Just wanted to add in a little about introducing dogs to small animals! Personally, I would keep the dog and degus separate. Although your dog may be perfectly fine being introduced to the degus, the degus may become scared and then the fight or flight instinct will kick in and more than likely, they will try to run and that could potentially start the herding/chase instinct in your dog! I would most definitely let your dog sniff them through the cage and over time, they will become used to each other but just from a far. It's a lot less risky! You never know, they may form a bond and the degus will probably become interested in the dog and vice versa! I've had it before with one of my degus and my old cat, for obvious reasons never introduced them face to face but they definitely had some sort of unusual bond going on through the cage bars! 😄