Beth-

We recently adopted a six month old Yorkie and he LOVES to play with
our ferrets. We also had another Yorkie when we first got ferrets, and
she got along with them very well. Yorkies were bred to be "ratters"
and doxies were bred to go after badgers, but my opinion is that if
you introduce them young and stress that they "be nice," they will
play well together.

The only problem we have with our Yorkie, is that he is still a little
too rough in his play, and "T-bones" the ferrets. With a young ferret,
this would not be a problem, but we have two geriatric and two ill
ferrets. So we have a weekly play date with my friend's two young
ferrets, and we're planning to adopt two young ferrrets tonight. When
he has young ones to play with, he ignores the older ones who want to
be left alone.

I would closely supervise play, like you are already doing with your
other dog. And probably it would be a good idea to only have one dog
at a time playing with the ferrets, until you know that everyone abides
by the rules.

The funny thing is that we have an 80 pound black lab mix who is afraid
of the ferrets. She is convinced that they are rabid mutant squirrels.
:-D She's used to small furry animals running *away* from her when she
approaches, and the fact that they run *towards* her totally freaks her
out. She is VERY old (about 16 years), and to give her peace, she is
put into the bedroom with the door shut during weasel play time.

Good luck with your new addition. Our Yorkie before this one LOVED our
ferrets. They would play Tarzan (jump up and grab hold of the dog's
beard and be flung through the air), and Dog racing (jumping up onto
her back and holding on while the dog ran around the room). It was all
in good fun, and both ferrets and dogs loved it.

Melodyt and the fantastic four
Soon to be the slinky six!

-- 
Melody Tomaszewicz
Holdings Record Maintenance Team Leader
New Brunswick Libraries
Distributed Technical Services
Rutgers University
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone:  (732) 445-3856 ext. 313

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."

[Posted in FML 5427]