Got a hedgehog in our garden, the dog wants to attack it!

Fools Motto

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 June 2011
Messages
6,592
Visit site
I thought dogs don't attack hedgehogs - but the whippety thing gave it a good go before we heard the commotion and rescued the poor thing, and told the dog off - now with spikey holes in her lips!
I was going to take Hedgey to a little path with access to bushes, but it's lined with cats on a hunting mission - then it dawned on me, it came into our garden to escape them!
So, the whippety thing is now banned for unsupervised garden visits tonight. and I hope he recovers. The cats will have to hunt for mice. Mr Hedgey is off the menu.
 

CorvusCorax

Justified & Ancient
Joined
15 January 2008
Messages
57,234
Location
Mu Mu Land
Visit site
Both mine will have a go at hedgehogs and my old bitch used to hurl them in the air like a football :(
I just keep the dogs away until they leave as I have high fences/walls on three sides so it can be hard for them to find a way out.
I accompany mine to the garden at all times anyway because of cats/cat shit ?/hedgehogs etc etc.

Just be careful thought they can carry a shit tonne of parasites. Hope yours can make his escape.
 

Fools Motto

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 June 2011
Messages
6,592
Visit site
I'm naively surprised at how she wanted to attack the poor thing... I just assumed with his spikes, it would be obvious it wasn't to be messed with! i guess every day is a learning day!!?
 

P3LH

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 January 2017
Messages
977
Visit site
Many years ago we had a Russell bitch who would have fought with her own shadow. Anything that moved was fair game, and she had a strange list for hedgehogs.
I have literally see that dog with blood pouring from a dozen or so holes all over her face or body, like water leaking out of holes in a body in a loony tunes cartoon—and still going back for more.
Then again I once watched her run across a road to fight with a dog after slipping her lead, go fully under the wheels of a minibus and be thrown quite a distance, to stagger back up with a cracked head and continue after the other dog.
Sometimes, they’re just stupid! Or maybe just she was.
 

Roxylola

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 March 2016
Messages
5,248
Visit site
One of mine brought one in from the garden. They smell pretty funky indoors, in the middle of your rug.
I picked it up with a shovel and popped it back out, gone in the morning so I presume it was ok. I haven't seen it back since
 

Attachments

  • 20200907_214615.jpg
    20200907_214615.jpg
    813.7 KB · Views: 15

CorvusCorax

Justified & Ancient
Joined
15 January 2008
Messages
57,234
Location
Mu Mu Land
Visit site
Many years ago we had a Russell bitch who would have fought with her own shadow. Anything that moved was fair game, and she had a strange list for hedgehogs.
I have literally see that dog with blood pouring from a dozen or so holes all over her face or body, like water leaking out of holes in a body in a loony tunes cartoon—and still going back for more.
Then again I once watched her run across a road to fight with a dog after slipping her lead, go fully under the wheels of a minibus and be thrown quite a distance, to stagger back up with a cracked head and continue after the other dog.
Sometimes, they’re just stupid! Or maybe just she was.

TMD.


Too Much Drive ?
 

meleeka

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 September 2001
Messages
10,474
Location
Hants, England
Visit site
My JRT killed a hedgehog in my garden ?. She found it behind the shed. our garden has 6ft fences all round I still don’t know how it got in. We’ve had another since but after the first incident I keep a closer eye on the dog, so no harm was done.
 

Rokele55

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 April 2013
Messages
272
Visit site
My terrier has a specific hedgehog yap, I have removed several before she has got hold of them when I hear the hedgehog screech. She found a baby in my sister's garden which we were able to return to its mum under the shed next door:) The neighbours' (now deceased) Labrador used to retrieve them from the field and bring them back as presents. It is lovely to have some more about.
 

Keith_Beef

Novice equestrian, accomplished equichetrian
Joined
8 December 2017
Messages
11,376
Location
Seine et Oise, France
Visit site
The dog I had when I lived with my grandmother once saw a hedgehog in the yard at the back of the house; he ran at it and hurt his nose on the spikes. He never did it again.

Tabitha doesn't care about Mrs Tiggywinkle and her two youngsters; they can be rustling around in the garden, and she won't even look in their direction.
 

mini-eventer

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 March 2010
Messages
534
Visit site
We have loads of hedgehogs, 3 of our own cats and several neighboring cats. I have yet to see a cat bother a hedgehog mine will share a bowl of food with them. So moving to the cat hunting ground is probably a safe bet
 

Smitty

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 December 2010
Messages
1,501
Location
South West
Visit site
My terrier has a fascination for them. I think the problem is they roll themselves up and he does love a ball!!

About a month ago he took a very large one upstairs at 1.00am when I had woken up, gone downstairs for a cup of tea and foolishly let him out for a pee. I found the poor thing in the middle of my bed with dog trying to maul it. Returned it to the garden and it had gone by morning.

A couple of weeks ago I looked out of an upstairs window in the middle of the day with the sun blazing down, to see dog with a much smaller hedghog in the middle of the lawn. Bellowed at dog who relinquished hedghog which I put in a box and took to the vets on the advice of our local wildlife sanctuary.
 

{97702}

...
Joined
9 July 2012
Messages
14,849
Visit site
Sadly my greyhounds kill hedgehogs ??? (and I rather expect the terriers would too!) which is such a shame because I’d love to have a little house in my garden and encourage them.

Funniest thing ever was years ago when a hedgehog unwisely ventured into the back garden one evening - I had the original greyhound gang back then. Fortunately I realised it was there straight away - Amy, Flick and Islay all crowded round it sniffing very enthusiastically. My gorgeous big Hoover hound went bounding out into the back garden....”I can smell hedgehog! I can smell hedgehog! I know it has been here! I can smell hedgehog!’.... then ‘oh, who has left that strange prickly ball on the lawn there?’.... ‘never mind, I can smell hedgehog’ ???

said hedgehog was quickly and safely repatriated next door!
 

zandp

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 September 2009
Messages
965
Location
Somerset
Visit site
I have visiting hedgehogs, especially in hot weather. For the last 3 years we've had to watch the dogs in the garden. 1 hedgehog may have been killed by them - there have been a few attacks too but we have got the dogs off the hedgehogs before any damage is done and they've disappeared in the morning. If we keep out outside light on the hedgehogs keep away so the light's always on in the summer evenings.
 

Boy Tom

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 May 2018
Messages
166
Visit site
I always used to be a bit cautious about handling hedgehogs because of the myriad fleas - until that is, our window cleaner assured me that the fleas that hedgehogs carry, and the host itself, have a symbiotic deal going on; the fleas are of a variety which only live on hedgehogs and they eat the dead skin which the hedgehog sheds and if the hedgehog doesn't manage to shed the skin, then it's toxic and it will kill him/her.
I can't vouch for any of this, it's what the window cleaner told me and it also seems that she has a Uni acquired ology of some sort, so who am I to contradict her!
 

fiwen30

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 May 2014
Messages
2,991
Visit site
Grief, I’m not sure what my boy would do with a hedgehog if he saw one! They’re not common here, sadly. Think I’ve only seen a couple of live ones, more often ones that have been hit by cars.

I removed a very large traffic casualty hog from our road a few months ago - it was lying in front of a couple of houses that I knew had young kids, and I didn’t want them to be upset by it. The poor thing managed to prickle me through gloves and 2 bin bags, goodness knows why a dog would try to get one!
 

PippiPony

Chocolatier and Greyhound lover
Joined
29 August 2007
Messages
18,422
Location
Vale of Belvoir
Visit site
My old greyhound would pick them up and carry them round but not hurt them. When I rescued a poorly baby hog and took it to the vets my lovely Schoffel fleece was crawling with fleas. The vet nurse offered to burn it!!! I bought a can of flea spray, covered it and the car then gave it a hot wash. She confirmed that fleas on hedgehog are host specific and I didn't need to worry about the greyhound getting them
 
Top