Our neighbour thinks I got the dog to kill his rabbits!

CheezePleeze

I have a (normally) very good and reasonable neighbour. But we got a Cairn Terrier cross at Xmas, and he is convinced I got the dog to kill his rabbits.

Let me expand on this. His daughter has a rabbit. Last summer he got another rabbit in for a few weeks, and as rabbits do, they bred. So in the autumn, there were five rabbits, and one of them (a beautiful white one) took up residence in my garden. I mentioned this to my neighbour, but he took no action. Neither did I, by the way.

Since our dog arrived, the white rabbit has disappeared. I contend that it got a wiff of the dog and cleared off, but he is convinced that the dog killed it. The dog was rarely out of our site, although we did let it out into our garden a couple of mornings by itself.

The question is, if it had killed the rabbit, wouldn't we have seen some sign - fur or blood on his jaws or something?

He also said that of the thousands of breeds of dog out there, I could not have found a better dog for killing rabbits - is this true? Its about the same size as a rabbit.

All the best

PucaMama

how did his rabbit start living in your garden? has he no hutch/run for them? if not then its his own fault

Pretzill

Your neighbour should be responsible for his own pets - in other words they shouldn't be wandering into your garden.

The rabbit could have been killed by a fox - they normally take their prey away - or even another dog.

This is not your responsibility once your garden keeps your dog in securely the neighbour can't really blame your dog.

Toulouse

Terriers can be quite adept at killing small furries yes, but then again so can any dog with a prey drive and that is not confined to the terrier group! The cats round my way kill rabbits too so could just have easily been a feral or stray cat! If he allows his bunnies to wander then I'm surprised he's never lost one before.

Why neither of ye took any action about this rabbit I am not sure but on getting a dog OP you should make sure that your garden is 100% escape proof or you will run into trouble with your neighbour and/or lose your dog.

I wouldn't entertain him but I would make sure that the dog can't get him or herself into any more trouble with this neighbour.

mr lee

terriers do love their rabbits,thats for sure,if your dog killed the rabbit i would expect to see evidence of it,if the rabbit has just disappeared then your dog is not at fault,
i'd say he's just lookin to blame someone for his own mistake.

DBB

mr lee wrote: »

terriers do love their rabbits,thats for sure,if your dog killed the rabbit i would expect to see evidence of it,if the rabbit has just disappeared then your dog is not at fault,
i'd say he's just lookin to blame someone for his own mistake.

I agree with this... It is very rare indeed for a terrier to consume prey after killing it. I have seen it and heard of it many times: the catch it, kill it, walk away from it... in most hunting dog breeds the instinct to eat the prey has been very deliberately bred out of them over many thousands of years.
So, had your terrier killed the rabbit, the very strong chances are that there would have been a body left behind.

ZiabR

DBB wrote: »

I agree with this... It is very rare indeed for a terrier to consume prey after killing it. I have seen it and heard of it many times: the catch it, kill it, walk away from it... in most hunting dog breeds the instinct to eat the prey has been very deliberately bred out of them over many thousands of years.
So, had your terrier killed the rabbit, the very strong chances are that there would have been a body left behind.

Agree with this. There would have been a rabbit body in the garden for you to find.

mymo

There are so many things that could have happened to that rabbit, if the owner cared about it, they would have made sure it was secure and safe from predators.
It was probably a fox or cat, otherwise as said, there would be evidence of a kill.
All you can do is make your garden secure for your dog, then you are doing your bit as a responsible owner, the rest is up to your neighbour.

Zapperzy

How does the saying go about good fences make good neighbours!

Your neighbours should be keeping his rabbits confined (either in a hutch or fenced in garden) and your dog confined to your garden (if he's not already). Any amount of things could have happened the rabbit, as others have said most well fed dogs won't eat what they kill.

Terriers have high prey drives and will chase and sometimes kill small furries but so do many other breeds of dog, your neighbour sounds like he should mind his own business and spend more time looking after his own animals by the sounds of things. Unless he has those rabbits neutered/spayed they will continue breeding.

tk123

logik wrote: »

Agree with this. There would have been a rabbit body in the garden for you to find.

I agree that you'd see evidence too because we just happen to have two cairn terrier types running wild in the car park in work and tons of rabbits too - once you start seeing bunnies you'll you'll see the odd horrible dead body for a few weeks and it's not pretty!

kylith

Same opinion here, if your terrier had killed it you'd have found at least half a rabbit. It sounds to me like this feral rabbit either got taken by a fox or left because of the dog. I'd tell the neighbour that 1) it wasn't your dog and 2) if he doesn't want rabbits to vanish he should keep them in his own garden, someone else's pet is not your responsibility especially if he can't be bothered to look after it himself.

Even if your dog did kill the rabbit you did not get it to kill his rabbit; it killed a feral rabbit that was running wild.