Hello everyone,
 
A while back Sam Abbe posted about the difficulties of introducing dogs and
ferrets.  Here's my experience.
 
Two years ago we adopted our second dog, Kenji.  He was about a year old
and is part Shepherd, part husky, and part something else.  He's not as
big as he sounds, either (courtesy of the "something else", I guess).
Our first sweetie, Meagan, was still alive at the time, and we were
concerned about the interaction between them.
 
Meagan ran free throughout the house, as do our current two, and although
our one dog (Zipper) was/is supremely laid-back, Kenji was not.  He liked to
grab things--anything small enough--and toss it in the air.  He also used to
dive for the cats and chase them (with nothing but friendly, playful
intentions) at high speed around the house.  2 of them hid in the linen
closet for a week after he came.  You can imagine how I felt about Kenji and
Meagan!
 
Here's what we did.  At first we would sit beside Kenji and have Meagan run
around in the room we were in.  As we sat beside Kenji holding him, we
praised him and praised him as he watched her.  "Good dog Kenji" we said in
heartfelt tones of enthusiasm.  Zipper would be in the room too, and if
Meagan came close to either Zipper or Kenji we praised them both even more.
We did this for about 2 months, gradually not holding on to Kenji anymore
(but always monitoring and staying very close).
 
It worked like a charm.  We continued to praise Kenji every time he just
looked at Meagan for several months after that.  They became good friends.
She would snuggle up and sleep next to him.
 
When Meagan died, we weren't emotionally ready to have another ferret for
about 9 months.  It was just too soon.  When we did get our new little guy
(and soon, a little girl too) the dogs both rushed to meet both of them.
You can bet that "Good dogs" once again became our mantra.  Once again, it
worked fine.  And, as they were already conditioned to think that these
small things running on the floor were their friends, there were no
problems.  We watched them extremely carefully, but there were absolutely no
incidents.  The dogs play with or ignore the ferrets, depending on their
mood.
 
Amy and Alan
Sam and Sally (ferts); Zipper and Kenji (dogs); Tom, Ben, Anna (cats)
RIP Meagan
in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
[Posted in FML issue 2091]