Either way, my dog now stinks....

I've just been out in the garden to find out what my dog was so keen to investigate to find her chasing either a ferret or polecat around whilst it made high-pitched screeching or 'crawing' sounds. After a couple of laps of the veggie patch it escaped through the fence.

She came in after satisfying herself that it had gone, and she utterly stinks. I'm not bathing her at this time, so I've locked her downstairs for the night and will dunk her in the morning if it hasn't evaporated by then.

I live in a rural area on the English / Welsh border in South Cheshire / North Shropshire, surrounded by fields.

As it was being pursued at speed around the garden, I couldn't examine it closely - but does anyone know if there's any way I'd be able to definitively decide if it was an escaped / feral ferret or a polecat? I was always under the impression that the latter were incredibly rare.

Polecats aren't common in the UK but I think its more a case of them keeping out of sight than being particularly rare - I think its Pine Martens that are the real rarities.
Since ferrets are essentially domesticated Polecats I doubt you can be sure without a close up examination - which given their nature - rather you than me!

I think you're right - they're not as rare as I thought. I think I was mixing them up with pine martens.

Given how bad the dog smells since her encounter, there's no way I'd be close enough to do a positive ID!

Bad as their smell is their bite is much worse, that's the main reason to keep your distance.

I would think it's more likely to be a ferret than a polecat, or even a stoat or weasel, which although tiny are nasty fierce little things that can do a lot of harm to animals much bigger than themselves, so I'd watch your dog if she's trying to catch it. Whichever one it is, I would stay well away from it and don't corner it if you do see it, you seriously do not want a bite off any of them.

Having spoken to an organisation doing a survey on polecats in the area, I'm pretty sure it was a polecat rather than a ferret. It turns out that there's a bit of a population developing around here. I know stoats and weasels quite well as we get them here regularly in the Summer particularly, and it certainly wasn't one of them.


Either way, as you both say, they're all disproportionally vicious compared to their size and I certainly won't be encouraging the dog to seek them out. Unfortunately, she has a strong terrier instinct and not easily discouraged from going after anything that is of interest....

If the smell has not gone then wash your dog but use tomato ketchup first. I'd wet the dog , rub in the ketchup, rinse then wash with a doggie shampoo. That should get rid of the smell

Thanks for the tip - I'll keep that one for future use!

To my great surprise though, the usual baby shampoo I use for her got rid of the smell really effectively. I thought I'd be wasting my time and it would linger like fox sh*t, but it worked really well....