So Angry!

[Rebanne]

We all know that hunting is natural for dogs but how many of you take precautions to avoid it happening? To the OP, I understand that you would be disappointed in your dog's behaviour but you made it clear that you were aware of your dog's penchant for hunting so therefore why didn't you have him on a leash? As for other posters, you appear to be accepting of your dog/s killing and just shrug it off as it being a normal course of nature.

no, most of us don't let our dogs run amok killing anything they see.

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

There is another way to look at this - that your dog may just have been protecting you from what it saw as danger - a snake or somethign?

I have long grass in some parts of my yard and most summers I sadly come home to find the odd Blue Tongue lizard killed by one of my dogs. It is the terriers that do it here, not the Maltese.

I've even found one still alive and rushed it to the vet. I shed tears over every one and although i say "who did this?" in a horrified voice, I would never punish them for doing this in any way.

As for "pinning" the dog down, really that doesn't work as a method of training. I removed a dog from someone who was cross that her new rescue dog wasn't housetrained and thought that by pinning the dog it would get the idea it was doing the wrong thing.

The result was one very traumatised dog that took several months of good foster care to recover.

I see the OP will see this as an attack - it isn't, it is simply advice from someone who has experience of the same ... :)