>From:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject: New Puppy, Uh Oh says Harley
>
>Monday evening we ended up getting a Puppy.  He is a Beagle, Rat
>Terrier,and Manchester mix.  He is as cute as a button...Harley on the
>other hand is scared to death!!!!!!!!  We thought is was having a
>seizure he was shaking out of fear so hard.
 
Hi Toni- don't have experience with this yet, but we're also thinking of
getting a puppy and I just wanted to pass along that I've read several
places that rat terriers aren't a great thing to mix w/ferrets b/c they're
actually bred to find and kill rats (to them, a ferret may resemble a
rat).  I don't know if that's why your one ferret is scared, but it's
probably a really good idea not to leave them unsupervised with the dog
just in case.
 
Can anyone tell us- are there certain types of dogs that seem to get along
better with ferrets?  We're going to avoid all terriers for the above and
other reasons, and have been looking more at labs and golden retriever
types, which seem to be friendly.  We're aiming to get a puppy so that as
it grows up we can train it to get along with the ferrets (hopefully).
Any other advice out there about types of dogs?  We almost got a mixed
lab/rottweiler puppy at the Humane Society today but someone else snapped
her up first :-(- I know some people train their Rottweilers to be
guard/attack dogs, but if you raise them to not be like that, esp.  if
it's mixed w/something else, is there anything wrong with a dog like this
getting along w/ferrets?
 
thanks,
Jaime
[Posted in FML issue 3606]