need HELP introducing beardie to dogs.

[bdalton]

hey guys,

so im a first time beardie owner of my precious girl Lola, shes 6 months old. She is my first reptile since I had an iguana when i was about 12. Ive had her for about 2 months now and google and this site has been life saving. BUT there are certain situations that I cant google which brings me to my...well not so much question, i guess im looking for everyones experience in their own situation with their dogs and beardies. I have 3 dogs, a black lab, a golden retriever and a beagle. Lola's tank is in my room, and I have been trying to keep the dogs out as much as possible because when she sees them she gets totally stressed out. Her normal pure white chin and belly go black as ever and she just stares through the glass at them and usually wont move. So recently, I have been letting one dog in at a time to just stay in the room so she will get used to seeing them. The golden retriever is my dog, so she sleeps in my room. Im starting to feel really bad because she will just sit outside my door and cry until I let her in, but Im torn because I dont want to stress lola out. She doesnt get too black anymore when the golden retriever is in, but as soon as the others come in, shes back to BLACK. Shes very submissive, so she doesnt show any aggression towards them, just terror. Its mainly the black lab, probably because hes the biggest out of the 3 and probably looks like a monster to her. Anyways....im nervous about how the dogs will react to her and how she will react to the dogs. Im scared one of them might try to eat her. None of them are mean or aggresive in anyway, we just dont have any other small animals besides 2 cats to compare. They are fine with the cats, but a beardies a little different :\ I just dont know how to introduce them.......I always yell at them if they go near the cage, because they will just stand there and stare at her and I dont want her to be scared. Im not sure how often she has been seeing them, because Im not sure if they go in there when Im at work or not, but i try to let all 3 in at least once a day for a couple minutes at a time, but I dont know where to go from here. Do I just pick her up and show her to the dog (Obviously one at a time! lol) and show the dog to her? I just dont want her to FREAK OUT and like jump out of my hand and run away and then have the dog chase her (thats the picture ive had in my head of how it was going to happen, which probably doesnt help my nervousness lol) but I can cup her in my hand to make sure she doesnt freak and run away. I just know the dogs are going to want to sniff her and maybe even give her a kiss, but im just nervous. Okay okay i know you all get that im nervous, now ill stop rambling and let you guys tell me how your beardie dog introductions went and if u have any advice, precautions, stories, tricks, ANYTHING!!!

These are questions I have....

Do you let your beardie out when dog/dogs are around?
How are they together?
Was the beardie scared at first?
How big/old was the beardie?
What was the dogs reaction? beardies reaction?
Same with cats....they are inside/outside cats so their not around as much, and when I have lola out I only let her out in my room, and the cats barely come in, but they will meet eventually. Im not worried about the cats eating her, just worried they might try to play with her and claw her or bite her?....ill take kitty beardie intro stories too
...any bad introductions? :\


anything will help at this point I just wanna make sure it goes as smoooooooth as possible

THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!

 

[Bwalter]

This is what I did with my beardie and my cat. I would never let the cat in my room when I was not home. I did not want to take a chance at all for the cat to get to Booger when I was not there. When I was at home, I would let Booger run on the couch with me there at all times. The cat would jump on the couch and lay down, watching Booger. I let the cat smell her every day. At first Booger was so scared and would hiss at fat cat. After a few times fat cat would not pay any attention to Booger at all. Now fat cat was jealous of Booger, so I had to watch her very closely for a long time. After a few months both of them would be on the couch at the same time. There were a few times Booger would run, and jump on fat cat, but fat cat just looked at her. Booger got to where she wasn't sacred at all with the cat, but I still was there with both of them at all times. You just never know if/when the dog or cat could bite her in a split second. Now I live with my mom, she has a cat and dog inside, I do not ever leave my door open for her dog or cat to come into my room. I never want to take that chance of Booger getting bit or killed. I think everyone needs to make their own decision on mixing beardies with other animals. I have heard horrible stories of cats and dogs killing beardies. I hope this helps a little with my own story.

 

[drgnfly2265]

Let me start by introducing Suki, my shih tzu/Llasa Apso. I rescued her from the pound when she was about 4 years old. She is about 6 years old now.

The biggest thing that you need to consider is what temperment does your dog have and can you trust her completely. I let my dog interact with everything. She is the kind of dog that will not harm anything. Anytime she is interacting with any other pet that I have I am always there to supervise. The best way I can show you is with pictures.

I started by letting her see the beardies. Her reaction was just looking at them. Then I held the beardies and she just looked at them again. After a couple of times doing that I let her sniff them. While letting her sniff I gave her a positive reinforcement saying things like "good girl" in a nice tone to let her know that the beardies are nice and her just sniffing is ok. After doing that many many times I started letting the beardies on the floor with her. She just wanted to sniff their butt (weird dog thing?), lol, and then afterwards she would just sit/lay there watching them walk around the floor. And this is the result. The best way that I can show you their relationship now is with pictures.

And this is her with Bowser, my sulcata tortoise.

But I can't stress enough that you make sure you know your dog and the attitude that it has. I hope this helps :mrgreen:

 

[jewl495]

Well I think Lola needs to get used to the dogs first through her enclosure. I think that your doing things just fine as far as that goes. When your ready to let your dogs meet her do it while you are holding Lola. The first few times do it while Lola is sleeping at night just before bed. This way she isn't stressed out or moving.
As for your dogs you know them the best and I don't have any advice other than it will probably be just fine on their part because they are larger dogs. My dogs have a high prey drive no other animal was safe in their presence other than my first dragon. They just didn't care about him because he didn't really move enough to chase. I'm sure he smelled different than a cat or squirrel as well. Now that my dogs are older and I have more control over them I can have my cockatoo out around them but I still have to keep a close eye on them around her. They still don't care about our Kratos at all and the only I have to worry about is that they may accidentally step on him when he is out. If you know your dogs well enough you will see it in their eyes if there is going to be an issue.

 

[bdalton]

Thanks guys u helped alot, and its pretty funny...my cats name is "fat cat" too!...well his name was fuzz, but he just kept getting fatter and fatter until his name just became fat cat.

Suki and your beardie is ADORABLE...thats what i hope to be my dogs and lola ......with time of course!


and all 3 of my dogs are very laid back. i do not think any of them would harm her, but the lab is still just a year old, so Im worried about him wanting to "play" with her, but i dont think she would enjoy playing with him as he would with her. lol


so i guess ill just continue to let her see them through the glass, take it slow and introduce one doggy at a time...and always with supervision


thanks everyone, and anyone else with beardie doggy pictures are welcome

 

[AtlasStrike]

I don't think yelling at the dogs when they approach your dragon is the right way to go about it. You don't want them to be frightened or jealous. If they are simply being curious, let them approach and get used to the cage. They almost more than Lola need to be calm and accepting and making a big deal out of the cage and anything surrounding Lola will only make her more interesting to them. If your dogs know the command "leave it" or something similar, it is really easy to get them used to ignoring small animals. Show them something they want, tell them to leave it and then give them a toy or a treat to distract them.

I would introduce the dogs to your beardie one at a time, with the dogs leashed. You can let them sniff her for say 10 seconds, then tell them to leave it and redirect their attention. After a little while, they won't even blink at her. I would be a little more wary of the beagle though. Their prey drive is pretty strong, and it might be really hard to guarantee the safety of a BD on the floor around a beagle.

Also, let Lola get upset. If she gets stressed and realized that nothing bad happens, she will settle, which is what you want anyway. No one learns from being sheltered.

 

[bdalton]

Well, one beardie dog intro done, and with sucess! I was just over thinking and over worrying, as usual! Remi (my golden) was great with lola. They both gave eachother a licm and before i knew it lola was running to remi and climbing up on her to lay on her back! So cute, but im gonna hold off on the other 2 bc i dont trust thdm as much.

I snapped a pic in the middle of intro....

In case u cang see that since im computer illiterate heres the link
http://m.flickr.com/photos/73015867/@n03/6588675879/

As u can see it all worked out

Thanks guys!

 

[Sierra1167]

I couldn't see the pic, but I am glad that the intros are going well. We have a MinPin/Chi mix and a Llasa Apso. They are both scared of the dragons. They may take a sniff at their tails, but then they jump back and watch from a distance. The dragons seem to take no notice of them at all.

 

[bdalton]

Sorry, I just got a NOOK and havent figured it out yet, so now im on the good ol' computer.

heres the pics........


http://www.flickr.com/photos/73062971@N06/6590889231/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73062971@N06/6590889073/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73062971@N06/6590889177/



and just thought id share this one of my spoiled brat in her bed she got from santa
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73062971@N06/6590889283/


I know, it was weird, as soon as I brought her out to introduce them, Lola was like..dog? what dog? idc about no dog! haha

 

[Sierra1167]

Aw! Great pics! Btw, I got a nook also. How do you like it? I love mine. I'm on it every day.

 

[bdalton]

Now that i figured it out, yes i love it! Lol i never heard of it before and got it as a xmas present and now i dont know how i lived without it! Lol

 

[Sierra1167]

I know what you mean! I haven't gone a day without using it since I got it. I will PM my email. I think that is what they use to add a nook friend. That way we can lend each other books too.

 

[bdalton]

Hey guys, just wanted to thank you all for your advice, and give you an update, that even i honestly wasnt even expecting! Lola and my golden retriever are BFF's now i can bring lola out with my golden in the room, and she will run up to her and climb onto her back or head and they just hang out makes me feel so relieved. I havent tried introducing the beagle or black lab, not because of lola, but bc i dont feel 100% comfortable yet. The beagle loves to chase squirels and cats, so i dont want him to chase my girl, and the lab is a big puppy that will eat anything in sight (cellphones, remotes, house phones, shoes and will just about take your hand off when you give hhim a treat, so we will wait til hes a little older but the golden was my main concern, as she is my dog and stays in my room most of the time, and was being locked out and would just cry and cry at the door, so i feel much better not excluding anyone

I will post some pics of them together, its so cute

 

[crystalryan1980]

I couldn't see the pic, but I am glad that the intros are going well. We have a MinPin/Chi mix and a Llasa Apso. They are both scared of the dragons. They may take a sniff at their tails, but then they jump back and watch from a distance. The dragons seem to take no notice of them at all.

This is too funny my dog is afraid of my dragons too. He sits at the tank and whines to play with them but when I have them out he runs if they pay him any mind. It is really funny to watch a hundred and fifty pound Rotty run from an 11 oz dragon. Or better yet when one of the babies runs at the glass and make him jump. The babies are .3 oz. or 8.5 grams.