My Jack Russell has been killing rats!

sparkiemalarkie

I don't know how to react tbh.

Over the past few weeks I have found a number of dead rats in the garden. I thought that the neighbours cat had killed them.
Today our Jack Russell was quite frantic around a collection of plant pots close to the house. When my husband moved a pot to see what was going on our dog rushed in and killed a rat that we hadn't even seen.
She only took one bite to kill the rat and she then sat back and looked at us, pleased with herself.


I wouldn't have deliberately allowed the dog to kill anything and I am now concerned that she may get confused between a puppy at the park and a rat.......
I'm not quite sure what I'm thinking at the moment..


sparkie

nonnatus

Good Dog!!

She's doing what she's designed to do and it sounds like she's pretty good at it! Don't worry about her mistaking a puppy at the park for a rat, it's not going to happen - she is targetting rats. You could hire her services out to the neighbours maybe - it sounds like there is a local rat problem if she's found so many in a relatively short time...

krlyr

She's a Terrier, it's instinctual for them to rat. I wouldn't worry much about it, there arentbgoing to be that many dogs smaller than her, even pups should be bigger than a rat when old enough to go to the park.

My Rottie x GSD has a huge prey driven towards squirrels, rabbits, etc. but was ever so gentle with my mum's little Collie x pup when my mum got her. We've met smaller dogs on walks and she's never mistaken them for prey.


If you dislike the behaviour, check out David Ryan's article/book on prey drive, this should help you tackle the behaviour. Also try to manage the situation by rat-proofing your garden - the rats will be drawn to any resource, so make sure there's no food, water or shelter easily available. Cut back overgrown plants and block up potential 'rat runs' between your neighbouring gardens, e.g. holes in fences.

trolleyrun

Great dog! Rats are vermin, so he's doing his job really well - I'd be proud of him if I were you. My Pipsqueak killed a rat in my garden a couple of years ago and I was very proud. She's a terrier and it was good to see she knows what to do. The rat was dead in seconds, so there's no suffering. You don't want rats in your garden, so leave him to do the hunting. He's not going to confuse a rat and a puppy.

gabriel1980

That's what Jack Russells do! They are terriers. Our Jack Russell kills anything small and furry!

mellymoo74

Yep its there job, my male doesnt understand this and tries to make friends with everything but my female does and shes ace at it, shes never mistaken a cat or a pup or any pet for prey. (she doesnt like them but thats a different story)

sparkiemalarkie

Thanks for the replies.
I knew we had rats coming and going through the garden but I hadn't realised that there were so many.

I'm pretty sure that they aren't nesting otherwise the dog would let us know.
There are a few places where rats can hide so we will get those cleaned up.

I think I was shocked to be honest. It all happened so quickly.
Strange, I was quite happy when I thought it was the neighbours cat that was killing them.

I certainly don't want rats in the garden and definitely not in the house......


sparkie

lostinrates

My terrier kills rats. Its part of his job description here ( kill vermin, cuddle me) He also team with our cats, who he curls up to sleep with, to kill rats. A friend ( from Mse) has twice brought her small yorkie here and he doesn't get confused at all, and a chihuahua cross visits and he is more interested in plYing with her and trying to get her interested in going ratting with him. ( he really loves her and cannot understand why she doesn't want to go on a hot ratting date with him).

So long as you maintain good active socialisation with him and good dog etiquette you stand a good chance of being fine. His behaviour is totally natural and healthy.

fightingirishman

Isn't this what they were bred to do? I don't think she'll confuse a puppy for a rat but maybe have her on a leash the first few times around a puppy to make sure.

orlao

Assuming that you're not in the countryside, you really have more to worry about than the dog doing what he's bred to do as rats are disease ridden vermin that can make both people and animals very ill before they are caught. Weils disease for instance and one dog has no chance of controlling the population if they are breeding merrily in adjoining gardens... Rats will also bury through concrete, eat wires and so on and can do amazing amounts of damage in time.

While I've always been happy to let my terriers rat on farms - and I had one where I was invited and given copious amounts of tea so she could go and work the barns at certain times of the year - I did make sure that it wasn't in places where poison was used routinely as I didn't want the dogs having access to poisoned corpses on a regular basis.

Even my 'kill all vermin' dog never even thought about confusing a small dog with a rodent, mind you while she was poultry trained I'd never would have trusted her with a pet rabbit, hamster or gerbil! She also used to play/hunt with the local traveler's coursing lurchers on occasion and they never mistook her for prey either.

asset2004

Good day, like everyone else on this thread I'm just agreeing that's what terriers are bred to do.
Sounds like she was most efficient