#TOTW Has anyone ever bought their dog a pet?

Our Cockerpoo has a real affinity for other animals. No fear of any other dog, doesn’t seem to matter about the size or volume. Cats, Squirrels, Cows, seems to just want to make friends.

I think he might like a pet hamster of his own. I don’t know that he will have the capacity to clean and water it, but I think he will love it nonetheless. Anyone ever done this for their pooch?

When we look after the daughters hamster Fin stands and watches it for hours in it cage. When it’s in its ball she just follows it around the room. She makes no attempt to move or stop the ball

We bought our Black Lab a Jack Russell pup.. after the initial “what the **** is that” reaction she loved the little fella.

So yes.

Our cockerpoo has caught a couple of rabbits in her 5 years, so I don’t think getting her a hamster or similar would work for us. Up until recently, my daughter had three pet rats in her bedroom, but for the 2 years they were alive, we managed to keep the dog from seeing them, otherwise she would have been whining to get in and have a look.

My grandfather’s collection of completely feral cats had 3 pet collies. They trained those mutts meticulously, so much so that they never ever chased a cat. Well, not twice anyway.

We got our 3yo Cavapoo a miniature Dachshund – they seem to be getting on ok. He can’t pick up it’s pooh though so I have twice as much to pick up……

When I was a lad we had a Collie, Hamster and Cockatiel – they all got on really well.
Collie would follow the Cockatiel round the floor and let it nibble it’s claws and ears….
Collie would also follow the Hamster around in the ball – occasionally he’d give it an encouraging nudge – cue hamster in a centrifuge comedy moment.

Not a chance, ours would’ve shredded, mullered, detroyed and eaten anything that moved. I used to buy cuddly toys from charity shops just for her to attack. She shredded them within minutes. Once rode home with a big, round, pink pig attached to my rucksack. It didn’t last very long.
Live creatures were given even shorter thrift. She loved other dogs though. 😀

My setter would love to have her own Guinea pigs.

Our Cavapoo uses the hamster ball as a football when hamster is inside it.

We tried introducing them face to face but the dog just tried to eat the hamster whole. Thankfully our reactions were quicker but on our experience, I’d say no to a pet hamster for a dog.

Nope, can’t work out why a pet should have a pet…that suggests a new pecking order and we know pets are pets only due to not have opposable thumbs.
They don’t need the glass ceiling.

We got my sister’s stick insect a horse.

Do the horse and the stick insect get along?

My Wife bought our 2 cats a horse, I mean the thing is rude, only interested in food and permanently lame, so I can’t think why else she got it 🙂

This thread proves I’m not the idiot my missis thinks I am. 😁

Well, my first dog Ted was getting a bit bored so I decided to get a second spaniel to keep him company. it worked, but the second dog (Ralph) was really upset when Ted died. Even though they were always looking to be top dog, he relied on Ted for a lot of support.

Both the dogs liked it when I had chickens. I have a photo of them roosting on Ted’s back somewhere. he really didn’t care about that sort of thing.

Personally no, a friend has though.
They had a two dogs, and one died, so the remaining dog got lonely, so they got another dog to keep the second dog company. They didn’t get on so well, so they bought another dog to keep the peace, this worked, then they decided to get another one, and breed a litter or two (or three?). Then their lad wanted a dog of his own, so now they have 4, or maybe 6 (or 7), i lose count sometimes.

Then they started to get mice, due to all the dog food they needed, so they got a cat, which obviously rules the dogs with an iron paw.

Just to add, they have a big property, and a proper warm dry basement where the dogs are free to roam, and bark, his wifes mother and sister both do rare dog breeds, so they know what the score is. And this has been going on as long as i’ve known them.

Two years after rescuing our first greyhound, Jez, we fostered another. Jez and Sally hit it off brilliantly, and we adopted her a month later. Not quite a pet for jez, but more companionship.

A friend’s father had two working Spaniels. He then got some ex-racing pigeons, soon followed by some chickens. The dogs really enjoyed pottering around the garden while the birds were out.

I think our two hounds would love some pigeons or chickens, but more as a snack based temporary arrangement. And a very small furry thing? Not a chance!

Definitely depends on your dog’s character.

My Wife bought our 2 cats a horse, I mean the thing is rude, only interested in food and permanently lame

What about the horse? 😉😂

^ 🤣

I think it really depends on individual dogs. Our Lab has a very strong prey drive and will happily chomp on any small rodent or bird that passes near her jaws if given the chance. She’s happily brought me or directed to me all sorts of things whilst out in the wild – I was running along the coast path and she suddenly shot off about 100m ahead on the beach to find her rolling on a seal carcass! Luckily she missed the dead porpoise on the other beach. Oddly, she missed the dozen mice living in the kitchen cupboard, courtesy of the pregnant mummy mouse shipped-in in a bag of bird seed – new house, completely airtight so no other means of entry. She does ignore the dozen or so red deer that come into the garden even though they’d quite happily give her a good hoofing.

I once had a dog called Olive. She was making some noise in the back garden where the hamsters lived. And then she went quiet… so I investigated and found her trapped in the hutch, nose to nose with two hamsters.

She had pried the back panel off the hamster hutch, got her nose inside, then wriggled in, and the plywood pinged back, trapping her in there, all squished in.

There was no violence. All three of them were equally bemused by the situation.

We have a black lab, he want’s to play with absolutely everything, regularly tries to jump to get the crows that sit on the ridge tiles, chases birds, leaves, clouds, wind…. you get the idea.

We used to have 2 guinea pigs, they were his fwends, he frequently tried to get his big stupid head through the mesh on the front of their hutch, when we put them in the run on the lawn he’d get up on that and try ad get his big stupid head through the mesh, there’s a theme here. Then one day we found one of them spread eagled and dead – I reckon daft head lab shocked the poor little bugger to death, then a few months later the next one was found curled up in the corner of the hutch, dead as a door nail.

I don’t think pets for our lab are a good idea, they would invariably die.

My choccie Lab, Oscar, loved kittens. He’d look after them, follow them around the house, lick them and at times carry them in his mouth, sometimes we’d see a confused kitten stagger past with its fur all bedraggled and wet from
Oscar’s slobber

Oh – thread of the week! Awesome. In which case I shall award you with a picture of the lovable little scamp, taken when he had to go to work with my daughter around Christmas time. Work = smart jumper and tie, because it’s a professional environment.

I’d say a cat but that would not be pet, that would be a boss

rodents no, they would be stressed out by a dog (our rats definitely would, and I’d imagine other rodents would be)

better idea would be other peoples animals, get other people to bring their dogs round for play sessions

Got my 6 year old Shug (Shih Tzu/Pug) a Fox red pup. The shug rejuvinated my old Chocky lab and after 3 weeks of ignoring the new pup. They are now inseperable , They playfight constantly and the wee dog fights like a lion and normally wins.
Great companions will probably get another wee one when Bowie Is 10 and Gus is gone.

When our Springer Spaniel had puppies our German Shepherd seemed to be jealous and regularly stole one for herself. When mum realised one was missing she would go find the GS and pick up the pup and take it back to the run we had built for them.

Heshe our GS with a stolen puppy …..