my dog is now a merciless killing machine.. should i be worried?

My lovey patterdale and thick as springer staffy cross. Have now found how to to kill hedgehogs one a night since friday. lots of blood and guts. The wife is not impressed and dont know how to help the hedgehogs stay alive. Any ides?

Sounds normal for a Patterdale

muzzle dogs??

Muzzle?

more control , muzzle.poor ole hedgehogs

Put a porcupine in the garden……

Put a skunk in the garden

Hedgehogs are getting more scarce now we know why, so you let your dog kill not one but two hedgehogs. I for one is not impressed your dogs obviously can’t be trusted.

hedgehog, the snack with built-in toothpicks

Not a big fan of judgemental posts on here, but you need to take responsibility for this. Get the dogs trained asap. Otherwise you may want to consider what you will do when it’s someone’s cat, small dog, child etc. Get professional help.

Train the hedgehog to fight back… 💡

Just make sure you post up video results please. 🙂

Totally normal for both dogs. Its a nasty way to go for the hedgehog but its nature at work and i wouldn’t worry about it.
The only humane prevention is to hedgehog proof your garden.

Definatley a big NO to muzzles.

its not nature at work – domestic dogs aren’t nature!

again its nature at work my staffy chases anything in the garden, fights our cat till she has blood on her face from the cat scratching that is,i think most dogs would be curious, mine would without doubt do as your has done but shes not a vicious dog people forget they are animals after all

Counselling

You don’t have any right to let your dogs kill hedgehogs, doubt you would like it if someone killed your dogs and said sorry its my nature to hunt and kill.

Sod the hedgehogs, selfish buggers

haha have a right to let your dog kill a hedgehog he never said he did…..what do you want him to do follow his dog around the garden

Are they killing them in the garden? Make the garden hedgehog-proof if possible. I don’t believe you could easily train that behaviour out of them so best to minimise potential encounters.

It may be a ‘natural instinct’ for a dog to go for a hedgehog, but it’s not “nature at work”. The dog doesn’t exist naturally.

[/quote]haha have a right to let your dog kill a hedgehog he never said he did…..what do you want him to do follow his dog around the garden

Yes, That would be a start!

Put a skunk in the garden

Not sure how thats going to help

😀

don’t get me started about moggies vs nature

My old cat was known to leave duck bills on the doorstep, a creature of extreme violence and cuteness all in one

hedgehogs are becoming rarer and rarer in the uk. best if you can stop it somehow, regardless of whether you agree with the ‘it’s nature innit’ or not.

Not sure i agree with the ‘nature at work comment’. Ultimately the dogs are pets, domesticated animals and are the responsibility of the owner. The fate of the hedgehog rests with the owner and training to stop the dogs attacking it. Domestic dogs are completely programmed to live with humans and as such need to play by the rules for the environment in which they live. The dogs need training to ‘teach’ them not attack the hedgehogs. Muzzles are a quick fix but they wont solve the underlying problem.

Not sure i agree with the ‘nature at work comment’. Ultimately the dogs are pets, domesticated animals and are the responsibility of the owner.

They still have those wolfie instincts though. Saying that, nothing a bit of training can’t sort out.

ween them off the real thing, . . . and onto snacks

failing that . . . hedgehogproofing is the way forward

Muzzles aren’t much cop if your dog weighs 20kg or so. They just crush the life out of the prey as our Dalmatian has demonstrated with rabbits. (Basket muzzle not a softy version).

I like the comment dogs don’t exist naturally! its true i built mine with toilet rolls and selotape.

My Daft dog is no threat to my kids or anything out the front of our house, but the garden is his territory, cats stay up on the fence and tease him as do the birds. The fence and gate bases are dog escape proof and thus hedgehog proof, however one got in once.
After a lot of fuss and barking the hedgehog was rescued unharmed and lobbed over fence and (just kidding) went off on his merry way and probably died of shock a few hours later.
So lets not lecture on doggy nature etc or judge each other. The OP asked if his dog killing a hedgehog is something to worry about; no it isn’t.

My old cat was known to leave duck bills on the doorstep, a creature of extreme violence and cuteness all in one

Did you pay them?

I would be worried, hedgehogs are horrible tick ridden things – make sure you give your dogs a dose of Frontline.

I would imagine that the hedgehogs will dissapear soon anyway, they are just looking for somewhere to kip for the winter at the moment.

getting the garden hedgehog proofed seems the best idea. started tonight. blocked all the holes i can see. Let the dogs out and watched where they ran too. Nothing so far.

As For muzzling them, not a chance, they are friendly to people and kids and play well with other dogs. So really just a hedgehog thing.

Only time will tell if I got all the hole’s.