How to gets puppies used to my Russian torts

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fgately

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Hi All,

We are going to add two female border terrier puppies to our our two legged, four legged, feathered, and shelled family. What is the best method of getting the pups used to the torts? None of our dogs we had when I was growing up in Pasadena ever paid much attention to our CDTs (other than eating the torty poop I mentioned in another thread).

The dogs we had were dachsunds, and were also full adults when we were given the CDTs. After a day or two of curious sniffing and a couple of barks, the dogs ignored them. Our male "Otto Von Richtoven" was a great dog to people, but was a bloodthirsty killer when it came to other animals. Remember, as I have heard somewhere, Dacshund loosely translates to badger hound in German, so they are a very tough dog. Our little weiner dog onetime absolutely shredded a full grown doberman that foolishly came into our backyard. I mention this because even Otto ignored the torts. It seems like they move so slow it doesn't trigger that hunter/prey response in the dog.

The difference here is that Russians are smaller, but as most of you know, very hardy. Border terries are another very feisty breed, but we are getting them as pups.

Any advice?

Frank
 

Kristina

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I would absolutely never never ever ever let a dog have access to my tortoises, big or small. A dog can be fine for years and then suddenly it decides it wants a chew toy.

Do a search on this forum and look at all the heartbreaking threads where the family dog suddenly chewed up the tortoise. I couldn't willingly put one of my pets in that kind of danger. Can you imagine the pain of literally being eaten alive?

The best thing to do is to keep them completely separate. Dogs and tortoises do not mix.
 

jackrat

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I have to agree with Kristina on this. Definately not a chance worth taking.
 

gmayor

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I would have to agree with everyone else. I have actually lost one of my Torts because i thought my Rottweiler . would be ok with him. He never paid any attention to him when i was out there would always run around my tort and play with his toys, But one day i put my tort in his outdoor pin and my Rottweiler jumped over and killed my baby Sulcata one of the saddest days of mylife and i will never put my trust in my dog again. I understand that there is a huge difference in dog types but just saying dont put trust in them.
 

Tom

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Please listen to the above. I have been a professional dog trainer for 20 years now. I do protection work, competition, basics, puppy stuff, problem solving, aggression cases... basically everything. I know the Border Terriers, love them and have worked with lots of them. There is NO method and NO trainer in the entire world that can 100% guarantee that your pups won't eventually chew on your tortoises if they are left together unsupervised. NONE! NOWHERE!. Some people take that gamble and get away with it. They are simply lucky. Just dumb luck. The best trained dog in the world could one day decide to eat your tortoises. Lots of people do it for years and then one day their luck runs out. They tell everyone that its no problem and their dog would never do that and then one day it happens. Then they look at you all teary eyed and say, "He's never done that before." Well of course not. None of them have ever done that before... until the day they do it.

Just keep them separated when you aren't there to watch.
 

Jacob

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Not A Great Idea, No Matter How Much You Trust OR Know Your Dog, Something Can Happen!
 

CtTortoiseMom

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If you search on this forum alone you will find many stories of shocked owners who never suspected their dogs would do anything, until of course they did. Or a dog that took a tort from an outside enclosure etc... It has been proven time and time again to not work. Furthermore, It is not fair to put those kind's of expectations on a dog.
 

fgately

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I am glad I asked this question!

Remember, I am basing this question on my childhood experience of our dogs and torts. Our dogs really just ignored the torts. This may also be due to the fact that CDTs are quite a bit bigger that Russians, and are a much more difficult target because they are bigger.

Well, now it's time to start thinking about a closed in pen for my torties. Too bad because they are absolutely THRIVING in my backyard. I am prett sure there must be many threads that have good ideas for secure outside pens. Anyone have some links I can check out?

Thanks so much!

Frank
 
M

Maggie Cummings

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fgately said:
I am glad I asked this question!

Remember, I am basing this question on my childhood experience of our dogs and torts. Our dogs really just ignored the torts. This may also be due to the fact that CDTs are quite a bit bigger that Russians, and are a much more difficult target because they are bigger.

Well, now it's time to start thinking about a closed in pen for my torties. Too bad because they are absolutely THRIVING in my backyard. I am prett sure there must be many threads that have good ideas for secure outside pens. Anyone have some links I can check out?

Thanks so much!

Frank
Why can't you make a secure pen for the tortoises in your back yard? If they are thriving out there just make their secure pen in the back yard...
I ended up with an adult Calif desert tort who got her left front leg totally chewed off by a dog that she had lived with for 10 years. Then one day the owner came home and the tortoises leg was missing. Not only had the dog chewed it completely off but he had licked the wound so long that it wasn't even bleeding anymore. And they never found the leg either. And of course the owner was shocked that the sweet family dog had done that to the tortoise. Then after having that tortoise for 20 years she got rid of the tort like it was the torts fault the dog had chewed it. Mildred was the sweetest tort you'd ever want to meet, and her keeper just dumped her after having her for 20 years. It still makes me mad to think about it and it's been about 6 years since that happened.
Anyhow, just make their pen in your back yard, why not?
 

Madkins007

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I'd either just divide the yard into dog zone and tort zone, or make a secure place for the torts and move them when you let the dogs out.

Although, now that I mention it, I had almost forgotten an incident when our neighbor's dog dug under our fence to get to our torts in a pen on the far side of the yard one time- torts are fiercely attractive to some dogs.

Sure you need dogs??? :)
 
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