The most common question that we receive is, how did you get your bunny and dog to be friends?! AND I've been wanting a small animal but I'm scared my dog won't like them!
This is always a complicated question for us to answer because there isn't a lot of steps that we took, it all happened really naturally for us. We have been told many times that Chloe is a rare beagle because most have a prey drive and hunt small animals. If you read our last blog post, you know a little bit about how Chloe responded to our guinea pigs when we first got them and why we felt comfortable adding bunnies into the family.
People love following along and keeping up with our pets daily lives because it's quite an unusual sight to see a beagle and a bunny getting along. We have a really rare animal family, that I am incredibly thankful for. Although it's so sweet to see that so many people seem inspired by us and want to add a small animal for their pet, you need to be extremely careful, as this really isn't a "natural" thing.
There are unique animal families all over Instagram, so it is possible but we've noticed with the ones we follow is it happens pretty naturally for them too. There are no specific steps that you can follow to replicate these families, but in this post we can share about how this process happened for us and our thoughts and ideas about bonding different animals.
Top 3 things to consider before adding another animal friend:
1: Know your own animal
The most important thing that you need to think about before you consider adding a new animal to your family is the pet you already have. Sometimes people will tell us they just got a puppy or they just rescued a dog and they want to add an animal friend for them. You need to be confident that you fully know your own pet first.
We didn't have this planned out, we got a dog not knowing that we would end up getting small animals a few years later. We got comfortable with Chloe and once we realized she wasn't like most beagles, we added guinea pigs knowing we could always keep their cage up and away if she didn't get along with them. Having a back up plan like this is always a good idea. Turned out that she absolutely adored the guinea pigs. She would hang out in the room that we kept them in just to be around them. Beagles are pack dogs so they like being surrounded by all their friends and family and feel left out if they aren't. When we did take them out to run around she just laid around them, rolling over on her back if they came up to her showing them that they were dominant over her.
2: Pay attention to your dogs body language and prey drive
Now, this step does not mean "go let your dog loose with all different kinds of animals and see what happens". That would be extremely dangerous. This step means, start paying attention to your dogs prey drive and body language around other animals. Take them to the dog park, a friends house who has pets or even your own backyard. How do they interact with all different types of animals? Are they gentle? Trustworthy? Aggressive? Unpredictable? These are key pointers that will help you with your decision.
What dog doesn't like to chase squirrels? Chloe's favorite thing to do is yell at them, the difference is once she catches up to them she doesn't want to hurt them, she wants to play with them. She will run up to birds just to sniff them, she even loves to find bugs just to play with. We always make a joke because she actually is scared of a fly. When she hears one buzzing in the house, she runs and hides.
3: Behind the scenes
A big thing to consider before adding another animal (especially small animal) is what goes on behind the scenes of Instagram. Instagram is a place where you share your cutest photos and best moments with the world but what you don't typically see is some of the reality behind all the cuteness.
It's surprising to a lot of people how much work and how much time small animals really are once they start researching. I describe my bunnies as "mini dogs" all the time. I have to spend just as much time (and money) caring for them as I do for my dog, sometimes more. I plan on doing a blog post that goes into detail about "bunny life" and everything that goes into it. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my little animal family for anything, they are truly my happy place. To me, they are totally worth all the work because that's where I want to spend my time. To others, maybe this isn't the case. That is why it is so important to research and ask questions before you dive into adding another pet. It's also just as important to remember that you can't easily build this type of family because it's not a typical family. These things are never planned or forced, sometimes life just gives you a special gift.
I'd be more than happy to answer any further questions that you may have, you can reach out through this page or DM us at @thebeagleandthebun on Instagram!
We have a lot of topics that we will be covering on this blog and our most frequent questions that we get on Instagram will be answered thoroughly! You can subscribe to this blog through our home page to stay up to date.
Make sure to follow us on Instagram (@thebeagleandthebun) to keep up with our daily life, see lots of cute photos and watch funny videos of us hanging out with each other!