Battling wit' Luis Ratones

[Leafmite]

Poor neighbors...must have felt awful. At least you prevented any other deaths.
Our first dog, a wedding gift, was a Westie who was the Great Hunter, sparing only rabbits and birds (We had a pet rabbit and parakeet so she was taught to leave them alone). What happened to your baby could have easily happened to her. I trained our current dogs not to hunt just to be on the safe side.

[RandomGemini]

I could never train my Labs not to hunt. I rescue my dogs and the Labs that always end up in shelters are field bred dogs. Field bred dogs are partially insane. They are bred for their prey drive and when puppy millers decide to get into the mix, they can pump that prey drive up to levels that are just incredible. Most of my dogs either came from puppy mills, or backyard breeders originally before their previous owner dumped them in an animal shelter because they couldn't deal with the high activity level. So they have that insane prey drive. You really can't do anything with it, except channel it into positive behaviors, but there's no way I could train them to stop hunting. That would be like asking them to stop breathing.

BTW, RJ? Your dog is gorgeous. I LOVE her face. Give her a kiss from me. She's a good girl, I can tell.