When I was young, I was surprised to hear what our neighbor in the province said that rats and mice are also afraid of dogs. That if you have a dog in your house then it will be free of rodents.
When we had our first dog, a ferocious female we named Jedi, I had witnessed how she not only chased by also killed the rats outside the house and mice inside the house of our rented home. The list of killings is long and the total would exceed 10. In effect, the house was pest-free when we left it for our new home.
That's actually dangerous. Rats may carry diseases and if your dog was ever bitten, chances are she would've gotten sick as well. My aunt is very particular about not giving the dogs a chance to wander into the kitchen where they can get into dark corners where rats may be hiding. Her toy poodle loves looking for rats even when they were still in Manila. I would not let dogs of mine near rodents as well because it may be fatal to them.
Many dogs were actually bred to kill rodents. that is why rat terriers are called that, is because they are such great rodent killers. Just like a herding dog will have the herding instinct even when they have never seen a sheep, a terrier will usually have that instinct to go after a rodent.
Several dog breeds that were also bred to hunt rodents are West Highland White Terrier, Scottish Terrier, and the Dachshund; but there aree also other breeds that will go after rodents. Miniature Schnauzers are also very fast and can be amazing at catching mice and rats.
Westies were bred to have a very thick tail because they are trained to go don into gopher holes after gophers and ground hogs. Sometimes, they would get stuck in the hole, and the owner would have to pull the Westie out by his tail.
So, the thicker the tail, the easier it was to pull the dog back out of the hole.
Certain dogs are really good at taking care of rodent problems but for the most part, that isn't true. My grandparents always had a dog but they were only really able to handle their mice problem when they got cats. A good breed for dealing with rodents would be terriers though. My grandparents' neighbor had a terrier who took care of the rodents and badgers. But you need to keep up with their shots so they don't get rabies and other diseases.
I personally have never had luck getting rid of mice and rats with dogs. Their inability to climb allows for them to climb up or behind furniture. If you really want to get rid of the problem, get a cat or pest control.
I have a dachshund and I have researched a bit about it. I found out that they were breed to hunt and kill badgers. So when we had a mouse once in our house, I expected her to chase after it. But, surprisingly, she didn't. She just looked at it as it ran away. I was shocked because I thought that she has this hunting mentality, but it turns out that it's not like that.
(05-26-2016, 11:17 AM)maxen57 Wrote: [ -> ]That's actually dangerous. Rats may carry diseases and if your dog was ever bitten, chances are she would've gotten sick as well. My aunt is very particular about not giving the dogs a chance to wander into the kitchen where they can get into dark corners where rats may be hiding. Her toy poodle loves looking for rats even when they were still in Manila. I would not let dogs of mine near rodents as well because it may be fatal to them.
You are right. It was yucky to see Jedi killing a big rat. And she wagged her head while biting the dead rat that I saw the intestines, huh, sorry for that yucky line. I was in panic because what if Jedi was poisoned by that rat? Her first victims were mice and it was easy for her because what she does is to trap the mouse with her paw and she would kill the mouse with the other paw. But with rats, she bites them. What my husband did on the first occasion was to wash jedi's mouth with vinegar. According to my husband's brother, vinegar can neutralize the poison if present. And when the vinegar was applied, Jedi was like kissing the floor of our kitchen with her left cheek and right cheek in succession. I was terrified until my husband said nothing is wrong, Jedi was just reacting to the sour vinegar.
With our dogs now, I'm sure they have the same ferocity with mice and rats. But we make sure that they don't catch those rodents. Fortunately we can drive away the rats when we see one in our yard. Our house is clean of rodents.