Hi-I am looking for some helpful advice.  My ferret Guida (Ratty) has
started to bite my roommate's dog.  She generally ignores him, but lately
she will go up to him, let out a loud squeak (not a playful chitter) and
bite him on the foot.  On occasion, she has also lunged at his face.  To
his credit, he has not done anything more than growl at her, but once he
did nip her lightly.  This dog is a German Shepard/wolf hybrid who is
normally quite tolerant and docile but we are worried that if my ferret
continues this behavior that he will turn aggressive toward her and
seriously hurt her.  Realistically she can't do much to him, so the big
concern we have is how to get her to learn not to bite him so that he does
not attack her one day.  We cannot figure out what her intentions are.
She does this with absolutely no warning and does not seem to be trying to
play, as he is usually sitting down or standing so it is not like she is
chasing him down.  She just bites him out of the blue.
 
On a related issue, she has also recently started biting our feet quite
hard, usually when we are sitting down.  She will start with the licking
and then CHOMP, like she is trying to bite a chunk of our skin.  Does
anyone know why this happens and what we can do to make her stop?
 
She is a very sweet, tame, loving ferret but these two behaviors are
becoming problematic.
 
Thanks,
Ann
[Posted in FML issue 2552]