help with ferrets and dog needed

[Rich.h 4]

I have an 8 week lakeland/russell bitch that i'm trying to get used to the ferrets. So far all that has been done is swapping them around between daytimes and nights so they get used to each others smell, also for short periods (10 mins or so), I place the pup into her transport box so they can get close to each other with no teeth.

 

This evening I thought I would try moving things forward a little and so brought one of the ferrets into the living room with the pup. Straight away I could see that if I just left them both on the floor to each other the pup was going to loose a lump of ear or worse. So I took it in turns to lift the ferret and pup and let the other get a good sniff, obviously the ferret took this as a chance to nip. Granted she did let go when the pup yelped but I'm guessing more out of shock than manners. The problem being is this just leaves the pup scared so she backs into a corner.

 

Now I know I must be doing something wrong here but I don't know what. Am I rushing things too fast? Or is there a better way to get them used to each other?

 

Oh also tried the bowl of milk trick but sadly they both blanked it in favour of each other.

[gnipper 7,031]

If the pup has a healthy respect of ferrets its no bad thing, the ferrets will leave it alone too when it grows. They don't have to play together to work together later in life.

[The one 8,611]

Your doing fine as said if the pup has a healthy respect of ferrets as a pup there should be no problem working her with them later