Will Dogs Kill Rats?

First of all, I want to say that from personal experience, I have seen my K9 pack kill a few rats.

Lets back up to the beginning.

I decided to take on a roommate.  She, upon moving in, rearranged my whole house.  Now, I had some stuff against the walls for a reason.

Rat holes that I had not had time to fill in as of then.

So she let the rats in. Yes, it has happened more than one time, but here is one story of one night my dogs killed a rat.  They were 5 years old when this took place.

This time it happened from rearranging and piling up items on my front porch around the window.  The rats used the boxes as a ladder to get to that window.

I keep that window in my bedroom open year-round so the cats can get to their boxes that are on the porch.  They love to hang out in the sunshine out there also.

One night I heard a thump.  Then I heard my boy Bob, who is a Chihuahua and Shi Tzu mix, jump off the bed, followed by his brother Brody.

Here is one of their puppy pictures. They were six months old in it.

They were whining and sniffing around the base of my dresser. On one end of my dresser is a Rubbermade tub on the floor, full of blankets.  They moved down to that end of the dresser.

All the commotion woke up Tankerbell, a Great Dane pitbull mix, who decided to join in on the hunt along with her brother Sam. So I moved the tub and out shot a rat about the size of a 6-week old kitten. Out of the bedroom doorway, it went into the living room with the 4 of them on its trail.

This woke up my poodle, Snowy Chick, and she joined in on the hunt.

They gathered around the couch as Snowy Chick squeezed underneath, so I lifted it up. Out shot the rat. It scurried as best it could on ceramic tile flooring across the room toward the armchair.  It had a look of terror on its little rat face as Bob, Brody, Tankerbell, Snowy Chick, and Sam were all right behind it.  Making it to the armchair, under it went.

We all move over there and I told them to spread out around the chair. They each took sides.  Snowy Chick behind it, Brody in front and Sam taking the opposite side from Bob and Tankerbell who were on the side I was lifting from.

Upon me lifting the chair up, Bob shot under it and grabbed that rat. He gave it a few shakes and it was dead.

After a few “Good Dog” comments, I checked my furkids for wounds and found Bob had a nick on his cheek.  I cleaned him up in the bathroom with soap and water, then I applied Neosporin to the wound.

The other dogs were all sniffing the rat as we came out of the bathroom.  I told them all that they did a good job and to leave it alone so I can pick it up and we will celebrate.

I went to the broom closet,  got the dustpan, and scooped it up. We took it directly out to the garbage can. Everyone was behind me to see what I did with it because they all followed me to the trash can before heading off to the potty area.

When we came back in, I got the treat jar, giving them all jerky as a reward for a job well done.

You may be wondering where the sixth dog was during all this.  She was supervising the whole affair from the bed at first, then from the doorway of the bedroom. Watching all the action from a safe spot.  She a 7 lb Reindeer Chihuahua. She knows when to stay out of the way most of the time. She is the oldest and she is definitely the boss dog of them all.

So, dogs do kill rats.  That was one exciting night here at Lisa’s k9 empire.