Some Treats.

[Tevyes Dad]

@gentila I think you need to work on taming those ducks. They seem rather shy. Lol!!!

Great pics. Thanks for the smile.

Yeah, just tonight I had a little incident showing me how truly wild and flighty my ducks are. It was warm out, the pools were full, the yard was muddy and none of the ducks wanted to go in their house. Well, I want them to remember it is better for them to go in on their own (they have an automatic door). So when the door closes the second time (there is a last call feature), if any ducks are outside, I don't just let them in. That would be teaching them, "Don't worry, if you don't make the door the nice human will come outside in rain or snow or any time and let you in."

So instead, I pick up each duck and carry them over to the door, open the door and set them in front of it (and if other ducks want in too bad, they have to wait their turn to go in the hard way). This has worked fairly well. They almost always go in by themselves. Well tonight, nobody went in. So I started on my bad duckie routine. I caught Snow first. I carried her up to the door, opened the door, stuck her head in and she stood there. I gave her a little push and she just resisted it.

I lifted her through the door and set her inside. She turned around and I held out my hand and she pecked it. Not the nervous peck of a scared duck or the violent peck of an attack. The light quick peck that said, "You are in my way... Please move".

She started to try to walk out past my hand so I lightly pushed her back in. She chest bumped my hand. Again, not the way they would try to attack a squirrel or a non-flock duck. Like they would bump one of their own who got a little out of line and forgot the pecking order. We repeated this cycle of light push, light chest bump two more times. SHE WAS ARGUING WITH ME

I finally just shut the door and made sure she didn't get her head caught in it. For the next three ducks, she was trying to get out - not frantic, not scared, just willful. Once the forth duck went in (making 5 including her), I guess she decided that the flock was going to be in the house so she might as well stay.

I am sure I will get a good scolding in the morning....