What Breed Of Dog Gets Along Well Chinchillas?

I own three chinchillas and am thinking about buying a dog. The chinchillas live in wire cages in a one-bedroom house. I don't want to traumatize a dog or the chinchillas by having them live together when they are not compatible.

Psycho Sid Vicious Fan answered:
I highly suggest that you save your money and a dog/puppy's life and adopt from a shelter near you. Just go to this site http://www.petfinder.com/ put the name of your city, the 2 initials for your state with your city and state initials separated with a comma. Make sure you click the top to add "dog" to your search. Then hit the "go" button. Then you'll see all the dogs and puppies that are up for adoption near you. Then look through the dogs and puppies for ones that are said to be OK with Chinchillas and other rodents. There are many that have lived with them in their previous home.

Marna O answered:
A lot of this is how a dog is raised. We had Shelties when my kids were growing up along with a myriad of other pets. The kids' hamsters were constantly gnawing their way through the habitrails, and it was my daughter's Sheltie that would alert us there was an escapee by leading us to it! The guinea pigs and rabbit would get free roaming time in the house; the dogs knew the critters were part of the family and would avoid them, usually by jumping on the sofas.

My daughter (22) has a Sheltie and a Lab (field bred and has been out for hunting training) both are agility dogs....and 5 guinea pigs in topless cages on the floor and also a chinchilla. Her dogs leave them alone.....when the piggies and chinchilla get their free time, they actually climb all over the Lab, and nibble his whiskers!

Cleoppa answered:
Any dog can be trained to get along with small animals. There are, however, definitely preferred breeds for getting along with small animals.

Choosing a dog should be on more than one criteria, so it's impossible to recommend breeds. (I don't know how big of a dog you want, how much exercise it will get, how much grooming you want to do, etc., etc.) I will give you some guidelines, however.

I would advise against breeds that have historically been bred to hunt small animals. Broadly, these include Sporting breeds, Hound breeds and Terriers.

A farm dog, Herding breed or livestock guardian dog were often bred to protect or at least get along with small animals around the farm. These might be good choices.

Dogs in the Working Group would probably be a good choice.

Dogs in the Toy and Non-Sporting Groups tend to be a mix. Probably most dogs in the Non-Sporting Group would be good matches. The Toy Group has several breeds that were bred down from terriers, hounds and sporting dogs... some are OK, some aren't.

Again, this is general. It really depends on the individual dog and how it is raised. Retired racing Greyhounds are tested with cats. Some want to chase them and others are fine. Choosing a breed should be based on other things as well, so hopefully this will give you some help in your research. Good luck!