Can a dog ever be as effective as a cat in hunting mice or rats?

[MouserDog]

I've heard that some breeds (Jack Russells are one that I've seen mentioned) can be effective at hunting rodents. I am curious, do some dogs just have naturally good instincts for hunting rodents, or do they need to be trained to do it? Has anyone on MN had a dog that has caught a mouse or rat in or around their home?

It depends on the personality of the animal in question! I grew up with brother/sister cats. The sister was brilliant for keeping mice, rats and birds at bay (including a pigeon that was bigger than she was) and once brought home an unharmed baby rabbit, probably in the hope of swapping it for our temperamental pet one! The brother couldn't catch a cold, never mind a full-strength animal, but sometimes he'd bring dead or injured ones home, and let them go in the house. That was fun when I was on the phone about a job interview, and a dead mouse shot out from under the sofa, followed by a paw which dragged it back under...! It was also interesting when a bird was let go in the dining room over someone's birthday cake. The rabbit was humping balloons, the candles had set the smoke alarms off, and in the middle of all of this was the cat in hot pursuit of the live bird... much to the amazement of our much more respectable neighbour!

Most farm folk that I know tend to have Jack Russells, all of whom seem to be experts at hunting and killing rats and mice. A friend had a pet duck that used to help her JRT hunt them out on her land! Having obviously learnt the trade, my collie transforms into a JRT when there are mice about, which came in handy when I needed to find the entry and exit points of mice that were invading in the night.

My grandad had a JRT that was quite the prolific rat catcher. My grandad had a small holding, and his dog would patrol and dispatch any rats he saw. His face was so scarred. He had also killed kittens (there were feral cats on the land too) but that was never encouraged. But he was an absolute softie with people.

We used to have Dalmatians and they were extremely effective at dealing with both mice and rats. The breed was developed as carriage dogs to deal with rats.

I think you are overestimating the abilities of some cats when it comes to hunting.

I’ve got a cat who couldn’t catch a blade of grass growing under his feet!

Google 'New York's Rat Catching Dogs'. They're quite famous!

2 border terriers here that have dispatched rats in the garden. And a wood pigeon which I wasn’t happy about.

I think Yorkshire terriers are meant to be even better than jack Russell’s for catching rats, I have a terrier mix of these two breeds and he has zero prey drive 🙄🤦‍♀️ he saw a rat once and ran in the opposite direction!!

I’ve had a greyhound, a podengo and a bichon frise and the most effective hunter was the bichon frise 😆. The greyhound never caught anything though not for want of trying, the podengo wasn’t interested at all and the bichon caught rabbits when yo7nger.

I had mice come into the house before I had my dog (Pomapoo). I went round looking for entrance points and thought I knew them all. But my dog has started sniffing with interest at some points I missed. They are cleverly disguised, ie where skirting boards under the kitchen cupboards don't quite meet at a corner. Normally you wouldn't see them as gaps. Handyman coming round next week to block them off with wire grid.

My terrier breed (Irish) are supposedly bred for ratting. Mine is utterly useless, fair enough we do live in a city but we have encountered rats in the park and I have a great photo of him just sitting staring at a rat about a meter away from him. He will have a good go at squirrels though but never successful.

Our jack russell doesn't even notice the mice the cats bring in! But at least she doesn't actively bring mice inside like the cats do.
So both are ineffective at reducing rodents in the house in my experience.

My dachshund has killed a few mice in the house and kills shrews and mice in our country garden pretty much on a daily basis I think. No rats yet thank goodness

I had a rat, once, and also mice. I asked the local rat catcher, who was a fascinating man, if perhaps I should get a cat? He replied that on no account should I do that because in most cases where he was called out, there was a rat or mouse in the house because a cat had brought it in.

Most terriers would be better than a cat given the opportunity, and they’re happiest working in packs rather than individually that’s why people use them for pest control.

Well my cats bring mice in from time to time, sometimes still alive … our dog absolutely useless and protects them!! She had one by the tail and was licking it and the other she hid under her floof (she’s a floofy Samoyed) … as for the normal terrier types, I’ve never seen any terriers we or my ILs have had catch a rat or a mouse lol