BTS and interactions with other pets

[Chauncey]

To recap: I have recently, and unexpectedly, inherited a BTS. While I have always had reptile pets, Chauncey is my first BTS and I'm playing catch -up on how to best care for him.

I have what I consider to be a very 'reptile friendly' dog who loves to interact with my tortoise (and helped him dig his burrow, in fact) and allows the iguana to crawl on top of him and steal some body heat without any complaint.

All interactions are, of course, closely supervised by me. Is there any reason (medically or otherwise) not to allow him to interact with Chauncey? Of course, I would never stress Chauncey out by forcing the interaction and scaring him- I'm speaking towards the long term future with a slow introduction.

If you're wondering, my primary motivation is that I've taken a lot of time to reptile proof my back yard, both so the tortoise can't dig his way out and so the iguana can't crawl out. It makes it a lot easier for me to have all the pets outside to get some exercise and sunlight at once, rather than in shifts. I've also found having the dog outside with me helps deter potential avian predators.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

They could "possibly" get along together, but many injuries that occur in BTS are from dog/cat attacks and often times they kill them. That doesn't mean that they cannot "possibly" get along together. But the BTS isn't going to seek out the dogs attention or try to be friends with it. They might leave each other along. But they dog my attack the skink. Or the skink might feel threatened and bite the dog, which might cause the dog to bite the skink.

[Dakota]

There is a group on Facebook called "Show Off Your Reptiles" (which is a mostly Bearded Dragon group) that has a standard Indonesian in a cage w/o a top, so that show allows her CAT to get into cage to use his "heating rock". The only thing on reptiles mind are breeding and surviving. If you flip a turtle upside down, it panics because he know he will die if he isn't flipped up, regardless if you know you are going to.. irrelevant stress.

They may tolerate each other, but they aren't "friends" like ML is stating above.

I might let my dog sniff them, but never leave them on the floor by themselves (or even supervised for that matter). I personally would not risk it.

[donkeybuff]

In your case, I would worry more about the skink being stressed out, especially because he did not grow up with dogs or iguanas. I wouldn't worry too much about the tortoise. Also, tortoises and iguanas are much more substantial than a little skink, so I would be a little worried about your dog not being gentle enough. Most people on the forum who say that their dog hurt their skink say that the dog wanted to play with the skink, but ended up hurting it on accident.

[Dakota]

I'm assuming you have not heard the horror stories of dogs and tortoises on the tortoise forum, huh?

[donkeybuff]

I'm assuming you have not heard the horror stories of dogs and tortoises on the tortoise forum, huh?

Actually, I haven't. The people I know with dogs and tortoises say they are fine together, so I thought they were usually fine. I guess it all depends on the animals.

[BlueTonguesOfSA]

Had an experience first hand with my Doberman and two baby leopard tortoises. Took all of 15 minutes, of me showering, for him to make his way to their bin in the room across the hall and proceed to put puncture holes all over their shells. I was livid! One of the worst experiences I've had with reptiles.

[Susann]

I don't think you'll find anyone here who is going to say that it would be just fine. I could be wrong. But I doubt it.
Is there a medical reason? As in, your dog getting salmonella from Chauncey? I think that is the LEAST thing you would ever need to worry about were your dog and Chauncey ever left on the ground in the same general area at the same time.
Would it be safe? Probably, if your dog is used to being around reptiles. Would I personally ever do it? No.

There is a guy in Montana who has a "pet" grizzly bear named Brutus. Brutus was best-man at their wedding, often has Thanksgiving dinner at the table in their house, and so on. The guy knows his bear, they've practically lived together since the bear was a tiny cub. But I would still bet a million bucks (...had I a million bucks...) that the guy will not ever put his baby on the grass at the same time Brutus is there. I could be wrong. But I doubt it.
Why?
Because even though any owner may know their animal really well, when the chance of disaster and/or death is that great, any responsible owner would, in my opinion, be irresponsible to, out of a choice, put any living being in that great of possible danger. (Just using Brutus as an example because, size wise, he could take out a baby about as easily as a dog could take out a BTS.)
I may be opening a can of worms, I don't know; yes, there are lots of people who have their Labradors play with their kids, even though there is a possibility of injury to either the dog or the kids,
but, personally, when I had a dog and a baby in the same room, if I left the room, either the dog or the baby came with me. And I knew my dog pretty darn well. But I felt, as a parent, I had that great a responsibility for my baby, who I felt depended on me for its ultimate safety. Unless there was a gun to my head with someone telling me to leave the room, there was no reason for me to make the choice of taking that miniscule risk.

[Richard.C]

Its like keeping blueys in groups,they may get along fine,then oneday all hell breaks loose,always a risk

Only takes one mishap for something bad to happen

[Chauncey]

These are all really good reasons to not do it. Thank you for your input, I'm convinced! And yes, both my iguana and tortoise are larger than my dog. My iguana and tortoise grew up around dogs and my current dog has been around these two reptiles since he was 8 weeks old so they have a very well established relationship with one another. Even still, they are never out of my sight together for a moment.

To clarify, I was more worried about my dog giving something to the skink, not the other way around. I've seen the gross things my dog finds to eat in the desert....I'm pretty certain he is indestructible.

[Susann]

I don't know of anything, other than a bite, that your dog could give your skink...?
And,
we are not telling you to NOT ever do it; they are your animals, you know them, you are aware of the risks, it is 100% up to you. I'm just saying that I don't think you'll find anyone here to tell you to go ahead and do it. Because of the possible risks.

[Fatal_S]

While I love that everyone is cautious and putting animal-welfare first, I will say that my dog spends time with my reptiles, including my newborn baby skinks. She has been trained her entire life to be very careful around all small animals (her best friends used to be a group of gerbils). When the reptiles are in their tanks or out-of-tank with me, she completely ignores them. If they get loose and she notices she'll alert me to where they are (she's very insistent that I fix it). But it's outdoors where she comes in really handy - she becomes very protective of my animals. We have free-roaming cats around and sometimes they seem a little too interested. While she normally ignores the skinks and wants to be friends with cats, she'll stand guard over the skinks outside. I absolutely adore this dog for how great she is with my other animals; she's something special <3

That said, even though I think she is an amazing dog, I still never leave them together unsupervised. I try to keep the skinks from going right up to the dog, and I realize that there is a very real danger the skinks could get hurt if something goes wrong. The worst danger for the dog is getting tasted by a skink (they seem to think fuzzy feet look very yummy), but then a dog might bite back. Getting stepped on is another danger for the skinks. There are definitely risks. I am personally willing to take some risks, but every person's situation is different. I will say if they are allowed near each other you should be within grabbing distance of the skink at all times - they really do seem to think dogs look tasty.