# Spike, day 8



## SSmom (Jan 3, 2010)

SOOO.. It's spike and my 8th day together, hes still huffy as heck when rolled on his back he won't open up for me, he'll snatch the meal worm out of my hand and scrunch back up. HERES THE KICKER, their supposed to get used to your smell to adapt to you, i played with him last night my insomnia kept me up til 6:30 am, and other than Dixie (my 5lb maltese chihuahas kennel) she has a puffy bed in the corner of my tv/computer room where i throw all her fluffy chew toys, Spike played Dora the explorer not leaving the room, under cabinets, chairs, recliners, and finally laid down in Dixies bed, where they played, i've never seen him open up like that b4. he was a lil tiffed when dixie ate his meal worms but they were just precious!!! so does that mean i have to rub myself down with dixie to get him to open up to me? lol :lol:


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## Ariel (Oct 26, 2009)

I'd be veryyyyyy careful around other animals. Hedgehogs are prey and dogs are predators. Some have more predatory instincts than others. I have a 70 lb dog who has been the sweetest thing with all of my small animals (ferrets scared her, but she loved the hamsters and guinea pigs and is still figuring out Sophie) but I know she is a predator and easily has/had the ability to hurt any of them. 

To be safe she isn't allowed contact unless I'm holding the animal, she's sitting and I'm standing so I can lower Sophie to her and quickly pull away if need be. She is also allowed to check out Sophie from inside her cage where she is safe, and is allowed to watch provided she doesn't bark, scratch at the cage or freak Sophie out. Most of the time I try to minimalize contact between Rosie (my dog) and Sophie (hedgie) and I don't let Daisy (the cat) come in my room at all anymore because I don't trust her not to try to get into Sophie's open topped cage and try and eat her food. I doubt she'd be interested in anything more than Sophie's mix of food, which she prefers to her own, but Sophie's doesn't sit well on Daisy's stomach, but that's not the point. The point is that I don't know how she'd react or if she'd ever be tempted to swat at Sophie out of fear or curiosity, so I just remove her as a risk factor all together.

That all said, I don't know your dog or her temperament when you say that your hedgie and dog played, but be very careful. I'm not sure how close you were (i.e. sitting across the room watching or right there next to them) or even what you mean by "they played" but I would definitely not allow any contact between the two if you aren't holding one of them. Even if your dog is only 5 lbs at the end of the day it doesn't change the fact that Dixie's a predator and Spike is prey. It's better to avoid an accident than the heartbreak of losing Spike to an accident. Also another thing to remember is Dixie is very little, Spike could potentially hurt her too.


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## SSmom (Jan 3, 2010)

DIXIE doesnt have a mean bone in her body, shes a blonde Polish dork like me (except i don't weigh 5 lbs), she ran away from my ferrets, freddy would grab on to her right ear and molly to her left and she would drag them, i'm sure it hurt, but she just went with the flow. i live in a 430 sq ft cave as i like to call my basement and everything was going on within a 5-10 ft vicinity of me. dixie poo ran away when he hissed a few days back, but now they seem closer than Spike is with me. thanks for the concern you are 100% right you never can expect the un expected, i just wanted to share the cuteness of the story. Gosh i love this forum, its like were one big Spikey family.


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