Dear Kristina-

It just doesn't seem right to deny your hubby a dog, they really are a
man's best friend. I think if our dog cooked, I might be in danger of
being replaced altogether. And our Allis Chompers has been tremendously
tolerant of the ferrets with one notable, sad exception that wasn't her
fault at all. She is a dog, and she has wolf in her bones. Allis was
only bad to ferrets the day the downstairs dog, a *Lab*, of all things,
decided it was ferret killing time. My dear Switch the Kit managed to
sneak into the downstairs apartment. The Lab went for her. It was
awful, and very fast, but not fast enough. My memory of the event seems
to take hooours. Once the Lab started in and gave Allis "permission"
they both went for Switch. Switch did not survive the attack. And Allis
has never shown any other aggressive behavior to a ferret since. It was
a deadly, one-time event on Allis's part.

Dogs are dogs. I will freely admit that I have *hated* the Lab ever
since, but on an intellectual level I know that there is no "fault."
She still comes up to me for pats when I see her. She doesn't know any
better. I pat her head. And Allis? Smelled danger and pack behavior in
the air. She acted like a dog under those circumstances. I forgave her,
long ago. She never would have understood it if I had not. I still love
Allis, we are old friends.

When deciding what sort of dog to bring into your home, I applaud your
decision to adopt. Our Allis (Short Haired Border Collie) is a "pound
puppy", and we couldn't be happier with her. I also understand your
concern, you don't want a dog that will bother your ferrets, or be
dangerous toward them. I have paid attention over the years to many
posts about dog-ferret safety, ever since losing Switch. And I have
to say, there is no one set answer. There are people on the FML who
actually have different kinds of Terriers, traditionally known as
"ratters" in their homes with no problems. Then again, there are people
like me who lost a ferret to a traditionally "gentle" dog like a Lab,
or a Golden. I'm afraid it really does depend on the dog itself. Not a
very helpful answer, I know!

I do suspect that *one* dog is less dangerous than several in the home
at one time. As I said, once Allis had "permission" to go wolf from the
other dog, she was a completely different animal. You might be able to
stop an attack by one dog, (then again maybe not, it happens fast!) but
two is that much harder. They feed off of the other's prey energy. Once
they decide "Let's be wolves!", you've lost them.

It might help if you go to Google, and type in the following question:
"What types of dogs are ratters?" I did that, and got lots and lots of
hits. If I were trying to slim down the pool of potential breeds to
bring home, I'd look at those refrences before I went to the pound. Do
that, and once your bring your new friend home, assume that he or she
is a ferret killer until your new friend shows you otherwise while
*leashed* during supervised visits. *Many* supervised visits.

I wish you the best of luck with your new family member. Thank you for
adopting!

Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 5904]