dogs and ducks

[ChickensRDinos]

I have posted this on other threads, so sorry if this is repeat but I really believe that any breed of dog can be trained to be around your animals safely if you work on training them well in overall impulse control. Here is the method I use to train my dogs:

I have a pit-bull mix and three pugs. The pit and two of the pugs are rescues from urban shelters with mixed histories of abuse. All four dogs are out in the yard with my 5 chickens everyday without any problems. In fact I once had a chicken attack a dog but never the opposite. Everyone guaranteed me that the pit would kill my chickens but she has never been a problem.

Here is what I personally recommend: The most important thing to focus on overall is improving your dogs impulse control. No matter what your dog has a natural prey drive but more than that they are pack animals that want to please their master. Good basic training makes teaching them anything else so much easier. Make sure that you can snap your dogs attention back to you even when they see something they want. (I can't snap so I use an "aht." noise - this means sit and pay attention to me) One of the best ways to work on this without a live animal present is during feeding. Do you free feed your dogs or do they eat at regular times? I would recommend taking them off of free feeding if you are doing that. Focus on training your dogs so they they will not eat anything unless you give a specific command. I set down all four bowls of food and make the dogs wait. They do not eat until they hear their own name and see a hand gesture. Also work on them stopping eating at a command and willing stepping away from their food. I say "Name, wait." and they stop and sit until told to continue. These skills help with impulse control in many areas of training. It may seem unrelated but to a dog, the one who controls the food is the ruler of them all.

It is also a good idea to work on the “leave it” command with toys, food and other things.

I would introduce the dog to the chickens on a leash and just sit and be calm. (One dog at a time if you have more than one) As soon as she starts to fixate on the chickens in any way other than simple curiosity or barks or is excited (even happy excited) I would scold her with the same word every time (you only need to say it once, firmly) and immediately take her inside. It is important to take her in even with happy excitement. You are training her to ignore the chickens not to like the chickens and there is a big difference. With my dogs I brought them back when they were calm and started all over again. and again and again. lol. I allowed them to glance at them or sniff them but anything else was a no. It takes a lot of time and patience but a;; of the dogs ignore the chickens and now find very little interest in them at all other than a sniff here or there. I never yelled or hit them or used a choke or a shock. I just said no and took them away immediately at any sign of fixation or barking. You will need to do this everyday until they get it. Patience is the key and consistency. It sucks because sometimes you are busy and don't want to deal with it but starting and stopping will just make it worse. I leave them all together unsupervised regularly.

Here is my pit, Lou, with a silkie chick who fell in love with her.

 

[Bellevue]

I have a spoodle who is great with the ducks. She loved them from day one and was even motherly with her attention to them. She sill loves to go outside and just watch them in a maternal way. I have a malteese also. He thought he would chase them at first when they were just ducklings but I told him off with a doggy growl and a smack on the bot. He soon got the message. He is fine with the ducks now. He is quite old and smaller than the ducks now. His eye sight is bad and sometimes he walks too close to the ducks on route to the backyard. I am more worried about him now as he has fallen in the pond twice and gets a peck or two if he walks too close too the ducks. The dogs and ducks are together all day while we are at work and school and I like it that way. We have cats in the neighborhood that roam, foxes, Kurrawongs, Cockatoos. Mostly foxes are the real threat and the dogs are good to be around the ducks. I hate the idea of the neighbours cats though... Not sure how much of a threat the cats are. I think some breads of dogs are better as they have less instinct for hunting. I imagine anything crossed with a poodle would be good.

 

[ChristineR]

I think it is possible to train a dog to leave them alone, but depending on the dog, it may be extremely difficult. My neighbor trains dogs for a living and I've talked to her about this issue.

My Lab, Pointer, and Golden Retriever have/had zero interest in the ducks (my mean Swedish drake will actually chase them and they either ignore him or, in my Golden Retriver's case, run away or cower). My mutt will kill any small animal that he can catch. I've found that it's easier to put up secure fencing and pens than it is to break him of this. He has an extremely high prey drive. Someone dumped him on my property seven years ago. In that time, he's managed to kill one chicken that got loose.

You might get lucky and find that your dog isn't interested in them at all.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I think it mostly just a big time commitment. You can train a high prey drive dog to be around your pets and the actual steps are not hard. There are a number of people on here who successfully use hunting and bird dogs as chicken safe yard dogs. The hard part is being willing to set side an hour or so of your day every single day without fail until they get it and it might take awhile and be sort of annoying. A week or two is not going to be enough and just working with your dog and the birds is not going to be enough. It has to be a goal of excellent basic training and overall impulse control exercises.

I think the most common mistake is that you are teaching your dog to like the birds. It is more about teaching your dog that these things are MY things. Everything here is mine. It is also important to re-introduce your dog to any new birds or new bird areas that you add on so that they understand that these new things are also yours.

It's fun to come home to dogs that are so happy to see you they go crazy but this is also a sign of low impulse control. I do not touch them to talk to them until they are calm and still. It's big picture training so that when unexpected things happen and your dog is startled or unsure and the the birds are startled they have to tools to try to react in the way you want them to. Food, toys, walks, games are all opportunities to work on impulse control.

My only concern about keeping dogs and birds fenced apart is that one day they will very likely get out and do not have to tools to react how you want them to.

 

[ChristineR]

I think it mostly just a big time commitment. You can train a high prey drive dog to be around your pets and the actual steps are not hard. There are a number of people on here who successfully use hunting and bird dogs as chicken safe yard dogs. The hard part is being willing to set side an hour or so of your day every single day without fail until they get it and it might take awhile and be sort of annoying. A week or two is not going to be enough and just working with your dog and the birds is not going to be enough. It has to be a goal of excellent basic training and overall impulse control exercises.

I think the most common mistake is that you are teaching your dog to like the birds. It is more about teaching your dog that these things are MY things. Everything here is mine. It is also important to re-introduce your dog to any new birds or new bird areas that you add on so that they understand that these new things are also yours.

It's fun to come home to dogs that are so happy to see you they go crazy but this is also a sign of low impulse control. I do not touch them to talk to them until they are calm and still. It's big picture training so that when unexpected things happen and your dog is startled or unsure and the the birds are startled they have to tools to try to react in the way you want them to. Food, toys, walks, games are all opportunities to work on impulse control.

My only concern about keeping dogs and birds fenced apart is that one day they will very likely get out and do not have to tools to react how you want them to.

Yes, it would be a huge commitment, if it could be done, and I would never trust him around them anyway, so to me it's not worth it. I'd rather just fence and double fence. He may have a little wolf in him - he looks it, but being abandoned, I have no history on him. He's an excellent hunter and eats what he kills (squirrels, chipmunks, snakes, the occasional bird, etc). The one chicken that he has manged to get, he ate. It's not just about the fun chase for him.

My dogs are well trained, so it's not that I let them run wild. They don't jump on me, they know the basic sit, down, off, stay, come, etc. My Golden Retriever actually made it to the 4H state championship finals this year with my daughter. It was their first year in 4H and my daughter is a junior 4Her, so that was pretty impressive. The dogs can be running after a deer and I can call them back mid-chase and they will immediately stop and run back.

It's funny, though, my bird dogs have always been very trustworthy around all other animals. People always ask how I can have them around the ducks and geese. I have never worried about them around the birds. They are just not interested, they seem to "get" that the ducks are mine, not toys for them.

 

[furbabymum]

My dogs ADORE my ducks. They've eaten one already. Guess that's what I get for buying birds after teaching them all to hunt birds.

 

[Beefcake15]

I have 14 chickens and had 4 ducks. I am now down to one sad duck thanks to my 2 Aussies. The dogs leave my chickens alone they show little to no interest in them and never have, but for whatever reason they keep attacking my ducks. The dogs will actually weed the duck out of the flock of chickens. Anybody gave any suggestions? Why do they hate/love the ducks?

 

[alaska-chick72]

I had a yellow lab as a kid and htched just 1 chick out of 6 eggs in an incubator in the livingroom of our home. The dog was always there wanting to know what was going on from the time the incubator was set up till the day the chicken died of being egg bound. My lab never went after my chick, the chickens that followed, or the pigeons that I had with the chickens. She didnt like my rooster,,, but loved to have new chicks crawl all over her and fall asleep between her feet.
Its all in how you train your dog, and the dogs temperment. There are many people that let their dogs get away with the little things,, but not here,, NO means NO!! Keep it at that. But also keep in mind that some hunting dogs have the hunting 'fever' more than others. Hunting dogs can be trained but you still have to be constantly on the lookout for that one time that he or she might go too far, be it in play or a preaditory moment. Good luck to you and I wish you the best.

 

[TTeddy]

My golden retriever Lilly has taken to my newly hatched ducklings. I had to remove the ducklings from their mum and at the moment I'm keeping them in a small transportable pen which I made. Lilly lays next to the pen and just watches them. Sometimes she wimpers/cries, don't know why.
When I pick them up she wants to say hello. If I have the duckling on my lap Lilly rests her chin on my lap watching them and gives me her puppy eye look, which is really cute!
I'm hoping that she will become protective of them and will look after them when I'm not around. I'm quite confident she will.
I have a silky 6 month old puppy and she seems to me fascinated as well. But I think she will just want to play with them, lol.

 

[acire67]

We're having the same trouble as Beefcake15. We've had chickens for 3 years and our dogs have been okay around them, ignoring them. A few months ago we got some Muscovy ducklings. Last weekend one of the kids let our Lab/Heeler mix out. We weren't letting her out while the ducks were out unless we were out also. Anyway, by the time I realized she was out, 2 of the ducks were dead. I don't understand why she did this, but is okay with the chickens. I do realize it doesn't matter, we have to have more control over her & our other dog. I've thought about fencing in the ducks, but is that just putting a bandaid over the real problem?