Let dog around Tortoise?

[Reptilian Feline]

This reminds me of the big dog we had when I was little. It was a Groser Schweizer Sennen dog.... huge. The breed is meant for herding and pulling carts. The herding instinct was so strong he tried to corall the big hares in the field or bicyclists or pheasants and the tiny kittens my mother bred. I think that if we'd had a tortoise back then, he would have coralled it as well, and then licked it to make sure it was fine.

 

[TammyJ]

Some dogs chew on tortoises.
Some dogs chew on tortoises some of the time.
All dogs may or may not chew on tortoises some or all of the time.
Must I go on?
All owners need to supervise their dogs and tortoises all of the time.

 

[no one]

If the rule is, never let your dog be unsupervised with your child, why would it be different with your tortoise? I would never take the risk. Personally...

 

[no one]

Or with my hedgehog for that matter...

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I have a TINY... I mean tiny 2 pound Chihuahua. She is truly harmless and afraid of tortoises...
One thing to consider even in these circumstances is that if left unattended, tortoises eat dog poop. Dogs love to eat tortoise poop and that's a whole other issue with dogs and tortoises.
Just not a good mix. Period.

 

[wellington]

For those who think their dog and tortoises get along and that the dog has no interest in the tortoise, well, that's only until he does and then your tortoise pays for your stupidity. Too many threads on here about dog attacks. Even from some that didn't listen to us and their tort paid for it. Along with Yvonne's story of the 15 years and then the tortoise lost its leg, Tom knows of a friend who's tortoise paid the price of a many year unsupervised relationship with the family dog and the tort paid with its life. (If my memory serves me correctly. It was a few years ago)
My dog doesn't chase the wild rabbits in my yard. I don't let her. However, I'm not so naive to think she wouldn't if my back was turned.
Just don't be naive and careless and we don't have to say "we told you so".

 

[Reptilian Feline]

It's the "unsupervised" that's the keyword.
When we have new critters/pets (not counting our tarantulas or scorpions) the dogs get to sniff them gently while we hold the new pet. This is repeated a couple of times over the next few weeks. This shows the dogs what the new addition to our "smell-map" is and will eventually make the dogs ignore us handling the new pet. Our dogs get jealous, so we need to make them stop comming to us when we're buzy with the new pet. We need our dogs to accept staying in their spots calmly and go to sleep instead of constantly nagging us like little children do when there is something new around.
Properly supervised this has proven effective. They never get to sniff the head, though, just the back or backend.