Dogs chasing squirrels

[Livpool]

Walking in the park today with DH and DS , saw 2 lots of dog owners cheering on their dogs chasing squirrels, obviously off lead. Like whooping and cheering - did they think anyone else wanted to see a wild animal potentially be ripped about by someone’s pet?!

I don’t have dogs as I am allergic but is this normal behaviour? Seems unnecessary cruel to the poor squirrel.

Ug my dog chases / woofs at squirrels … we certainly don’t encourage her, usually we’re chasing her to stop 😵🤯

I’m beginning to think that a lot of the dog hating posts on here are started by bots. Some of them are really scraping the bottom of the barrel!

I don’t “cheer and whoop” when my dog chases squirrels because cheering and whooping in public is weird and annoying, but I do laugh and tell her good girl. She has absolutely no concept of “up”. So when the squirrel runs up the nearest tree, she runs straight past and then a few metres later she turns around with a big grin on her face, absolutely chuffed to bits that she made another squirrel disappear. No squirrel is ever in any danger at all.

Whilst I wouldn’t like to see a squirrel get caught by another dog, I can’t get too worked up about it. Chasing small furry things is literally what many dog breeds have been bred to do, and many pet dogs (as opposed to working dogs) will not have much opportunity for breed specific enrichment.

You are attributing emotions to a rodent. Th squirrel is no more likely to be terrified than I am when my toddler chases me in a game.

A squirrel is extremely fast and an excellent climber. When it leaves the trees to forage or play, it knows it's at risk from predators - it's a prey species. A zigzag dash and escaping up a tree is the norm for a squirrel multiple times an hour.

The squirrel doesn't care if the dogs' owners are laughing. Neither should you.

I am very fond of rats and kept them as pets. So I get upset at dogs killing rats in general However, if there was a rat regularly coming into my kitchen then I wouldn't object to my dog getting rid of it for me.

So I am sure if you had squirrels in your roof space chewing through your wiring and causing problems (and possibly house fires), you would lose your objection to dogs chasing them overnight.

We call squirrels tree rats; they may look cute, but they are a vicious, horrible species of vermin. My last dog loved to chase a squirrel and I had no problem with that. In her entire life time, she never caught one. Those that find it distressing, do you feel the same about cats and mice?

What about if my big guardian breed dog acts on it's natural prey drive and snaps a little dog's neck as it runs past like a squirrel?

My dogs favourite activity is chasing squirrels in the park. She has never caught one yet (Spaniel so very high chase/prey drive) They are too quick and fast for her. It's literally nature. Squirrels don't have human feelings/emotions and neither do dogs. I don't woop and cheer her because that would be a bit weird but I certainly don't try and stop her being a dog when there is pretty much 0% chance of her actually getting one.

Only of people's patience.

Circle of life. Animals chase other animals.

Probably a good reason people should keep small dogs on a lead.

I’ve now got UB40 as an ear worm for the rest of my day!

We used to have a Jack Russell that caught a squirrel. She caught it in undergrowth before it had time to get back to its tree. All of a sudden there was a squeak and a kerfuffle and she came out of the undergrowth with the squirrel in her mouth. Fortunately she despatched it quite quickly.

Can I let my dog off the lead knowing it has a prey drive that causes it to chase small non-human mammals and will probably kill it if it can?

I really don't get this issue. Squirrels are wild animals that are regularly chased by other animals - and in fact, in urban areas, they probably aren't hunted nearly enough.

This is the circle of life. As has been pointed out on this thread, few dogs can actually catch a squirrel (my dad is convinced the squirrels try to taunt the dogs for entertainment value), but even on the odd occassion that they do, it's just life - and again, as others have said on here, squirrels are overrunning many places. Ditto, the squirrel being "terrified" - well, I'm not sure about that but certainly survival instinct is a thing and yes, animals like squirrels will spend a lot of their lives running from something bigger, badder and hungrier than them.

We recently were on a game drive in South Africa. The ranger was telling us about zebras as we were watching a small herd and she made a point of telling us that you can tell how healthy they are by their mane. Then she asked us if we know what they do if they see a zebra who is unhealthy. And the answer was a firm, "nothing. It's the wild and there's nothing we can do".

Similarly, I couldn't care less about children chasing pigeons. They're clearly NOT terrified as they land straight back 10 seconds later. They're used to having to fly away for brief periods before returning to same spot to keep pecking away at whatever it is they're eating.

Ours too - always barks as a warning signal, and then spends 5 minutes after they have gone leaping and whining at the bottom of a tree. She is a saluki x greyhound.

We would never let her off lead to chase squirrels, and allow them time to clear before she goes out in the garden (she basically warns them.by barking as soon as she sees them).

It's largely because if your dog is allowed to chase things like squirrels, it will probably chase and kill anything that is remotely like that in order to kill it if it can. It also shows that it lacks impulse control and you are likely to see that in other situations where it does matter. Anything from bad manners to antisocial, dangerous behaviour.

As dog owners, we are meant to teach our dogs when it is okay to display certain instinctive behaviours that essentially make them dangerous. We want them to display certain energy levels when in public and reserve that kind of intense play to specific sessions which start and stop and are directed at minimal.handlers vs having that intense energy in a public situation like a park directed at everyone.

The squirrel chasing dog is typically also the dog that grabs picnic food from other people in the park, has terrible recall, and approaches other dogs with an energy that makes them want to guard their owner.

This is so true. We have done a lot of work with ours to help prevent issues (she is docile, but a high prey drive breed).

I agree it is not something to cheer or otherwise celebrate, and you should keep a dog on a lead or otherwise act to stop it.

Said as someone who would wish to see a humane cull of grey squirrels.

Our old dog did catch one when it fell out of a tree right in front of him. He had no idea what to do. Then it bit him and he dropped it.
he wasn’t so keen on squirrels after that!

Red squirrels are our native breed. Their numbers have been decimated by the foreign greys. In some areas people actively hunt down and kill greys in order to protect our red squirrels.

or, like myself and most others, you train them?

My Spaniel is never on the lead at the stables/farm, all i need to do is shout "leave it" if he catches a scent or sees a squirrel or bird and he diverts away.

If this was the reason the OP had an issue with it, I'd be a bit more understanding. And it's absolutely true that while I'd let my dog chase a squirrel, in the park, I was very careful around people picnicing etc as yes, otherwise she' might try to nab a snack and so she went on the lead promptly or I called her to me ahead of time if I saw anything inappropriate she might chase. But she loved chasing (totally ineffectively, it has to be said) squirrels and, in open parks, I allowed her to do it.

But OP is not worried about overall dog's behaviour. She just thinks its cruel to the squirrel and I don't.

I do think it's cruel. Just like I'd think it's cruel for one of my dogs to stalk and chase a little dog. Even though if it tries hard enough, most little dogs can definitely outrun it.

But what you said is kind of the point, little dog owners always want to curb things like grabbing food, but think nothing of letting their dog act on their impulse in other times and then they wonder why an experienced dog owner or trainer might talk about inconsistency.

Big dog owners have to be constantly aware of the dog getting in that sort of state of arousal and curbing it through training because it leads to dangerous behaviour. You have to have very set times when that energy is okay, and it is never in public. That's why you might do bite training or some other aggressive sport with a big dog.

But a tame/domestic dog is NOT a wild animal so of course it would be cruel to allow another animal to stalk it. It's entirely different with a squirrel, which IS a wild animal.

Farmers don't want large animals stalking and eating their cows, which are largely domestic animals, used to being around people, ins afety etc. But deer in the wild may well be stalked and hunted by a lion which is totally normal because they're not domestic animals.

I do agree that small dog owners who allow their dogs to behave badly are a problem, and perhaps if they are letting them chase squirrels, they're also letting them chase people or steal food. But I'd still argue that's about the pet owner, not the squirrels! . It's also not my personal experience of having a small dog.... my dog chased squirrels but was very firmly kept under control so that she didn't behave badly towards human or other domestic animals.

So what about if my big dog killed (or even just harassed) a baby deer? Is that fair game?