I have a lhasa mix (don't know with what), Serena, and she is great
with the ferrets. She's soft and cuddly, joined us at 8 weeks old and
is now 22 lbs. She's sort of a Diva. She loves her ferrets and protects
them but it would be beneath her to play with them for any length of
time. The other night she was laying on the floor and Zeke
jumped/rolled around on her tail. Serena stood up, Zeke latched onto
her tail. Serena very slowly walked over to the bed pulling Zeke along
behind her much to his delight. But he last his grip when she jumped
on the bed to get away from him.

I also have a boston/beagle mix, Athena, joined us at 16 weeks which is
really a bit older than I prefered. The younger the better in my book.
She is good with the ferrets too, plays with them a lot more than
Serena, though she is a bit like a bull in a china closet as all bully
types tend to be. Her body build is solid and hard at 20 lbs. She's
gentle playing with the ferrets though she runs after them and without
meaning to she sometimes runs into them before they get out of her way.
She doesn't hurt them fortunately since they are so flexible, and we
are working on the 'slow down' command, though I'm not sure bully
breeds understand that concept easily. She stops immediately when I
tell her, well sometimes she slides to a stop.

When I considered adding a dog to our family, I wanted a smaller one
that had longer fur to protect from biting ferrets - that was Serena.
As a puppy she thought the ferrets were playing when they were trying
to intimidate her. Since I have some very behavior challenged fuzzies I
needed a very tolerant puppy. For the 1st few months she was separated
from them when I wasn't home to keep everyone safe. Since that time
she's been free roam with them 24/7. Then came Athena. She is very
short coated but had the cutest face and I'd previously considered both
her breeds so she joined our family 2 years later. Athena has felt more
than one ferret bite because of her short coat. Serena feels nothing
through her thick fur and the ferrets aren't fond of a mouth full of
fur.

I have pictures of the girls and ferrets in albums on my facebook page
which can be found by searching my name (Troy Lynn Eckart).

tle
www.ferretfamilyservices.org

[Posted in FML 7525]