Fenced in yard. Two dogs, a nearly five year old mini Aussie and a ten week old mini Aussie Border Collie mix. Wonderful to let the dogs in the yard for exercise and convenient for house training the pup.
Today looked up to see the two of them barking at a now damaged baby bunny. I thought maybe it had foolishly wandered into our yard but no, where there’s one bunny there are more. Dumb mama bunny made a nest in our yard.
No huge fan of rabbits but not happy to have my dogs murder a litter of them. Nor to risk tapeworm or such if they eat them. But the puppy really needs the yard. And my wife is not able to walk both dogs when I am at work.
Move the bunnies or let the dogs do what dogs do. Sometimes It seems like the rabbits are intentionally nesting in a dog’s territory, as if they think the dog will protect them instead of killing them. I suspect my big fluffy white Siberian Husky is as gentle as another dog we once had named Tia. We spotted Tia with a baby cottontail in her mouth, my wife shouted “Drop it!” and she did, bunny totally unharmed. However, I also have Duke, a mighty hunting dog who will tolerate no intruders in our yard. The backyard is his killing zone and if he ever gets outside of the fence there’s a rabbit in the front yard that better have their affairs in order.
Our rabbit population cycles a good bit. Last year we had rabbit nests everywhere. My gf bought a roll of chicken wire and we made protective fences around each nest, leaving a section open for ingress/egress.
We taught the dogs that the nests were off limits and they cooperated! This year we are seeing more hawks than usual.
Encouragement/toleration of local foxes has kept our rabbit population down nicely. A limited number of rat snakes, though not Mrs. J.'s favorite creature, also helps.
Apart from constructing fences or other barriers around nests, there are probably no good options available to someone who wishes to preserve the yard for dog use. If you run across half-grown rabbits that can be caught and moved out of harm’s way, prepare yourself for ungodly screams if you pick one up.
We have a similar dog/yard situation at our house. One year when it had rained a lot, our dog Victor brought us a drowned baby bunny. After that, he kept hunting around the place where he had found it and we kept chasing him off.
I don’t think bunnies nest in our yard anymore. It must reek of dog.
FWIW I went out in the yard this morning with the older dog initially leashed. Went where the bunnies had been. Wanting find the best and was going to follow the advice to move it. No excitement. Let off leash and he sniffed around the area and then left to do his usual yard play.
Do mama bunnies move nests? Or was this just bunnies leaving home happening to cross the wrong space? Or were the three last night all there were of the litter? Don’t know but not an ongoing issue.
Rabbits in the US really won’t service a moved rabbit nest. Also they are not capable of relocating their pup if it gets out of the nest. The best thing for them is to make any nest that you find inaccessible to your dogs but still reachable by the momma and allow some early hopping when the pups are big enough to start venturing out.
Possible. Rabbit litters are highly variable in size and can be that small (average is apparently five). Another possibility is something else grabbed the rest of the litter in the interim. Rabbits have a pretty high mortality rate, hence breeding like rabbits .
Speaking of which… yesterday, out in the desert, the dogs were digging. In an open hole, between two of them, was a baby Kangaroo rat, eyes still closed, just sitting there. No dog had chomped it down. I just reached down and picked it up. I was in a charitable mood, and figured it was this little guy’s lucky day, and relocated him far from the Killer Elite and their dog nonsense. Put him at the base of a bush that had a hole under it. He sat there and squeaked a little. Of course, in reality, it probably didn’t survive the night. I figure Mom and Dad got chased out of the nest by the Crew and left little Lemmiwinks behind.
I’ve had several experiences with rabbits dropping litters where they would most likely encounter dogs. One feeding frenzy occurred with multiple nests in a dog park surrounded by open space. I figure those rabbits REALLY wanted to get its genes out of the pool!
The 2 times I encountered a nest of rabbits and (slightly off topic) a dog playing with a baby squirrel in my fenced yard, I got a shovel, dug a hole, used the shovel to kill the babies, and buried them.
I’ve got nothing against rabbits. But there is no shortage of them, and they are free to nest ANYWHERE in the entire world other than my backyard.
At times I’ve seen my and other dogs basically inhale baby bunnies, but they don’t really need that in their diets. (It is funny, because most of my dogs have been goldens, which have very “soft mouths” and are trained to retrieve. So it is not at all uncommon for a golden to come up to you with a live baby animal in there mouth. Depending on the dog, sometimes when you tell it to DROP IT, they instead inhale it.). And while most dogs would likely eventually kill baby vermin, IMO a shovel was a quicker, more humane route to the same end.
As I said, I am not a huge fan of rabbits, and rationally you are probably right. But years back we had bunnies (one of my sons’ pets) and both two greyhounds and a whippet at the same time. (See below.) I just couldn’t see myself doing that, or just standing by while my Aussie shakes one around in his mouth, let alone slurps them down like oysters. If that son knew I made no attempt to protect the baby bunnies … He’s grown now but his disappointed face would still upset me.
The other day I started a thread abut a recent encounter with aggressive greyhounds. Suffice it to say that that rabbit would not have lasted long around my daughter’s GHs.
Amen. Lost a Parson Russell Terrier to bunnies, he chased one across the road when my daughter wasn’t keeping a close eye on him, hit and killed. Bunnies don’t live long around my place when I see them.
It wasn’t the bunny’s fault. It’s instinct for the bunny to run from danger/predators. Seems to me the fault lies with the stupid, and/or, careless human.
I agree, it wasn’t the rabbit’s fault. Dogs shouldn’t be near roads without a leash.
I’ve fed orphan bunnies by bottle when I volunteered at a Wildlife Center. I had a pet rabbit when I was a kid. I just can’t even imagine bashing a baby bunny’s skull with a shovel. Or why you would post (brag!) about it on this particular message board!
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