Is it okay to encourage my dog to chase wild animals?

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I admit my dog is unusual:) she does sing while my son plays his clarinet:) but i guess then all of my dogs have been unusual by the definitions said here. My last dog was also taught the same as my current dog with the added fact that he was amazing mouser! No need for a cat when charlie was around! The dog before that we taught to chase rabbits to protect the garden. When i had sunny i also had ferrets and birds. The ferret cage was left open most of the time, even when we all left the house. Sunny never attacked the ferrets or the birds. When the kids were really young the dog we had killed snakes for me!
So thats 4 dogs that weve owned over the years. All of which were taught to chase and or kill a certain animal. None of which ever chased or killed any thing other then what they were supposed to. When we had the snake killer our kids were aged 1,2,3,3 and 5 yrs. None of our kids nor any other kid was mauled by our dog or any other. None were even growled at by my dogs. Its called training!
 
Evania said:
Just a friendly reminder to be charitable:)

Blessings!
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**Sidetrack asked for opinions, and I gave MINE. Mine was then called nonsense.
I’m not the only one that needs to be charitable here…

Peace.**
 
Allowing your dog to chase animals out of your yard (its own territory) is one thing–having a dog is a reasonable way to discourage wild geese from an area where their waste is incompatible with your use of it–but otherwise it is better to keep domestic animals from unnecessarily harrassing wildlife. You certainly should not allow your dog to maul anything. Even a hunting dog needs to be disciplined to refrain from going after animals you aren’t hunting.

Get one of those sling things and let your dog chase balls, instead.
 
sidetrack said:
When she was little and we took her to a park by the bay aptly named Bayfront park she used to like running after and even once tackled Canada goose.I encouraged her once.She doesn’t really do that when the geese are around anymore but she still earnestly chases squirrels.

Fyi she’s a Malshi and definately not a dog being trained for hunting…Would it be okay if I so choose to I encourage her to chase after other animals particularly when it’s around her size?.
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I don’t think it is possible for those of us here to give you a proper answer without knowing the circumstances specific to where you live.

If you live in an urban setting I would not suggest you encourage your dog to chase small animals, especially if it outside of your own property. The same is probably true in a suburban setting. However I think it is probably wasted effort for you to try to spend a lot of time training your dog not to chase squirrels and other small animals unless there is a good reason to do so. (Wildlife protection laws and the safety of your dog, children, drivers, etc. would be good reasons.)

Now if you live in a rural environment there is a good chance that it’s your dogs *job *to chase animals off of your property. This may also be the case for urban and suburban dog owners. Many dog breeds were developed for the purpose of protecting livestock, crops, and stored goods from rodents and other animals such as squirrels. Obviously if you use a dog for hunting you would expect the dog to hunt and chase.

I live in the suburbs and I expect my dog to protect my house, garden, and lawn from squirrels, gophers, rats, mice, rabbits, quail, and moles. However I generally keep her leashed outside of my property (unless it is an area designated for off-leash dogs) because she has a strong prey instinct and I can’t trust her to avoid running off if she sees a squirrel, cat, lizard, or rabbit.
 
I would do everything I could to prevent my dog from attacking an animal minding its own business. What kind of cruel human mind could stand back and watch an innocent animal suffer that way? Animals unfortunately have to suffer if they are killed for food or self-defense, but they should not be killed for fun. Animal torture is a sign of emotional disorders.

Our outdoor cat used to get after chipmunks, mice, etc. and we would shoo her away from them and let the poor things escape. Granted I know she did a lot worse when we weren’t around, and there’s nothing we could do about that, but we did what we could when we saw it happening.
 
NSFrame said:
I would do everything I could to prevent my dog from attacking an animal minding its own business. What kind of cruel human mind could stand back and watch an innocent animal suffer that way? Animals unfortunately have to suffer if they are killed for food or self-defense, but they should not be killed for fun. Animal torture is a sign of emotional disorders.

Our outdoor cat used to get after chipmunks, mice, etc. and we would shoo her away from them and let the poor things escape. Granted I know she did a lot worse when we weren’t around, and there’s nothing we could do about that, but we did what we could when we saw it happening.
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The bigger problem is that outdoor cats are the number one killers of wild birds. They’re non-native predators, and they kill without regards to hunger. If you don’t have a rodent problem that necessitates having a cat as a non-toxic way to keep their numbers down, at least put a bell on her when she goes out.
 
EasterJoy said:
The bigger problem is that outdoor cats are the number one killers of wild birds. They’re non-native predators, and they kill without regards to hunger. If you don’t have a rodent problem that necessitates having a cat as a non-toxic way to keep their numbers down, at least put a bell on her when she goes out.
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This was a cat we had when I was a teenager in the 90s. Nowadays we only have indoor cats, more for the cats’ protection than anything else since coyotes etc. are now coming into residential areas. I didn’t realize about the birds, very good to know, thanks.
 
Make sure your dog’s shots are all up to date and let it chase animals in your own yard and on your own property to it’s heart’s content.

But if you leave your property keep it on a leash.
 
One of the few things that really anger me are people who let their dogs loose to run and chase whatever they want. Particularly careless people allowing their dogs to roam free in rural areas.

So many sheep and other livestock are slaughtered by dogs that are “just having some fun”. So many sheep die of heart attacks, abort their lambs when pregnant, or succumb to disease from stress because they were being chased, even if they weren’t touched. In my state, a dog can be shot even if it’s only threatening livestock. So if it’s running outside the border of my fence, I have the legal right to dispatch it to protect my sheep. I can post plenty of pictures of sheep attacked, but I won’t because they are VERY disturbing.

That said, I do NOT want to shoot dogs. I love dogs. I have a dog and her livelihood (she’s a livestock guardian dog) is to protect my sheep by threatening and chasing any canine. domestic or wild, that dares to step on my turf. And I have a good fence. But I will eliminate anything that is threatening the lives of my animals. It’s the owners that trouble me the most. The dogs are only doing what comes natural to them.

If you live in a rural area and your dog is chasing vermin out from YOUR property, that’s fine. Encouraging the chasing for fun, particularly in your situation, is very unsafe for your dog. They do not always obey and there are health risks involved. And it may even be illegal.
 
NeedsMercy said:
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best answer
NSFrame said:
I would do everything I could to prevent my dog from attacking an animal minding its own business. What kind of cruel human mind could stand back and watch an innocent animal suffer that way? Animals unfortunately have to suffer if they are killed for food or self-defense, but they should not be killed for fun. Animal torture is a sign of emotional disorders.

Our outdoor cat used to get after chipmunks, mice, etc. and we would shoo her away from them and let the poor things escape. Granted I know she did a lot worse when we weren’t around, and there’s nothing we could do about that, but we did what we could when we saw it happening.
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second best
 
LOL I clicked on this thread knowing it would be emotional, illogical and heated.

I was not disappointed!

We have a Jack Russel and they are rodent dogs by breed. Ours is quite small and used to growl and bark at the windows when she saw a squirrel. The Squirrels by the way would taunt her. Anyone who lives near squirrels knows this. So we let her out one day and the squirrel ran down a rickety 2 foot high fence. Our dog ran to the fence and leaped at it, knocking the squirrel to the ground. Both the squirrel and the dog looked at each other with absolute shock and fear and each ran as fast as they could in opposite directions.

Now, she is too old to even care about anything like a squirrel.

I must have missed where the OP talked of domesticated animals but that is what everyone went to. Immediately.

Remember people, dogs and cats are animals, the Church does not require them to go to confession before receiving the Eucharist because they like to chase mice…
The personhood of pets is always fascinating to me.
 
Encouraging a dog to chase wild animals in a park is a bad idea. I wouldn’t let a dog run free in a park, nevermind give chase. The dog could be attacked by another dog, hurt someone (even if you don’t think it could happen, animals are unpredictable), run onto the road, contract a disease, etc.

There is no reason to let a dog do that, except to allow it to have fun. It’s pointless.

I bring up domesticated animals precisely because it’s people who think the doggies are just having fun allow them to run and refuse to believe you when you have dead ewes lying in the pasture with their throats and udders torn and their dog caught in action, now in the cab of your truck, totally oblivious of the damage it caused. “Fluffy could never do such a thing. She’d never harm a fly!” We (sheep farmers) don’t even allow herding dogs to stay with the sheep unsupervised! It’s in a dog’s nature to chase and kill.

Animals are incapable of sin, but their owners can certainly be held liable for the damage their animals cause.
 
If I were to say that it’s wrong for the OP’s dog to chase wild animals, then I’d be a hypocrite. I let my cat chase and kill things all the time because Pamela is a cat and that is what cats do. Every week or so, she leaves me half of a chipmunk or a bird’s severed wing or even a small snake and then I tell her how wonderful she is, how skillful, how fierce. She’s the natural selector and by killing that one animal, she makes all the rest better. That’s my Pamela, good citizen of the yard.😃 If only she were a little bigger or the poor squirrels were a little smaller. Then she would be able to help them too.
 
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