Lincoln killed a baby rabbit :-(

[Diane Denney]

Tonight was just horrible. I don't want to get to descriptive because it was awful. First of all Lincoln ran after my cat outside, and rolled him, and thankfully Haku was okay and ran right back into the house, but then the next thing you know I hear this baby screaming sound, and I turn to see Lincoln has a baby rabbit in his mouth, and it's screaming and he won't drop it for me or leave it so I finally got a piece of chicken and he dropped it, but he was so badly injured. He didn't die right away either. I tried to save it, but it was too hurt. I called the vet, and they said they'd put it down for me, but the litlle guy didn't live. This was very traumatic for me and I cried so hard. The vets office told me that dogs do that. My dog Scott has chased a rabbit or two out of the yard, but never took a baby from it's nest. I didn't know I had a rabbits nest in my back yard. Anyway I found the nest, and there are still very new born babies in it, but I don't know if the mother rabbit will come back as Lincoln and now I was near it. I really hope she does. In the meantime thankfully I have the lead still in the ground so I am putting him on that in the meantime until they get a chance to leave. The vet told me that they don't know the difference between that and a squeak toy. I guess he has a strong prey drive which isn't good considering I have three cats. Lincoln is in the house with them all day, but he's in the kitchen, and nothing has happened so far. Do you think I need to worry? Sorry but I love all animals so this was very nerve wracking for me.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I know how you feel. My two killed a squirrel and I was really upset at first because I never thought they would do that. Now I know better.

[Diane Denney]

I guess that's why in the movie UP everytime they said squirrel the dogs went crazy!!! LOL

[shelly]

I feel so bad for you. It's upsetting.. first the thought of the poor rabbit and then the thought that your dog could do that, but he is a DOG! We just seem to forget that. I'm terrified of tori being outside with a squirrel in the yard. she absolutely goes crazy when she sees them from our window. And I KNOW we must have rabbits too. We have them every year. Last year she really didn't chase them, but this year, I think she could actually catch one. Hope you can relax and get some sleep tonight! I'm so sorry!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Rabbit's nests have lots of fur, dry grass, weeds, sticks, etc covering them, which Lincoln must have pulled out to get at them. If the babies have any chance of surviving, that all needs to be replaced. After you replace it, you can put two sticks in an X shape over the nest, and that will tell you if the mother rabbit has come back to feed them...if the sticks are not disturbed, she hasn't.
Jack disturbed a nest of baby rabbits a couple of years ago, but didn't hurt the babies...he just pulled all the coverings off and poked at them. I looked up the nesting habits of rabbits on line and followed their instructions. I replaced all the stuff, and monitored it, and the babies did survive; I saw them in the yard the morning they first came out of the nest, nibbling grass.
By the next morning, they were all back in the nest, stone cold dead. From what, I have no idea. Maybe they ate the wrong kind of plants and poisoned themselves. Apparently, that's common. About 10% of baby rabbits make it to adulthood, that's how low their survival rate is, even without labradoodles in their immediate vicinity. I guess that's why so many are born to begin with. They're the prey of the animal kingdom. The females are rotten mothers, and they are not the brightest animals on the planet...hence the term "dumb bunny".
I know it's upsetting, but Lincoln is a dog, and what he did is what dogs have been hardwired to do since the beginning of time. It's his instinct. This is Darwin's theory at work...survival of the fittest. If the mother was dumb enough to make a nest in a yard where dogs and cats hang out, Lincoln was just improving the neighborhood rabbit gene pool.
Lots of DK members have cats, and I haven't heard of anyone's doodle harming one. I think they can tell the difference between their housemates and wild animals outdoors. Do your cats have their claws?

[Diane Denney]

I found the nest, and everything was intact strangely enough. The fur was over the babies, and the grass too so he must have stuck his nose underneath. He's very good at that. He can't sneak a kleenex out of my housecoat pocket in no time!!! I went online to the wild rabbit society website and gleaned a ton of information. The babies were all fine last night, and I'm keeping Lincoln on a lead that doesn't reach the nest. Thankfully I had the lead from before I got the fence put up. I looked again this morning, and saw the movement in the nest. I put a twig over it, but not an x. The babies weren't crying and very active, and Haku (the cat) was staring intensly out the window in that direction so no doubt the mother must have been there. I'm keeping an eye out. My cats are indoor cats unless I put them outside on a lead, but Haku is Hudini, and escapes, and unfortunately he escaped while Lincoln was out there, and he just couldn't help, but chase him and in the process rolled him to the ground and almost hurt him. Thankfully he ran back in and is okay, but that is what worries me. I spoke to the vet this morning, and he told me that it's very hard to stop a dog from the chase if it's hard wired that way. I have told him to leave it outside before when Haku got out once before, and he did stop so there is hope, but last night it was no holds bard. Lincoln was very excited. I will bring Lincoln outside on his leash with the cats on their leads so that he gets used to them outside, and hopefully I can train him to leave them outside. He still chases inside a bit too, but not as bad as when he was younger. As I said before he is in the kitchen out of his crate and so far I have not had any incidents, and hope I never do. Thanks everybody for your stories. I really felt bad last night. My dog Scott is so different from this dog. He is really low key. He chased rabbits but for the fun, and doesn't have a strong prey drive.

[Carol and Banjo]

Karen - That was very interesting information!!! Many years ago I lived in an area surrounded by fields and had an awful time with my cat chasing down rabbits. The sound of a rabbit being attacked is dreadful!

[Diane Denney]

Not a sound I ever want to hear again...:-(

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

I would also be concerned that your cats if going outside might get the baby rabbit's. As for the rabbits nest, I wouldn't touch it...I still feel that if a wild animal detects human scents it will abandon its young. Here is an interesting article which tells you to put an X over the nest to see if the mother rabbit comes back. Mother rabbits normally feed their young between 12:00a.m. and 5:00a.m. and they don't disturb the nest so often because of wild predators. Their milk is so high with nutrituion it allows them to feed 1x in a 24 hour period, so you may not see the Mom. Hope this article will help...

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

Will try and get the link to work here....

http://www.rabbitweb.net/wild-babies.asp

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Our Doodles are always on leash, so we don't have this issue, but we had a Lab and a Golden for many years who loved to hunt. It always upset me when we caught them with some poor creature they were tormenting. If it's any comfort, we also had two cats, and they never harmed them. They would chase and terrorize the cats, but never actually hurt them in any way. Our cats did have their claws though.

[Adina P]

Yuck, I can imagine I'd feel the same way. But dogs do do this and it doesn't mean they are bad...just dogs with certain drives.

Clark told me that our border collie, Cass, in her younger days, caught two squirrels. One of the squirrels she shook violently in her mouth after catching it. Clark made her drop it and they put it in a tree branch and although it looked dead...it was gone a while later so it probably scurried off after it got over the shock. Despite this...Cass has never hurt a cat (though I have a funny story about that too down lower) because Clark has always been able to call Cass off of any chase once he trained her. And she's always been a wonderful dog with adults and children and other dogs.

Cat story. Either Clark or a friend of his was holding a cat. Well that cat's tail was hanging down and Cass was directly beneath it and held that tail in her mouth (gingerly) as though it was the most precious, tastiest thing and she at least wanted a taste. I wasn't there, but I've heard the story. Hilarious picture.

[Diane Denney]

Lincoln loves Haku's fluffy tail!!! Yeep!!!