Timid Stewart....

His background was living in a house with 5 dogs and a slew of other animals but he was accustomed to the sound of dogs barking and seeing them everywhere and even contact with Rottweilers for that matter! The thing is, is that he was extremely social when he first got here and unafraid of our dog for the most part. Alhtough Puppers, our dachshund would be all over him should Stew be exposed to him somehow. Puppers is all about harrassing our chinchilla when he is awake and moving about in his cage. Now he is terrified to come out of the cage whereas the first few days he was here he was just fine and wanted so much attention and wanted to be held, wanted to come out of the cage all the time. Now He sees our dog and runs back into his safe place. There is nowhere we can put Stewart that would be a better location in the house. I do not want to find a home for him because I love him and hopefully he loves us too but I fear that he is going to become more and more withdrawn and timid.

We shut the dog out of the room of course when Stewart comes out but I think Stew is still on guard thinking that Puppers is somewhere around ready to jump at him like he does at his cage. I snap at Puppers when he harasses Stew but it doesn't make it stop completely. The thing is is that it is not ALL the time but I wonder if something may have happened while we were gone or something and Puppers scared him, you never know.

Also he doesn't get up to play until around 10:30 at night and I wonder if it is because Puppers is sleepy and isn't at his cage staring at him and threatening him so to speak. It is sad. I am very upset about this cause he was so different before- like I said I don't know what happened. I want to salvage this situation and find a solution... Any ideas? Otherwise, I really don't know what is normal for chins and what is going on in a chin's mind.

Chins aren't normally active until later in the night so this is not unusual behavior for him. Mind don't get up and get real active until around 8pm. Your dachsund was bred to terrify chinchillas and any other small creatures so you will not be able to break this habit in your dog. As chins are prey animals they know to be very afraid of something that is trying to kill it. There is most likely no way your chin and dachsund will ever be at ease with each other as it's in their genetic makeup not to be that way. What type of cage is your chin in? If he was in a cage high up off the ground your dachshund would not be able to sniff at him or get near him--and that might make him feel more at ease in your house.

A Chin's chin said:

His background was living in a house with 5 dogs and a slew of other animals but he was accustomed to the sound of dogs barking and seeing them everywhere and even contact with Rottweilers for that matter! The thing is, is that he was extremely social when he first got here and unafraid of our dog for the most part. Alhtough Puppers, our dachshund would be all over him should Stew be exposed to him somehow. Puppers is all about harrassing our chinchilla when he is awake and moving about in his cage.

Click to expand...

I'm sure the more experienced chin owners can give you better wisdom than I can. However, I do have a few things to say.

Rottweilers are very gentle dogs. I've owned many in my life. The two dachsunds I've had were terrors from ****. Always causing trouble, and getting into everything. They wanted to be the center of attention at all times. I had to give them to another home that had no other pets. If your dog is going to be all over Stew and harrassing him then you need to keep them seperate at all times. Dachsunds by nature are mischievous animals. Keep in mind they are hound dogs that were bred to chase. Have you ever had another animal with Puppers?

My dogs do not have any contact with Shelly. Is there any way you can have them live in separate rooms?

Actually the cage sits on the ground and is on wheels but I think I could find a way to take off the wheels and sit it atop this huge crate that is in our office, I could find a way to rig that somehow. Wow, i don't know why I didn't think of that before. I guess the crate has so much stuff on it right now that I just forgot it was there. It is tall enough to keep Puppers from getting to the cage at all. Awesome, I will try that.

I agree about the dachshund being a nosy little hound always sticking their noses where they shouldn't! That is our dachshund all the way. Don't get me wrong we love him and he is a clown of a dog but sometimes he is a handful. I sometimes think that the way puppers harasses Stewart is half play half serious--not quite sure as he wags his tail sometimes when he is harassing Stew. I would NEVER put them together as I know our dog though and wouldn't trust him even if I suspected he might accept him. I would keep Puppers in another part of the house but we would NEVER hear the end of it. He has been very good about not whining when we shut him out for Stewart to come out and play though but he starts up after about 10 minutes.

Thanks you guys for your advice....

He seems to be improving. He actually came out of the cage last night and played for a long time! I think raising his cage up has done wonders for his confidence and security around the dog. I didn't realize it would affect him so much but it has. Puppers also sees Stew as something unnattainable now and he has sort of given up on trying to even bother with the cage since he is so out of reach. Also, I think the newness of Stew might be wearing off now too. Anyway, problem solved as far as I can see.

I would just be extra careful during playtime. At home, I have a dachshund and he definitely has a very strong sense of hunter instinct. It's just their nature.

If possible, I would still try and attempt to make a room for just your chinchilla (no dog access whatsoever) to be on the safe side. This way, no need to worry about any accidents happening...

You know that is a good idea unfortunately, we have a room for our 5 ferrets and they also have a cage in there. That is the only spare room we have that could be devoted to our pets in any way. It is very safe in there though, No electrical cords, things that could cause harm etc. I am unsure of housing them in that room because the ferrets are also predatory animals.
The office has been our chinroom but I wonder if some sort of arrangement could be made otherwise if I really take a look at each room and what could be done to it. Ideally I would like to be able to keep him in the ferret room but I am in the office MOST of the time when I am home so it is nice to see him alot. Although if he were in the ferret room he would be right next to the office so..... Let me know what you guys think about housing him in there. All of my ferrets are very old and lazy except for one who is a livewire so i doubt they would be hounding him and especially if I were to keep his cage elevated like it is he wouldn't have any interaction with them. Of course when it is time for Stew to play I would make sure all the ferrets were put in the cage for an hour or more. I just don't know, there are pros and cons to this as sure he would be away from our dog but then he would also be in a room where there are other predators. The pros could be that he would be in a very safe room to play in where I wouldn't have to follow him around trying to keep him from chewing on stuff he shouldn't and the other pro is that the ferrets are not as likely to bust out of the cage they are in while I am there and attack Stew whereas the dog is faster and bolder and more determined. Also the door to the office has to be shut with a click because the door is not secure unless you hear that click and if for whatever reason it is not completely shut, the dog MIGHT bust in and it would be a scarey situation. I have been extra careful about shutting that door all the way for that very reason. Well, hopefully we will find a way to be safer not just dog-wiseor ferret-wise but with the whole room thing too.

For an added safety measure, I could put our dog in the bedroom and shut the door and then let Stew out in the office and shut that door. That could work....

Sounds as though you're thinking real hard about making things work out for everyone and that's great. I'm just kinda thinking out loud like you are and haven't really come up with any ideas just yet. I don't know anything about ferrets and whether it would be okay to have the chin in the same room but I'm sure others who have ferrets will have an opinion on that.

Wanted to say that my parents had a dachshund once and my god he was a beast from ****: high strung, nippy, glutenous and generally extremely bad behaviour all around. My mom used to get me to take him for walks and he was so horrible on the leash and he'd snarl at every dog that we encountered and then when I brought him back to my mom he'd nip me as though to say "thanks for nothing". I'm not saying all dachshunds are like this and no doubt a lot of his issues were the result of bad or no training but I still shudder when I think about that dog. I think I'd be more worried about the dog than the caged ferrets but that's b/c I had a terrible experience with one of those sausage dogs. :wacko:

I have noticed alot of people saying the same things about dachshunds! I guess it is bred into them- annoying behavior. You might be right about the ferrets being the lesser of evils as far as Stew goes.

Like I said, I have no experience with ferrets whatsoever so I don't know if it would be a good idea or not to keep a chinchilla in the same room. There are people here who have both chins and ferrets so I'm sure they will let you know if it could work or not. I don't have any dogs but we have a couple of cats that would just love to sneak into the chin room so I've put an extra safety device on the door in case it doesn't get shut properly for some reason. The reason mostly being: ditzy teenage girl who only thinks about self and not whether doors are closed.

Carol your hot dog must have been related to mine.

I'm glad to hear Stew is doing better. Keep us posted. I hope it all goes well.

I think putting the dog in a separate room while letting Stew out in his room is a good idea....that way at least the dog won't be sniffing at the door while Stew is out and could not possibly bust open the door.

My friend has a herd of guinea pigs, and when her roommate got a ferret, it stressed them out a LOT. They never even saw it, but I think they could smell a predator. Several of them got stress-induced lymphadenopathy (I think that's the right word--basically a normally benign bacteria infects their submandibular lymph nodes, which have to be surgically removed) all within a month. Since chinchillas are also prey, I'd be on the safe side and continue keeping them in separate rooms far away.

I might be corrected by a chin + ferret owner, but that's just my experience with other prey species.

FYI dachshunds were bred to go into badger holes and attack and kill them. While we think of them as cute little "wiener" dogs (and they are) they are actually quite vicious around small animals and hunt just like the bigger dogs if they get the chance. It's just in their nature to do this and so giving the chance I'm sure they do. Keeping Stewart up high where your dog cannot physically see him is a good idea. Also never have Stewart out, even under supervision, when your dog is in the room as well.

I would not keep the chin in the room with the ferrets. Ferrets give off a very predatory smell and while domestic ferrets are not super aggressive...their play is very predatory. They go for the neck and shake...if a chin were ever out when a ferret got out you could say goodbye to the chin. Definitely not a safe idea to keep them where accidents can happen.

Also...I have a wire haired dachshund mix and she cannot go near my chins at all. I have to keep her locked out of the room...when I first got her I thought I could train her to be calm around them, but it's something her instincts tell her to do. She wants to hunt and dig at the chins. I would definitely not let the dog near the chin...he's probably terrifying him sitting at his cage staring at him.

Okay I think it is decided then not to house Stew in the ferret room. I think I may be overly worried about him as he had a good night tonight and no worries.... I will just have to learn patience with him and realize he may have bad days and watch him for a little longer before I begin to worry. I tried gving him some of his old food that was what he ate before he came to me and he perked up right away. I think I might have changed his food over too fast and that was causing a bit of depression in him and possibly keeping him from wanting to eat alot.

Good to hear, I'm glad he's doing better!