bird dog trouble

augusta10

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#1
I have 2 mixed breed dogs, 2 cats, and several chickens and ducks. We adopted both our dogs from the local animal shelter, at different times. Katie, our blonde dog, stays away from the birds, since she was pecked on the nose by an agressive chicken we had at one time. We are having a problem with our brown dog Evie. She was obviously a hunting dog, but we have no idea about her history since she was a stray. If we had known she was a bird hunting dog before we adopted her, we probably would not have gotten her. She likes to go outside and pace the fence between her yard and the bird yard, we try to discourage this when we see it, but we aren't home all day. Today the worst happened, while we were out one of the ducks got into the dog yard and Evie did what came naturally and killed it. She brought it into the house for us too. It is hard not to be mad, but we didn't scold her. We know that this is what she is, but is there anyway to curb her enthusiasm for the birds?
 
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#2
Don't be afraid to show her your displeasure when she chases the birds. If she's paying attention to them through the fence, distract her by calling her to you and maybe take the opportunity to have a short training session, teaching her a trick or command. That way you can treat her and pay attention to her, but she will link it to the training, not the fact that she was "bird watching."

Hopefully it will never happen again, but if she does hurt or kill another one of the birds, go ahead and discipline her. Show her your displeasure. Put her in a small area, even restrained on a tie-down if you don't have a small pen, and completely ignore her for a period of time. I wouldn't suggest leaving her there for more than a half-hour, but those are the most compelling messages you can send your dog. The only thing worse for your dog than being restrained in her own yard is you refusing to notice her. It's very difficult to do sometimes, especially when they give you "The Look!"

You may have to confine her to a smaller pen in an area of the yard farthest away from the birds' area when you're gone.

If you can stand it, maybe a pair of big, aggressive geese would cure her!
 

augusta10

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ty for your advice. We came home about an hour after this happened though, so from what I've heard, scolding would have been useless. My husband did pick up the duck and she came over and he did show his displeasure, and he pretty much ignored her for a couple hours. This dog does not like to displease us at all. I went to let the birds out this morning and everytime she started making noises about the birds I told her "no". I think this may take a long time! I may think about the geese though! lol
 
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#4
Glad to hear that! Dogs can be smarter than we sometimes think they are. Sometimes they're even smart enough not to let us know just how smart they are! It can be difficult to overcome years of selective breeding for certain behaviours. We had a big yellow cat who learned not to stalk birds after the blue jays took turns chastising him one morning after he'd snatched a brown thrasher.

At one time when we were kids, we had two white ducks, a pair of banty chickens, Gulliver, the yellow cat, Purdue, our German Shepherd, Morgan the Mutt, and Mickey, the Jack Russell. You could look out in the back yard and they'd all be out there, just doing their respective things, but if the dogs went on alert about something, the ducks and rooster and hen would line up beside them and all make their various noises. They looked like the Bremen Town Musicians.
 

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