Good dogs

[hearthnsoul]

I finally broke down and put my smaller baby ducks in with my bigger baby ducks. Life is good, all but one of the bigger ones are just loving them. Of course now they are getting so big I bought a kiddie pool and moved them to the living room. I had to go to work, and that's where my apprehension came in. I actually left work early because I couldn't stand the idea of the dogs barging through the french doors and potentially having duck for lunch.
As I parked my car and made my way to the door I could see not one but both dogs waiting for me in the foyer,..yup off the living room, which means they barged through the door. I actually took a deep breathe before I opened the door. I greeted them and made my way through, no blood or guts at first sight, no strewn darling down lumps, so I started the count 1, 2,3,4,5,6 big baby ducks 1,2,3,4,5 little baby ducks,..all fine. I can't believe it the dogs didn't bother them.
The next day the the ducks realized they could pop out of the pool and wander about, the dogs,..looked on with disinterest. I am so darn excited.
Good Dogs, Good dogs!

 

[truecolorsloft]

Not all dogs are bad. My own white Shepherd loved my ducks and chickens. He's not too sure of the pigeons, as they have a thing for pecking him, and nor do i blame him. It's all in how the animal was raised.

 

[Stanui]

Our dog is 1/2 Basset and 1/2 Brittany Spaniel. She is literally Momma to our ducks. When they were tiny she wouldn't let them out of her sight. She would make them sleep right next to her. She also would take each one of them and lick it just like a puppy. Very cute!

 

[hearthnsoul]

When we adopted our Basset I was actually nervous about the australian shepard/golden retriever mix, who is now 6 years old and has always been number 1. He took wide strides around her, and she actually ended up being the fresh one. No matter what she does to him, he lets her have her way. It sort of silly to see considering she is so low to the ground and he is so tall and lanky. I suppose he deals with the ducks the same way he does with bella the basset. It was actually the Basset that worried me most, because she can be such a brat at times,..usually when there is food involved, but she seems just fine with the newbies.
The other day she was actually so funny. I had the ducks outside and a plastic cup filled with reserve duck feed. She went and picked up the cup and made a huge circle, sneaky as can be with the cup in mouth, not the brightest bulb on the tree, she couldnt figure out how to dump it out and eventually by accident managed to get the feed out, and she promptly ate it. Maybe she has figured she can catch crumbs if she keeps them around

 

[cyanne]

Just be careful to NEVER leave your dogs alone/unsupervised with your ducks no matter how 'disinterested' they act when you are there watching.

My Lab/Ridgeback mix, Lulu, was perfect around all of my chickens and ducks. She would stand by me while I opened the coop almost every day and not even show the slightest interest whenever all the the birds came flapping past in their excitement at being let out to free range. For over a year she never once touched any birds, but I still never let her be out around them without me there.

Then a couple of weeks ago she just got a wild hair up her butt and decided to climb out of the dog run and go 'play' with my ducks and chickens. She killed one of my male Khaki Campbells, seriously injured a female Pekin, and had a chicken in her mouth when my sister got home in the nick of time to stop the bloodbath. I still can't look at her without hating her guts. I know she was just being a dog and it's not fair, but I can't help how I feel either after burying the poor duck and knowing how he must have suffered with the slow way he was killed.

So, I guess the lesson is, no matter how they act when you are there, it only takes once for disaster to strike, so be very careful about not giving your dogs access to the birds when you aren't there. They don't have to be even trying to be mean, or trying to kill for them to do a lot of damage just 'playing' with their duck friends.

 

[monarc23]

like cyanne said no matter how wonderful you think your dogs are, only let your dogs with your small animals while you supervise what a dog does while you're around is way different from what they do when you're not around.