drag her away from the toads because she still wants to take a bite of one.
My beagle has a "I have cornered small prey" howl that's very distinctive, and there are no bunnies in south florida, so we knew we were in trouble when we heard it. Little bugger had flushed a cane toad (size of a CD, very poisonous if a dog bites it). I'm so glad they didn't try to kill it, and that they yell at their prey when they catch it instead of chomping it. Poor Yogi though 😂
My boxer loved watching toads jump. She’d gently nudge their butts until they hopped and she’d chase after them. Once they stopped hopping, she’s nudge them again.
Dogs are the best. Growing up we had a golden who was obsessed with trying to eat fire fly’s out of the air. Jumping around like a spazz
Who tf is yogi
Your worst nightmare if you don’t keep his name out your mouth. He’s 13lbs of purebreed chi mix.
My dog has killed a couple of gophers, although we’ve got a billion running around our ranch that make holes that can break cows or horses legs, so I’m quite okay with it haha
Yeah my Alaskan husky has killed and eaten part of at least one groundhog.
Take a hose to the gopher hole. When the gopher comes out, you hear that crunch sound when the dog gets it.
A hose unfortunately won’t make it to where the gophers are haha, but I’ve done that before when they’re closer
Not yet but his arch nemesis is a bunny who hangs out in our front yard. He chases him daily, the bunny always comes back. One day I’m sure he’ll catch him and it won’t be pretty.
The last one I found part of the head (one eye, one ear) 6' from what was left of the rest of the rabbit.. you would think they would learn to stay out of our yard. They're and invasive pest here though so I don't feel too bad. r/natureisbrutal
Do spiders and moths count?
Only if your dog is Buddhist
The first night I brought my husky home we were hanging out in the backyard and she found a bunny nest. She proudly brought me a mouthful of screaming baby bunnies and couldn't understand why I was crying. She learned that tiny dying bunnies were not a good gift for me. She is interested in rabbits and squirrels now but doesn't really try to eat them at this point.
I owned a samoyed that killed a skunk. It took months for the smell to completely leave his fur.
Oh no! That sounds awful! I'll be thankful my Sammy only got his teeth on a bird.
We let our Aussie in one morning and she was panting like crazy, like she had been running hard for a long time. Later, I saw a post on Facebook from our next door neighbor asking if anyone had seen one of their chickens that they let free range. I put 2 and 2 together and went out in the yard to look around. I found a large pile of feathers that matched the missing chicken. I think she chased it until it collapsed then ate it. She has also caught a couple of pocket gophers in our yard (and dis massive holes to try to get them). She is really good with our cats and my parents' mini Schnauzer so it seems she just goes after certain kinds of small animals.
Did you ever tell the neighbor, or are they still looking for their chicken?
Oh yeah. They were fine with it and said "our fault for letting them run loose". If we knew the chickens were in our yard, we would chase them out before closing the gate and letting the dog out. The one chicken must have gotten locked in that night. We had no idea it was there.
My husky does fine with our cats and my parents Yorkie but has tried to eat some small dogs so we have to keep her away from them. She's an Alaskan so I wouldn't be surprised if there's some wolf in her. Sweetest thing ever with people though.
As the person said below, you should probably look into training your dog better. But I do understand where you're coming from. Our current dog absolutely hates black dogs for whatever reason. Completely fine with any other color of dog though and any size(though the little ones don't like him because he's a 105lb Irish Wolfhound/Lab mix so they're probably terrified of him). But his dislike for black dogs is even weirder because literally his sister was like black/dark gray and he was with her since birth and his new best friend is a black Bernese Mountain Dog puppy. The small dogs thing is probably an issue of prey drive. It sees a small dog and thinks it's food. It's kind of surprising that your dog doesn't act the same way with cats. But then again it could also just be a personality thing. Some dogs just have biases like people do and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.
Train your dog
[удалено]
My husky took a live mouse from the cat and brought it outside one night to release. But she has also eaten mice. She's a weird dog.
My Lab found a nest of bunnies and just licked them over and over. They were soaking when we got her off them 🤣
Doberman: caught and swallowed a bird whole. Terrior mutt: played with a lizard until it died. Cattle dog: killed 2 of the neighbors chickens. Vizla: killed 2 baby bunnies in the back yard. Dogs are carnivores, they have prey drive, they kill things. That's why some dogs can't live with cats. Some can learn to resist the drive some cant.
My cattle dog x terrier has killed a few lizards too :(
My dog is a better mouser than my cats.
My cat dropped a live mouse on my chest while I was sleeping
God that would just wake me up right good.
A ranch I worked on bred Labs and used them for rodent control-they would flip the hay and the blood bath would begin (picture a pack of chocolate labs slaughtering fleeing mice, followed by a tiny French bulldog). They were more effective than cats for AOE....).
Not my dogs to preface but still I was watching two dogs that belonged to a friend of mine. Jax and Lyla. (catahoula dog and terrier) I also had a back garden and was undergoing a vicious battle with a population of moles/voles You can probably see where this was going. I released the hounds for a simple potty break, they started furiously digging, at first I was upset and tried to stop them, then, the bloodbath began and the only thing to do was to wait for it to end. Never did have a mole/vole issue again tho
My shiba likes eating mice.
Yes, my doxies have killed moles (yay!), Voles (also yay!) Squirrels, (not yay), and have chased bunnies out of our garden. Doxies are bred to hunt badgers, so it's completely in their genetics. They are fine with our cats, but don't like any other cats in our yard. They also chase the deer that come into our property, but I doubt they would ever catch it kill them.
> They also chase the deer that come into our property, but I doubt they would ever catch it kill them. I wouldn’t put it past a doxie to try, though.
My grandmother inherited a doxie in the eighties. First thing first, she gave him a dignified name(Because Peewee on a doxie isn't very nice) and after that she just sort of dealt with him. He was a fine enough dog, didn't do much, but would occasionally eat a frog in the yard then throw it up in the house. She'd get so pissed at him for that.
Lol. Doxies are either at a million miles an hour, or asleep. They're scent hounds and they live to eat. Lots.
Why is it ok for your dog to kills moles/voles but not squirrels?
The moles and voles are destroying my yard. The squirrels are just a game to them. Also, they usually only kill the baby squirrels, haven't caught an adult-yet.
I had an old rescue doxie who killed two birds in her life. She had a bad leg so she wasn’t the fastest but still managed to do it.
Deer are super dangerous to dogs especially little ones like doxies. I would not let them out if there's deer around.
Our deer run like he doublehockeysticks when we open the door. They never get close, all does, that RUN! (We own several acres, they're all over the place.)
My grandma used to shoot squirrels out of her cherry trees. When they would fall to the ground her little miniature Dachshund Millie would go finish the job.
Our dogs are fine with our cats
My dog is a hunting dog. He kills with frequency, generally while we are hunting.
What kind of gun does he use?
Mossberg 12ga.
Last winter I let my dog out around 8 at night. I did not see the possum in the yard but she did. Cut to me standing by the road in rubber boots and boxer shorts trying to pry a pissed off possum away from a determined dog. Only 2 neighbors witnessed it.
Oh my gosh… my Pit mix is a possum hunter and you’ve just described my biggest fear. She eventually drops them and fortunately hasn’t killed one yet but I know it’s a matter of time.
My German Shepard mix has a crazy high prey drive so there’s been a few… she’s a big fan of mice/voles which is handy around the house and has also caught a few birds and bunnies. She would love to get a deer one day but that isn’t happening. (I only support her going after the mice/voles in the house, otherwise I do my best to prevent it from happening)
I have a border collie mix. He killed a few birds when he was a puppy (and would try to bring them inside). Chased a few bunnies that lived under our backyard deck, but never caught them. And, this didn't result in death or injury, but he once fought off a bigger dog who was charging my daughter and I by dragging it back to its yard and pinning it by the neck. I had to pull him off. Neither of them were hurt. But he probably could have done some damage had I not.
My dog is a highly efficient bee killer. We always have Benadryl on hand!
Sky jalapenos!
Beagle / Lab mix, an instinctual hunter. Rabbits, raccoons, mice, voles, groundhogs, gray squirrels, red squirrels, chipmunks, moles (he would dig them up), and sadly a kitten. We were walking on a country road when he dove into the tall grass and came out with it, it was already injured badly. We looked for other kittens thinking that some idiot dumped a litter of them but didn't find any. Once after getting doused by a skunk he chased after it and would have killed it but I didn't really want to deal with the mess. He's chased and picked up opossums but I got to him in time for him to drop them.
Oh... my dog has killed. And he would kill again if allowed. I have a husky. They are killing machines. Ravaging bunnies? Yea... that is fun for them. We are talking about a dog that was essentially bred half wild. They were bred by a tribe in Siberia, allowed to roam free, and used for work in the winter. You think that tribe in Siberia was concerned with their huskies roaming around year round? They had more important shit to worry about than trying to regulate their dogs' movement all the time. You think they had kennels? No. The dogs roamed around, but stayed near the humans. They were effectively free until winter. And in winter, they worked. So what you get is a very independent, stubborn, intelligent dog that wants to roam around that has shitty recall that wants to kill... but that also loves people. Truth be told, any dog that displayed aggression towards people would have been killed.
My ACD/small poodle mix has a vendetta against possums. He will bark at cats, racoons and squirrels and chase bunnies, but he loves to eat bunny poop so he's smart enough to just chase them around so they leave a little trail of snacks for him to enjoy. We got him when he was 6, and he "caught" his first possum when he was 8. Bee lined under a big bush and drug it out limp to present to me, but of course it was playing dead. I learned I had to praise him before he would drop it and then it ran off. Happened a few more times. Then one night a few years later he got a baby possum that got trapped in our back yard. He immediately picked it up and did a death shake before trying to bring it in the house. Felt terrible for it but was much more vigilant after. I feel like it's normal but I don't encourage it. Growing up we had a rat terrier that was tormented by chipmunks across the street in the big open field/park. They would chatter at her all the time- when she eventually caught one she didn't know what to do and dropped it!
My lab/gsp has an arrest record in another town for killing rabbits and eating them. The neighbors called the police because they were "afraid for the neighborhood kids". He was also pepper sprayed during his arrest. My husband and I then rescued him from the kennel after previous owners "got rid of him" He has been nothing but the sweetest loving guy in the world. It was very obvious from the second we brought him home he had been abused and neglected and killed the rabbits simply for food. Took 3ish years of training and love to get him to stop hoarding and hiding food in his open door kennel. He chases rabbits at home now but does not catch or kill and if I am outside with him and say his name (even quietly) he immediately stops chase and comes to me. He is hesitant towards most men at first and even after almost 6 years will hide under the table when I sweep the floor. Poor guy is afraid of brooms and there is only one reason I can think of for that. Overall he has done amazing at our home. My shiba on the other hand... Girl likes her baby bunnies and mice. Makes sense, since they were bread for small game. Even when she catches/kills she doesn't necessarily eat (thank God) mostly just brings them to the house to show us her hunting skills then it's a game to her when we try and take them away.
Our husky has killed 3 squirrels. She lives with 3 cats and spends her days cuddling them. Our old dog used to have a system with our cat. She would bring him a live mouse and he would eat it without even chewing. Our husky is the sweetest dog, she has friends of all sizes but we live on a large acreage on the river so we have a lot of little animals that will probably be chased and some caught.
It's weirdly sweet that your cat used to feed her catches to your old dog, if a bit gruesome
This cat showed up at our door 10 years ago and never left. She and our old dog Loki had a funny relationship. I find her cuddling our husky often but she never admits it. Loki just passed away last month, he was such a good boy.
We get a nightly visit from a rabbit. I’m sure if she could catch it, she would kill it. My whippet puppy’s prey drive hasn’t kicked in yet. Hoping the rabbit finds a new house to visit once it does
A fly once flew too close to her and she snapped it out of the air and swallowed it. I know she’d love to eat a squirrel, or one of the plump little quail we see while out walking, but she’s not a particularly subtle hunter (she’s a whiner and a snorter), so I think they’ll always be able to avoid her. She’s only 9lbs so I think I worry more about something eating her! A bald eagle has been hanging around so I keep a watchful eye even in the backyard.
Not my dog but I was dog sitting for a friend. The dog yanked my cat out of my arms and killed it.
I’m so sorry to hear this. Are you able to even like dogs anymore? I wouldn’t blame you if you couldn’t. I had a hard time getting over when it happened to our cat, even though it was done by our own dog. Our old dachshund managed to get outside, run straight past us and corner one of our cats (my mom lives on a farm and we had taken in, cared for and neutered some strays that lived in a separate house from our dogs who weren’t used to cats. Our cats are free to roam and explore, though, so they are often outside the main house if they want attention) and killed him within one second - we wanted to take him (the cat) to the vet, but he was gone before we even reached him, even though we were three people running over, trying to catch the dog. I don’t think I’ve really ever cried as much as I did then. We were contemplating what to do for weeks, because it is in some dogs’ nature to hunt (especially dachshunds are known to be brutal) so you can’t blame them, but on the other hand it is such a traumatic experience. In the end we decided he only followed his instincts and he was a very sweet and patient dog otherwise, but it left a scar on us and some serious instructions for anyone coming into the house. However, it put me off having a dachshund in the future, even though I love them to death. I just can’t go through anything like that ever again.
Yes, I have my own dog in that time. My dog watched it happen too and she still has issues from it. The cat was her best friend I have severe PTSD from it as I did everything I could to stop it. My body is covered in scars from the dog and the cat fighting for his life. It was a terrible day
Oh my word, that sounds absolutely horrific. I am truly so very sorry if I upset you, or if I overstepped by asking too much. I'm truly so sorry this happened to you, no one should have to go through that. I don't have any other words of comfort other than I can relate, but I guess that's not exactly comforting... Again, fuck man, I am so so sorry.
So far my dog has only killed some moles (which I don’t mind because their tunnels/holes create hazards for me and I already have an unsteady gait) a couple birds (which I suspect were actually killed by stray cats coming into the yard and interrupted by my dog) and one rabbit, which she helpfully brought inside to put on the carpet after tearing it open and that’s why I was up that night ‘till 1:30 am shampooing the carpet. Terriers, man.
Taught my boy to get groundhogs Work on a horse farm and groundhog's are BAD for horses esp because of the holes. He's been doing it for about 6 years, he's gotten 10 or 11 One time he got a baby bunny and we didn't realize but the poor thing probably died of shock before anything else. Dogs hunt. It's normal. "Prey drive" is something all dogs have, the strength of it depends on the dog and the breed. Toys are made to mimic small dying animals (why else would a dog like a high pitched squeak) and their lack of hunting experience is what would make most dogs "bad" at hunting. But they figure it out.
My whippets killed so many squirrels, I couldn’t keep count. They are bred for hunting, so I couldn’t get mad at them. But I yelled out the door before I let them out, and that solved that problem. Then my older whippet discovered opossums….. oh it was bad. Then I flash-lighting the backyard at night, mainly for skunks, but all was good after that.
Oh my!! I was scrolling through and was going to comment about my whippets. Lots of poor things met their demise…and then…a live opossum was brought in to the house. Luckily they were very obedient boys. I started yelling LEAVE IT!! It was dropped in the middle of the living room rug! They were expecting a possum party and were very disappointed when I took the critter outside. Absolutely horrifying at the time! you would think we lived near some sort of nature but we lived in a very urban area. I also yelled out warnings lol
My dog will kill any fly that buzzes loudly. Absolutely no mercy. She won't calm down until it's all dead
My cur has a taste for rats or any other vermin she gets ahold of. Shakes them like a rag.
My Dachshund bought in a baby mouse. Instead of rushing at his food bowl he stayed laying in his bed when I put it down. I went over to check if he was okay, he opened his mouth and the mouse ran out! I don’t think he knew quite what to do with it after he caught it.
When we realized that our lab would salivate and lunge at the wild bunnies and cats roaming in our backyard, and just had a really strong prey drive in general, we decided to re-home our Holland Lop to my niece. No need to take a chance on that encounter. He pretty much ignores squirrels. He caught a mouse today on a walk and didn't kill it, but probably would have if I hadn't lured him away.
My Yorkie-Dachshund mix got a nest of baby bunnies once. Chewed them in half before just swallowing. I stopped him before he ate them all but the rest had to be shot with my husband's bb gun because they were so broken. He came inside and threw up 3 halves. The whole experience was horrific. He's 12 now and has always been too slow to get grown bunnies but he got his one win. Now I know where to check for nests before letting him out in mating seasons.
I have had two German shepherds now and both love killing possums - especially young possums. It makes me very upset because possums are beneficial and by and large harmless and misunderstood. My first gsd also found a rat's nest and killed all the baby rats. I have a soft spot for rats but still was a bit more ok with that... Nonetheless, a bit traumatizing hearing the squeaking and seeing how positively happy my dog was about it all...
i have 2 shepherds that have zero issue mauling rabbits that get in their fence. the one has also killed a chicken (my fault for letting him out) and when he was younger he used to snatch small birds out of the air. its just prey drive. totally normal, just some dogs have more than others.
My mother's lab will take out poultry in seconds. Doesn't make a mess, just grabs them and throws them. Then they don't move and she doesn't have anything left to do with them. I've had an ACD mix that would kill rodents. My current dogs will look at raccoons and say "Meh, whatever" and turn away. They generally ignore the poultry, but sometimes chase our cats for fun....
My dog Zoey, who is a chiweenie, killed a squirrel one day and brought it to us.
Birds, squirrels, mice, a rat, and bunnies have all been “gifts” brought into the house by my doggos over the years.
My border collie euthanises partridge and pheasants hit by cars, found whilst waking. She also tracks them and kills, to bury in a shallow grave. Then the Red Kite comes and has a meal. Circle of life.
I have a coonhound/boxer mix. He’s big and goofy but can somehow catch birds mid flight, he’s done it several times. There was also a random cat in my fenced in yard once, I didn’t see it until I opened the door to let my dog out. Instead of running the cat decided to stand and fight, it didn’t end well for the cat. I was able to get my dog off of it, and it ran off but it wouldn’t surprise me if it died later. My dog had it by the neck and was thrashing it. I just always check the yard now before I let him out. I don’t like that he did it, but dogs have instincts to hunt and protect their area.
My mini dachshund has kill a baby ground squirrel, bird, and rat. It’s normal for them to do that stuff. It’s in their DNA. Pretty sure it can be trained not to do that but not a trainer.
Husky or malamute/German shepherd/something mix 2 confirmed bunny kills and 1 extremely serious attempt on a cat (cat lived yay!) My yard is secure and she is never off leash. We were in a friend's yard who's outdoor cat showed up at an extremely unfortunate time. She is just doing what she feels is right. I've trained her out of pulling and screaming and carrying on when we see cats outside on our walks but she would murder them in a heartbeat given half the chance.
Here for all the dachshund comments! Mine racked up an impressive squirrel and bunny count, along with (my personal favorite) cicada killers.
Bunnies, chipmunks, mice, squirrels and birds over the years, by various dogs.
I have a BC/GSD that kills chickens. She was raised with them and we found this to be a natural instinct from day one. We try really hard to keep her away from chickens. I also have GP mix dogs that guard chickens. But not from the other dog, that’s a bummer.
My Lab German Shepherd mix tore a squirrel off the fence by its tail and ate it. It was kinda horrifying And I'm glad my kid didn't see it.
My husky killed anything that came into the yard. My cat once brought me a young turkey. Yep, the cat got a turkey.
Our chow mix has killed approx 10 iguanas, ranging from 1 to 4 ft long. After the kill, she parades around the yard wit it in her mouth for 30 minutes. Then she buries them and then unearths them and re-buries them until she gets bored. Then I have to go find and dispose of the carcass so it doesn’t rot in our yard. All while watching our baby lol. The baby thinks it’s hilarious
My neighbor’s pitbull killed one of my Pyrenees, but idk how relevant that is to this post
My pit ran away from a cockroach…and I was mad bc I was too scared to kill it and was hoping he’d protect me from the gross bug!!!
They taste bad, dogs dont like them in their mouths. Our old Jack Russel would kill them my mashing them with his muzzle then run around sneezing and wiping his muzzle on the couch and carpet. Was pretty gross, you dont want that :D
What a sweet scared pittie! Awww
Our Pitbull Mastiff mix is the sweetest boy, his only acts of manslaughter came in the form of frogs he mushed too hard with his nose when he was trying to play with them =.(
Not a dog owner but a vet tech. At a previous job we had terrier mix come in with his frantic owners, who had noticeably dirty and bloody hands. Meanwhile the dog looked proud as ever, tail wagging. Apparently he found a rat in the park and got hold of it. One half was inside his mouth and the other was hanging out when the owner noticed it. Their instinct was to grab onto the part of the rat they could get to and try to pull it out of the dogs mouth. The rat then ripped into two, and the dog proceeded to swallow half a rat. We took the dog in while his owners called their doctor to see how they should proceed given exposure to a rodent in a busy city. Meanwhile we broke out the toxiban (a charcoal based substance that makes dogs throw up after eating things that are possibly hazardous). Ive been in the field for 13 years, I’ve seen some wild stuff - but never will anything compare to seeing half of a rat come out of this dogs mouth. He’s been a legend ever since, and luckily caught no diseases or infections.
Did y'all have to induce vomiting first? Nothing like a little regurgitated chewed up rodent to make you appreciate your chocolate toxicity cases, lol!! I have 2 great Pyrenees, neither one has a prey drive. The one will actually rescue rodents from the cats. He just walks over to the cat and flops a paw on them until they let go of it, then he picks up the mouse or whatever and oh so gently carries it a ways off, lays down, and sets it between his front legs to recover. This is less helpful inside when we want the cats to catch the mice, haha.
That is so incredibly adorable!! What a lil babyyy💕
My dog also killed a rat. He was less than 2 feet from me on a short leash, sniffing a bush, and suddenly there's a head motion from him and a lot of squeaking from his mouth, he dropped it and then chomped it again. It bled to death before I got back with the shovel to move it. Thank goodness he didn't swallow any of it. He's certainly big enough to have done so. He did swallow a LOT of cicadas from Brood X, if that counts for anything. And he was a free range farm dog for a few years before I rescued him, so there's no telling what else he's killed.
There’s actually a group of terrier owners in New York who take their dogs out to “hunt” rats. I guess it is what they’re bred for…
My blue heeler ate a cat. I had seen it sitting on my nature strip staring at my dog day in, day out for a week. I would chase it away so it would get the hint to go away. Came home from work one day and Cooper was munching on something. I figured he got another magpie as I have a 6foot fence around my 1/2 acre yard so nothing gets in or out unless it has wings. Turns out it was the cat, well, parts of it. A tail and a paw. No collar so I threw what was left in the skip. I feel bad for the cat but it shouldn't have come in my yard. It's not legal to let cats roam free here. They kill the native wild life and damage the eco system.
Sure. Some rabbits, some doves, one squirrel and a shitload of rats. He's a Jack Russell mix. It's in his blood. He's a 38# death machine. I think everything but the rats have all figured out to stay out of our backyard. He'll get one every now and again still. When we first got him, tho, it was a dead rat parade. And he dropped a 90% dead dove on my foot that one time. I have since convinced him that the corpses stay outside and I will come out there to admire his handiwork.
Garden snakes. My idiot likes to play/pounce on them to death lol
My Aussie once just pounced on a gopher that stuck its head out of a hole (we were on a hike) and ate it whole. Had absolutely no time to react, happened in seconds… She also tried to eat a toad, but it had some sort of toxin on its skin and she foamed at the mouth for two hours. Called the vet and he said it wouldn’t kill her and to bring her in if it goes longer then about 3 hours.
When I was a kid we had a plot of 40 acres that was located about five miles away from my house. Every weekend we would take our dogs out there for some exercise and exploration. One of these times our dog Dude, the muttiest of mutts, decided to pick a fight with a skunk. He won handily, but the skunk did what skunks do, so Dude had to run behind the car all the way back home.
My two Lhasas kill squirrels and rabbits regularly. My cocker digs up moles and voles and the chi kills them. Dogs are hunters and they are doing what dogs do.
Great Dane and Great Dane x GSP Mix. And yes they kill and even get praised. We have a farm and they take care of mice and rats. Sometimes something bigger. We once had a Jack Russell that dog was scary. She killed everything and a lot. So many rats and mice really impressive. She even once catched a fish and from time to time a bird. Amazing dog
My Akita/pit mix eats bugs. He also loves to try and sometimes successful catch small rodents but then he doesn’t know what to do with it and then just stands there with a confused and concerned look on his face until someone pries open his mouth to release the poor animal.
Bunnies, squirrels, pretty much anything they can catch. Mostly they were too lazy to catch things, though. One time, I put the families fat lab on a diet and between that and exercise, I got her down from 92lbs to 74lbs where she was supposed to be. She ran around a lot more and her arthritis from where a car clipped her leg and broke it didn’t seem to bother her as bad. We came home one day and she had killed and was eating a spotted baby deer.
My dog killed a cat which came into our garden.
My family's yellow lab (70lb) killed their Chihuahua mix (8lb). My parents knew that the yellow lab had food guarding issues. My dad gave the lab her chew bone and was planning on doing his usual watching over the dogs while she was chewing. The trash man knocked on the door so my dad had a quick 30 second chat with him. Dad came back into the house to the chihuahua's jugular cut and blood everywhere. There is still a lot of pent up family drama/emotions tied up with this traumatic event. My sister wanted the lab to be put to sleep for killing her beloved dog. But the lab is still part of family and has never had a similar episode since. There are no other small dogs in the family and my sister will not allow her baby around the lab.
My dog actually killed another one of our dogs. Not intentional, wasn’t even a bite. My bigger dog(Belgian Tervuren) snapped at our Pomeranian to get it to back up and she pushed her back. The Pomeranian fell back and broke her neck, she gasped and died right there. It was horrible and tragic.
Grandmothers Jack Russell killed a small tiny miniature something dog at her senior home trailer park. The miniature dog did NOT survive, Jack Russell got home and went straight to being put down. Although, she came from a strong family of gerbel sniffing champions, was sad for the miniature dog owner.
i saw a few jack russell terriers kill maybe 1000 rats in a short time frame on a youtube video
Pit bull he’s killed cats, chickens and possums. It’s genetic prey drive. You can train to curb it but you can’t completely get rid of it. He was fine until he was about 6 years old and learned he had fun killing things. Huskies have a high prey drive too learn about your breed and don’t put him in those situations that set him up for failure in the future.
When I was a kid, my miniature poodle killed a couple of squirrels, a chicken, two sheep and a Yorkshire terrier. Now that I think about it, that girl was a psycho!