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'My Dog Killed my Daughter's Best Friend's Guinea Pigs'

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Different twist
by: Anonymous

My friend agreed to take care of my dog while I went to visit my family. I have a terrier/dachshund mix. I knew the family had a guinea pig as well as some type of squirrel as pets. I was very honest in explaining that my dog was bred to hunt small animals and it would not be good if he got in where the cages were. Just 1 day after leaving, I receive a call telling me that my dog killed the guinea pig. One of the children brought it out of its cage and put in a chair to watch tv and my dog noticed it and grabbed it and killed it. They informed me they were taking the dog back to my house. I am not home for 4 more days. 2 days later I finally got someone to answer my calls, calling home, cell and texting, and was informed that no one had checked on the dog in that time.
Though I feel awful for the child who witnessed the loss of her pet. I am at a loss as to how to proceed as it appears that they are blaming me.
Sorry to hear bad news
by: Anonymous

I brought 2 guinea pigs the other week. Today I left the door open and went to feed them, the next minite my dog came barging in, saw the guinea pig and squeezed inside the pigs cage and grabbed one. We told her to drop, she did exactly as we told her, then we saw it all floppy. My Mum, me and my sister was doing mouth to mouth and giving it a heart massage for two hours. We really believed that we could make it come back until we realised it had gone we did our best but it wasn't good enough. We was all sad but I now feel horrible.
I'm so sorry.
by: Anonymous

I feel your pain. I have had this happen to me too. My daughter got a guinea pig, his name was Pudding, and that was her best friend. Our Siberian Husky was curious and knocked the cage over. She grabbed Pudding and brought him to my daughter, and my daughter started to hyperventilate, cause pudding was obviously gone. Then about three months later, she got two other guinea pigs. One was pregnant and had two babies. Again the husky knocked over the cage, as soon as I walked into her room, and saw the Husky grab the mama pig, and I heard the worst squeal of my life. My daughter had a panic attack from it.
Long story short, it hurts to lose a pet, especially if its a friend's pet, but you need to tell them the truth. There is no other way around it.
I feel your pain
by: Anonymous

My daughter has had three guinea pigs and our dogs have killed all three, whether due to guinea pig fear or a puncture wound. There is no escaping human error, leaving a gate open, leaving a door unchecked, heading out for ten minutes and leaving the dogs out of the kennel. My stomach is in knots over having to break the news to my daughter about the latest incident that happened this afternoon. There will be no more guinea pigs at our house for a while. It is unfair of us to put the guinea pigs in the same home with our dogs who cannot help their instincts and it is unfair to expect all the people living in the house to remember to shut a door or gate etc. Also, the person who may have left a door open feels so horrible afterwards and everyone cries for days.

It is just, to me, a mom of seven who has had so many pets come and go, very unfair and stressful to put all of us in that situation where it could happen again. I can't even imagine how we would feel if the guinea pigs were someone else's pets. Regardless, no one likes to see a child grieve...there are valuable lessons to be learned about letting go, but also about our responsibilities to animals we take under our wing. Thank you for sharing your story. It helps to know we are not alone, though there is nothing that can take away the sick feeling of having to tell a child their pet is gone.
So sorry about what happened
by: Anonymous

Dear Need Help

I'm not an expert but I have kept guinea pigs myself and so what I can say is that they are quite fragile and can die if startled or shocked. This is not something that anyone not experienced with guinea pigs would be aware of, so you were not to know this. So I think it's quite possible that your dog was just being naturally curious, but that the result of this was unfortunately that the guinea pigs died from the shock caused by his curiousity.

My advice would be to be honest. I'm not sure what age all the children involved are, but assuming they are around 10 years old, at this age children have an understanding of death and know that it is natural and that everything living will die. Keeping anything from them is not a good idea as it will just make them feel excluded and lied to and most children will be able to pick up from your reactions that all is not well.

I would explain to them that the dog was just doing what comes naturally and was curious about the guinea pigs, but did not know it's own strength or how fragile they were. I would also say that you could not have predicted this would happen, and that if you had been able to you would have taken steps to prevent it.

You do not have to go into great detail, as children will usually ask questions anyway, so I would tell them the basics of what happened and then customise your answers to their questions according to how much understanding and interest they seem to have. Children of this age react in a similar way to adults and use the adult's around them as role models for this, so bear in mind that the way you react to this situation will also affect their reactions.

As the pets belonged to another family, I would suggest to them that some sort of ceremony is held for the guinea pigs, in which all the children can be involved in planning and take part, but only if they want to. Children's experience of pet death help to shape their reactions to death as adults, so I would use this as a positive (in as much as it can be) experience from which they can learn these skills.

Use the ceremony to reminisce fondly about the pets and to associate happy memories, and emphasise that as long as we remember our pets they will always be a part of us.

Obviously you feel very badly about what has happened, but you cannot turn back time, so the best thing you can do is take positive steps to deal with the situation.

In the case of the other parents I would also be honest, what has happened is not really anyone's fault but just a tragic turn of events, and I would hope that if you explained to them what has happened that they will be able to appreciate this and work with you to help all the children involved to understand this.

I hope this helps.

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'My Dog Killed my Daughter's Best Friend's Guinea Pigs'.