A lesson learned the hard way.

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I was out one afternoon inspecting my Russian enclosure when I found a weak point on the siding. It wasn't a vulnerability for escape, but for invasion, this was something I would learn later... Some of you know where this is going. In my head, it was more of an aesthetics problem, so I designed a new enclosure and bought all the supplies a few days later. I should have done everything the day I found the weakness in the siding.

Yesterday morning was the day I was going to rebuild the enclosure, but when I walked outside, the siding was busted and something slipped through. Something had dug up around their buried hide, and as I looked around I found one of my females on her back, not moving. My heart sank into my gut as I feared the worse. I could already see the damage done to her shell, something had chewed her up pretty good. Then my dog scout slipped through the hole in the siding with a "Look at my new trick!" look on her face. Rage set over me, I wanted to strangle my dog, but that passed after only a few seconds and the rage I felt came down upon myself. It was my fault. I underestimated the weakness of the siding and I severely underestimated the intelligence of my dog. I inspected my tortoise and I found no punctures and her limbs and head were fine. I took her to the vet and he said my dog had been chewing on her for at least a couple hours... It must have happened in the night while I was out with my in-laws, against my will. My Veterinarian said that she was going to make a full recovery and that despite the circumstances, she was lucky to just have shell damage. 80% of the damage is on the bottom of her shell, and in my experience with Russians, which I've met some with dog bite damage on the bottom of their shells,the bottom of the shell replenishes much faster than other tortoises, 5-10 years to regrow in the cases I know personally. So she was lucky, I guess...

Two things.

First, when I inspected the damage to the siding, I noticed dozens and dozens of muddy paw prints all along the siding until the break, where there was a high concentration of overlapped paw prints. By my guess, my dog was testing the side for a weakness, found it and exploited it. Scout is a Nova Scotian Duck Tolling Retriever, one of the smartest breeds alive.

Second, I should have reinforced the siding the moment I found it weak. I guess 23 years of raising dogs and Torts without major incident made me complacent and careless.

Two lessons learned:

Never underestimate your dog's intelligence.

If you find any weakness in your enclosure, fix it right there and then, even if you have to makeshift something temporary and it's ugly as hell, FIX IT NOW!

I'm confessing this so others will learn from my mistake.


My tortoise is expected to make a full recovery and I will not be making this mistake ever again.

I really hope this make all of your go out for an inspection, I hope this post saves some torts from predators.
 

dmmj

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hopefully people who think dogs and tortoises are okay together alone will read this and think twice, thank you for sharing your story.
 

KaijuEmily

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Im so glad you shared your expiriences! My dog let herself into my reptile room and ate most of my baby redfoot's cuttlebone. Lucky for my tort, my dog was only interested in that...
 

wellington

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Thank you for sharing this. Don't beat yourself up. If you had any clue your dog would have done this, you would have done things different. So glad your tort is going to be okay. Glad you were willing to share with us. Hopefully others who just insist that torts and dogs are fine together will see this thread, along with the many others of a tort losing to a dog.
 

Lyn W

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Thank you for posting this! I am so glad your tort is expected to get better.
Hopefully good will come out of your sad story and will encourage dog owners to take the warnings about not trusting them seriously because usually where there's a will there's a way.
All good wishes to you and your tort I hope her wounds soon heal and that she isn't too affected by the trauma.
 

kathyth

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I'm glad you posted this! Lesson learned. I'm sure your dog is extremely intelligent. Dogs view tortoises as moving rawhide. It an unfortunate reality.
In my beginning, I had a similar experience, knowing it was my fault, not the dogs.
I'm glad your baby will be okay.
You sound like a great tortoise owner.
 

surfergirl

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thanks for sharing your experience! it will pay off for others to learn from your story. Glad she is going to make a full recovery!
 

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