GSD and pet bird

[Lialla]

I really need your help, I feel so frustrated. My 16 weeks old puppy is going after my budgie. The bird now spends most of his time confined in my daughter's room, he used to have a free roam of the house before we got our puppy. I understand he is a puppy, and has high prey drive. We tried to slowly get him used to the bird, we put his cage in our living room and let him fly in the room while holding Grom (the puppy) on the leash and he seemed not to be as focused on the bird, but as soon as the bird flies close enough, Grom tries to eat it.

I miss having our bird with us downstairs so much, is there any way we can get the puppy ignore him? How to make Grom understand that actually the bird rules the house ? I need your advice on this!

That's our bird, Petrusha


And the Monster , aka Grom

[zyppi]

New one for me!

How do you housebreak a bird? Seriously?

[doggiedad]

this post and the post by sprklnh20 regarding
people being afraid of their 10 week old pup
is a 2x underwear changer from laughter.

your bird use to rule the house. a friend of mine
is deep in the Amazon studying birds. i asked him
and his team of researchers what should you do.
my friends in the Amazon were baffled. they in turn
asked some of my Harvard buddies what should you do.
with a nano second of thought they think
you should put your bird in another room, caged
if necessary with the door closed.

Originally Posted by Lialla

I miss having our bird with us downstairs so much, is there any way we can get the puppy ignore him? How to make Grom understand that actually the bird rules the house ? I need your advice on this!

That's our bird, Petrusha


And the Monster , aka Grom

[Lialla]

Glad you are having fun! Cause I'm not, and would like to hear some real advice especially from people who actually have birds. Do you have to separate them all the time? Since he is a puppy, I was hoping we could train him not to react to the bird.

[onyx'girl]

I don't think you can train a GSD pup to not go after your bird in flight. Soft mouth is rare, though Kastle brought his momma a baby cardinal unharmed! Kastle Caught a Baby Cardinal Cute budgie and sable!
I would keep them separated for the budgies safety.

My dogs got our little lovie Mojo, and there was nothing left but a few feathers...he was the best violet fischers lovebird in the world. It was heartbreaking that the escaped his cage for a bit of freedom.
I do have other birds and only one dog was safe with them...my golden/border x. She never ever harmed a bird, and let our chickens free range along with her in our yard.
My GSD's are not like that, but you can train your pup to leave it. Not sure I'd 100% trust it, however.

[sit,stay]

I have a parrot, and I don't think I would ever be able to train my dogs to ignore a free roaming bird. It just wouldn't be safe for the bird.

You might have to ground your budgie, now that you have the puppy. In fact, I wouldn't allow the bird out of his cage while the puppy is in the same room. Things happen so quickly. Better safe than sorry.
Sheilah

[Syaoransbear]

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

I don't think you can train a GSD pup to not go after your bird in flight. Soft mouth is rare, though Kastle brought his momma a baby cardinal unharmed! Kastle Caught a Baby Cardinal Cute budgie and sable!
I would keep them separated for the budgies safety.

My dogs got our little lovie Mojo, and there was nothing left but a few feathers...he was the best violet fischers lovebird in the world. It was heartbreaking that the escaped his cage for a bit of freedom.
I do have other birds and only one dog was safe with them...my golden/border x. She never ever harmed a bird, and let our chickens free range along with her in our yard.
My GSD's are not like that, but you can train your pup to leave it. Not sure I'd 100% trust it, however.

I agree with this. You could probably teach your dog to leave the bird alone, but you probably shouldn't trust that training. No animal is 100% obedient. Even people aren't(probably especially people, actually ). It just takes one little slip up to end that little budgie's life . I have 7 birds and a german shepherd with high prey drive. He's nearing 4 years of age, and he's still never met them. I crate him or put him outside when I'm having birdy time in the house. You can train as much as you want, but you'll never have 100% obedience from an animal(even super well trained police dogs screw up sometimes), and it's just too risky to trust them with another life.

It's still a good idea to teach the puppy to ignore the bird, though, for those times when they accidentally are out together. What I would do is bring the bird cage downstairs with the bird inside and the dog on a leash. Every time the dog looked away from the bird, I would praise and treat. Whenever the dog looks at bird, I would say "No" and redirect with a toy. You'd probably want it to the point where the dog makes an effort to avoid the bird.

I don't think I'd try to train the puppy to ignore the bird when it is flying around unless the puppy was leashed and wearing a muzzle. It's just so risky.

Most likely you'll end up having to keep the bird in a separate room when the dog is out, and keep the dog in a crate or in a separate room whenever the bird is out. My birds have their own bird room, so they don't mind as much that they don't have free roam over the whole house since the room is big enough. Chrono sleeps so much in his crate anyway that having to crate/cage and rotate isn't that big of a deal for any of the animals.

[codmaster]

It can be done as we had a female GSD that we could trust with the budgie out - funny as heck to see the bird walking on the floor near the big bad GSD!

BUT that was an exceptional dog and really didn't need a lot of training to be nice to little puppies, kids and even cats and kittens. yet outside the house she was a real hunter very like a cat even to stalking squirrels in the yard.

[e.rigby]

Parrots and dogs should not be allowed to interact! Especially not a gsd puppy and a budgie! I think it's important to slowly desensitize your pup to the presence of the bird (while the bird is safe in a cage) but to have the bird out with the puppy can spell for disaster. All it takes is one snap to kill your budgie

This site (in general) is a good site ... here's the section about multi species households: RP - Multi-species Households

[pets4life]

no interaction ever a budgie is the size of a mouse its not like it is going to put ur pup in its place the way a cat will with their sharp claws and strong arms please avoid it



u can hand tame ur budgie train it but keep them away from each other until ur dog is mature enough at least to be tested some dogs will see it part of the family and eventually ignore ur asking for too much right now tho

if u can train the budgie to sit on it cage that is good but my birds wont listen they will want to walk on the floor of the house or fly try to give them each their own house time the budgie needs time to fly also work something out

IF UR budgie is full feather and has got strong wing (strong wing i mean the budgie has experience flying the house and can fly strong a poor bird stuck in a cage all the time doesnt use its wings that much and doesnt fly that well smashes into things and falls a lot) IF ur budgie is an experienced flyer eventually it will be okay to let out i think they are fast fast birds like level flight speed of 60kph so the bird will just avoid the dog they have keen eye site the clumsy pup wont sneak up on it they are smart also i hope u have no cats lol