Raccoons

[flurball]

I am starting to see evidence of what I suspect to be Raccoons coming into my yard at night and bathing in my backyard pond.

I wonder if they are a hazard to my dachshunds if they encounter each other or would it be the other way around?

Thanks to any with advice or experience.

Flurball

[Jen]

Make sure your dachshunds are up to date on rabies shots... normal healthy raccoons would probably run from the dogs so i wouldn't worry about that.

Jen

[Mike]

How deep is your pond?  If these are young still "attached" to the mother, she might be more likely to attack the dogs.  Also, my dad saw a raccoon drown a dog by sitting on its head in the river.

[Leslie]

my dad saw a raccoon drown a dog by sitting on its head in the river.

Dag, Mike, you might be a redneck if ya saw a coon whoopass a dawg....

Seriously, that's amazing, but then they do get pretty big, you wouldn't see me tangle with one.

[David C.]

Raccoons are tough customers and not to be taken lightly.   As fearless as our dachsies are, a raccoon can probably put a significant amount of hurt on one.

My only dog versus raccoon experience was a story related to me about Scallywag, a mixed dobie.  Scally was a very accomplished hunter and could bring down groundhogs, rats, rabbits, foxes, squirrels, etc.  Curiously, she would lay her kills in a line, something that foxes do.  She was large, quick and tough.

One time, a raccoon got into the rafters of the house.   It fell through the ceiling and into the kitchen.  Scally quickly cornered it.  However, as tough and as experienced of a hunter that Scally was, she couldn't bring the raccoon down.  The raccoon, on the other hand, was not wily enough to be able to escape from Scally.   It was a stand-off, with neither animal backing down and neither animal able to take advantage.   In the end, it took human intervention to chase the raccoon out and end the confrontation.

If an experienced hunter like Scally couldn't take down a raccoon with her considerable size advantage, I don't think a dachshund would fare too well either, to say the least.   

[Jen]

DANG!! When i lived in NC we got raccoons in the yard all the time but they would always haul butt when they saw the dogs running for them... I have never seen one take on a dog of any size. One time my dogs got into a tangle with a stray cat ... NOW that was ugly!! 

[Dee Dee and Hallie]

Most of us don't get lepto vaccinations for our doxies because of the risk of them reacting to the vaccine, but they are finding new cases of lepto even in vaccinated dogs. (there have been several reported in my area). They can get it from drinking water an infected racoon, or other wildlife, has peed in. You can google if interested but below is part of an article I cut and pasted. As far as tangling, I know of dogs who were torn up by raccoons and one attacked my cat when I was a kid, because we were feeding her outside and the raccoon wanted her food, so I'd be careful of both their teeth and their pee.  :thinik:

Leptospirosis, a contagious disease affecting both animals and humans and spread by infection with a bacterial pathogen called Leptospira, may result in chronic liver and kidney disease and fatality in the dog. Over the past 30 years, preventative vaccination against two of the most common Leptospires, L. canicola and L. icterohaemorrhagiae, have nearly eradicated clinical disease associated with these strains among the inoculated population. Though not without potential side effects associated with allergic reactions to inoculant in a small number of dogs, the risks of not vaccinating for Leptospirosis once far outweighed risks of vaccine-reaction. In recent years, however, new outbreaks of Leptospirosis have been reported in the population of vaccinated dogs. Clinical evidence now suggests that these new cases are associated with the once, less-common Leptospires for which current vaccines do not protect against. In light of these findings, the process of vaccinating dogs with the current Leptospirosis vaccines is being seriously questioned.

Modes of Disease Transmission. Leptospira thrive in spring and autumn when wet soil conditions and moderate temperatures support their otherwise poor environmental survivability. Infection by contact with infected urine or ingestion of urine-contaminated water is the most common means of transmission of the disease. Less common modes of infection include transmittance of the organisms during breeding, gestation, or through the membranes of the eyes, abrasions or bite wounds, or ingestion of the flesh from infected animals such as rats, raccoons, skunks or opossums. A serovar infects the dog as a maintenance host, using the dog to carry out most, if not all of the organism's life cycle. Under these conditions, the kidneys of the infected dog become the "breeding" grounds for the serovar, some of which will be shed in the urine where they may gain access to other dogs and continue the infectious cycle.

[lucylu]

We's gots coons too. They use to come in my yard and eats Miss Kitty's catfood. I's chased them away so many times. I thinks now theys knows who is the boss of this house. They dont comes to eat no more. They stay in the other yards from now on.

[Mike]

Dag, Mike, you might be a redneck if ya saw a coon whoopass a dawg....

I do have some cousins who's eyes are on the same side of their face and they like to make pig noises...

[TerriL]

Priceless Mike...just priceless!  LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL