Introducing new pup to our rabbit? Suggestions?

[i-need-a-martini]

We are about to get a new pup. She is a 9 months old (failed show dog)  Bassett Hound with what seems a very placid temperment.

But we will need to get her used to our rabbit.

Bassetts aren't a rabbit eating variety but given our previous experience with Bassetts suspect it will take a while before she gets used to seeing a white fluffy thing running around every where without barking like mad.

The rabbit is an inside pet and the Bassett will be an outside dog so we COULD keep them separated although not sure how long we can keep that up for. But I'd rather they became friends anyway.

Anyone experienced with rabbit/dog meetings?

[iapetus_rocks]

I never understood why people would buy a dog and then make it stay outside.

Dogs are social animals and pack animals and they become part of the pack; the pack consisting of them and their owners, so to make a dog stay outside is to cause it to feel the stress of exclusion from their pack.

it's a sort of cruelty to do this, albeit a cruelty stemming from ignorance of the social dynamics of pack animals.

Paint your rabbit in meat gravy stock, I'm sure the dog will just love the rabbit thereafter.

For a short time only? 😉

[imastawka]

Many years ago my hubby trained our Lab to have a 'soft mouth'

when retrieving the rabbits that he had just shot, so that he would

not bruise them.

Maybe not helpful to you, but I can tell you how we trained him.

[iapetus_rocks]

"Bassets are scent hounds that were originally bred for the purpose of hunting rabbits and hare."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basset_Hound

So, not only are you socially isolating your basset from his "pack", you expect it to get along well with an animal which it has been bred, over very many generations, to hunt and kill? And one which it already resents for its "inside privilege?".

Good luck with that.

[harley_babes_hoard]

it's not cruelty. Dogs are outside animals, they aren't meant to sleep in beds and on furniture.

[iapetus_rocks]

Dogs are pack animals. They have a social structure which is complex. if you own a dog and keep it outside, it induces mental stress in the dog.

So, have an "outside dog" by all means . . . then live outside with it yourself.

[i-need-a-martini]

You've obviously never owned a Bassett - the smell and the slobber is unlike any other animal lol...

Anyway they are hounds. Not some cute little fluffy dog that can sit neatly on your lap while you watch TV. They need to, explore, smell things and dig. There is nothing interesting for them inside. None of my other bassetts ever stayed inside for long.

We have 1200m2 of land to explore. Why on earth would we keep her cooped up inside?? Keeping her inside is creul in my opinion.

[imastawka]

LOL.   Conversely, a rabbit is an outside animal.

[iapetus_rocks]

So, why buy a basset if you're not prepared to live outside with her?

[iapetus_rocks]

Rabbits are . . . . Basset food. 😉