DanielleInUro
Songster
We have eight ducks in a fairly large suburban yard who are beloved pets. One gets sick, they go to the vet. One dies, there's full funeral ceremony. If I woke up tomorrow and they were all identical-looking, I could tell you who's who in about five seconds on behavior alone. They're the light of my life.
We just lost my husband's dog (cancer.) She killed a duck and three quail in the first year, before we put a stop to it with fencing and strict separation. My husband always loved his dog more than the ducks (he feels about dogs the way I feel about ducks), and dearly wished to be able to go hang out with the ducks, with the dog, and it was never, ever going to happen.
We put a deposit down yesterday on a one-day-old Kangal/Anatolian pup. It was the best compromise that the two of us could come with and was the end result of a LOT of tense discussions and pleading.
We don't need a LGD--the only predator losses we've ever taken were from his dog. And no dog will ever, ever be left along with our ducks for even a second, it's just not going to happen. And we're all on the same page that a dog of this size may not be an easy fit for our 3 bed, 2 bath and regular suburban backyard alone, and that lots of dog-walking on leash is in our future. I have zero expectations of the dog "bonding with the flock" in our backyard and being trustworthy. My intention is to raise and train up a pet dog who will NOT chase after the ducks and shake them to death while we're standing right there screaming "NO BAD DOG LEAVE IT." I have zero chance of "rehoming" the dog once the husband is bonded to it, and any duck losses would be a seriously disastrous family event.
So...these are my parameters. They're not great, and they're not what I would have chosen alone, but there they are. When I met him and his dog five years ago, I loathed her; completely untrained besides housebreaking, no way to stop her from ANYTHING, and lots of "forget you, you're not my papa and he doesn't tell me what to do, I can do whatever I want." Two years of that, and it was "If you won't train your dog, I will. Stay out of my way and don't undermine me or there will be hell to pay." And for the last three years, we had a well-behaved, polite dog who could be stopped and minded us when we asked her to do something or not. So I'm reasonably confident in our dog-training abilities at this point, and confident in his understand that trained dog = good and how to work with one to maintain training, even if he won't do much by way of the training work.
Can somebody tell me I'm not crazy and a pet LGD that isn't expected to guard but IS expected to not harass or kill the ducks while we're right there isn't an impossible or unreasonable goal? We'll be introducing the dog to the ducks at a time while the dog is roughly the same size as them, on-leash, and constantly supervised. I'm willing to spend a ton of time and energy here for the payoff of a dog I don't hate and a husband I don't resent. Any advice besides "maybe you need a different husband" or "don't get that dog" would also be really appreciated.
We just lost my husband's dog (cancer.) She killed a duck and three quail in the first year, before we put a stop to it with fencing and strict separation. My husband always loved his dog more than the ducks (he feels about dogs the way I feel about ducks), and dearly wished to be able to go hang out with the ducks, with the dog, and it was never, ever going to happen.
We put a deposit down yesterday on a one-day-old Kangal/Anatolian pup. It was the best compromise that the two of us could come with and was the end result of a LOT of tense discussions and pleading.
We don't need a LGD--the only predator losses we've ever taken were from his dog. And no dog will ever, ever be left along with our ducks for even a second, it's just not going to happen. And we're all on the same page that a dog of this size may not be an easy fit for our 3 bed, 2 bath and regular suburban backyard alone, and that lots of dog-walking on leash is in our future. I have zero expectations of the dog "bonding with the flock" in our backyard and being trustworthy. My intention is to raise and train up a pet dog who will NOT chase after the ducks and shake them to death while we're standing right there screaming "NO BAD DOG LEAVE IT." I have zero chance of "rehoming" the dog once the husband is bonded to it, and any duck losses would be a seriously disastrous family event.
So...these are my parameters. They're not great, and they're not what I would have chosen alone, but there they are. When I met him and his dog five years ago, I loathed her; completely untrained besides housebreaking, no way to stop her from ANYTHING, and lots of "forget you, you're not my papa and he doesn't tell me what to do, I can do whatever I want." Two years of that, and it was "If you won't train your dog, I will. Stay out of my way and don't undermine me or there will be hell to pay." And for the last three years, we had a well-behaved, polite dog who could be stopped and minded us when we asked her to do something or not. So I'm reasonably confident in our dog-training abilities at this point, and confident in his understand that trained dog = good and how to work with one to maintain training, even if he won't do much by way of the training work.
Can somebody tell me I'm not crazy and a pet LGD that isn't expected to guard but IS expected to not harass or kill the ducks while we're right there isn't an impossible or unreasonable goal? We'll be introducing the dog to the ducks at a time while the dog is roughly the same size as them, on-leash, and constantly supervised. I'm willing to spend a ton of time and energy here for the payoff of a dog I don't hate and a husband I don't resent. Any advice besides "maybe you need a different husband" or "don't get that dog" would also be really appreciated.
