Advice on Dogs and Ducks

[DuckDuckJuice]

Hi, all! I’m hoping someone on here can offer a suggestion for our current situation. We have five ducks and three dogs who all share a yard during the day, with no feasible way to keep them separated. It is a small yard and dividing it would disadvantage both sides. Our dogs were put on a restricted diet recently because two of the three were gaining weight (our children like to feed them table food when they think we aren’t looking). Since cutting back their food, they have been raiding the feed we put out for the ducks every day, causing them to put on even more weight. The ducks are getting pretty annoyed with them, too. Has anyone else dealt with this before? Any ideas on how to build a dog-proof feeder that won’t be too difficult for the ducks to use (or annoy them)? For reference; we have two pekins, two silver appleyards, and a khaki campbell; and our dogs are small, medium, and large mixed-breed. Thanks!

 

[KaleIAm]

Is your smallest dog smaller than your biggest duck? If not, I think the easiest solution would be to have a "duck feeding station" with a duck door that the ducks can squeeze in but the dogs can't.

 

[DuckDuckJuice]

Is your smallest dog smaller than your biggest duck? If not, I think the easiest solution would be to have a "duck feeding station" with a duck door that the ducks can squeeze in but the dogs can't.

Unfortunately, yes. She outweighs them by a few pounds, but is shorter.

 

[Quatie]

So what I have done with my dogs and works, is I have an area that only the ducks are allowed into. My dogs know from repeated training not to go into that area. They respect that boundary and will not go past it. It took a bit of training with cameras, going out to correct them when they crossed over. Now they won't. Unfortunately, when the ducks cross over into the dog area and lay eggs there, the dogs eat them . So not perfect.

You could also try invisible fencing for the dogs, so they stop going near it.

 

[Isadora]

It's more work, but I would feed the ducks in the morning and again at night if I needed to, while the dogs are in the house, rather than having food available at all times.

 

[DuckDuckJuice]

Thank you guys for the suggestions! We can’t have a separate feeding area for the ducks because the dogs would not respect the boundaries. Two of the dogs are very old- one going blind, one deaf from birth. The deaf one also has dementia. Anything that involves training them beyond what they currently know would not be feasible. Feeding the ducks in the morning and evening could possibly work, but I worry about the probably very noisy reaction they would have to suddenly not having access to their food throughout the day. We live in the suburbs and have had a duck-hating neighbor report us for noise twice already.

 

[KaleIAm]

Sorry to hear that you have a disagreeable neighbor. Some BYC members are able to charm neighbors with free eggs, but it sounds like yours might be past that point?

 

[DuckDuckJuice]

Sorry to hear that you have a disagreeable neighbor. Some BYC members are able to charm neighbors with free eggs, but it sounds like yours might be past that point?

Definitely past that point. She’s not a particularly friendly person and seems to have a vendetta. We were reported to the zoning inspector and animal control several months ago. Both officials who came out to inspect said that the neighbor who called about our ducks phones in several times per week to complain about minor issues in the neighborhood. She’s just one of those types, I guess. Wants to live in Stepford but has to slum it with the regular folks. Thankfully, we are permitted to have ducks and haven’t had to rehome any yet, but I worry that any more complaints might force the city’s hand. One of our Silver Appleyards is broody right now and particularly vocal, so I’m sure any more noise would have consequences.

 

[Knighstar679]

Rent a coop makes a u shaped device that you can put on a 5 gallon bucket or tote it’s easy for them to learn. And unless the dogs decide to pick up the bucket will stop the dogs. Worked great with my welsh harlequins.

Rent A Coop Feeder

 

[igorsMistress]

Don’t let your kids feed the dogs table scraps. Make it a serious conversation and tell the kids it’s creating problems. If the kids do it they should get in trouble for doing it.