You would have definitely seen the pair of dog and other pets streaming on the internet. This pet-pairing is a new trend. Doggos can really get friendly with any of the pets; this is because they are active socially. They love knowing people as well as other pets then be it healthy pet or a small exotic pet. Yeah! They can get well with exotic pets too; all you need to do is train them properly. Once they are trained, you won't have to worry about your little pets, even about their safety from other predators.

Here exopetguides.com will talk about how friendly can dogs and hedgehogs be? Do hedgehogs affect the dog's health? And various topics related to the relationship between hedgehog and dog.

Hedgehogs are not that social, but they aren't that aggressive as well. Though they have a self-defence mechanism in their quills and that may hurt your dog. As they are small pets, they are bound to react defensively when in front of enormous creature (for hedgehog dogs are the huge creature as they are tiny).

Remember, some dog breeds are considered as predators for small animals. So you will have to be aware of the situations that you may face. Hedgehogs are small and tiny animals, but they can transmit diseases that may affect the health of your cute doggo.

Proper introduction

The foremost thing is the introduction of two pets, and it should be done in a proper way and perfect circumstances. Make sure there are two people available during the introduction process of which one will hold on to hedgehog and the second one will hold your dog.

Before moving forward to the introduction part, take your dog on a long walk to a park, play with him and make sure he gets thoroughly tired. While you are doing this thing, your new pet will get enough time to introduce itself with the new surroundings and environment.

The reason for making your dog fully tired is because dogs can get excited when they see new animal around them, and it may scare the little hedgehog.

Try to limit their interaction and monitor every move of both and encourage the good ones and make them understand what's wrong.

When you are having a hedgehog or any other small animal along with the dog, commands like, 'no', 'stay', and 'leave it' are essential. Make sure your pup reacts to all these commands quickly.

Signs your dog and hedgehog are going well together.

If your introduction went smoothly, then there are chances that your doggo and hedgehog are doing well together. Now the question is, how will you know whether they are really going well together or not? The following are the signs with which you can guess:-

●      Through its body language:- staring, alert, wagtail, and head tilting.

●      Other signs that they will show are through their nature. They will be gentle, obedient, and calm when hedgehog will be around. They will react to your commands more quickly.

Signs your dog has been affected.

It's good that they are going well together, but it may also result in health issues for your dog. Hedgehogs are cute little pets, but they can transmit fleas, salmonella, ringworm, and mites to your dog, and that will make the dog uncomfortable and unhealthy. So when you have both dog and hedgehog cleanliness and precautions are must so that it won't affect your pup's health.

Obviously, they aren't able to tell you about their illness, but sometimes they even fail to show that too. At those times the signs will help you in recognizing whether your four-legged friend has been affected by hedgehog or not, are as follows:-

●      He will start shaking, cowering, panting, chewing, pacing, scratching, and weakness.

●      Other things that you should look out for are loss of hair, red skin, crusty skin, ulcers, loss of appetite, depression, itching, vomiting, fatigue, diarrhea, etc.

If you recognize any of the above signs, take him immediately to the vet and get him treated.

Hedgehog won't make the right pet if you have any animal or human whose immune system is weak or compromised as they will catch the illness quickly and may result in a harmful situation.

Tips to make your dog and hedgehog stay healthy together

A little more care and you can definitely avoid the health issues. For this, you will have to take precautions and actions accordingly. It can result in a happy, healthy and co-existing life for both dog and hedgehog, and that will make you feel at ease and stress-free.

Somethings that you should watch after for a healthy companionship of both the pets are:-

●      Make sure you wash your hands for at least 20 seconds after handling a hedgehog and tell your relatives and friends to do the same.

●      Prevent your hedgehog from going to the places where food or drinks are prepared (in short, Kitchen).

●      Don't snuggle or kiss a hedgehog and if you do it, make sure you maintain distance from the four-legged.

●      Make your dog familiar with the commands no, stay and leave it, that way transmission of disease can be prevented.