Do you think birds and dogs can live together safely?

[Sparky04]

Me and my dad were discussing keeping prey and predator animals in the same house. Example; Cats or Dogs and birds together. Do you believe it's possible to keep both dogs and birds as pets safely? If I get a dog in a few years, it'd probably be a herding breed (border collie, Australian shepherd, German Shepherd, rough/smooth collie). How well do herding breeds get along with birds?

 

[MessyBeaks]

We have an Australian Shepherd who was raised with birds from puppyhood and he is great with them. They have become his herd - if someone flutters off their stand and onto the floor, he will come and alert us that something is amiss. He pays them no mind at all - no prey drive I guess, although he does hate squirrels. Their screams get to him from time to time and he will leave the room to get away, maybe that's why he doesn't bother agitating them.

 

[kcbee]

I have a german shepherd/lab mix and she is a really sweet dog. She doesn't even notice the birds while they are in their cages. If my parrotlet is flying around, she is terrified of the bird and will leave the area. But that is a rare occurrence, as I do not let them be together in the same room if the bird is out of the cage. Though they seem to get along fine, my dog is still an animal and could do something totally unexpected at any time.

I also have a smaller dog, but she is totally clueless, in almost every aspect

I also have 3 cats. My older cat does not even notice the birds, but my younger two do. So they are not allowed in the bird room unless I'm in there, and never while the birds are out - but even then, I rarely let them in.

If you're careful about it, households with both prey and predator animals can work just fine!

 

[SDavies]

we have dogs and others other, none are allowed in the bird room, we don't risk it
they don't really like being in there when all their tasty grub is elsewhere

 

[waterfaller1]

I have an akita/lab mix, he was raised with them,and is the one who found Kismet in my backyard. He was barking at him to fly away, and probably couldn't figure out why he wouldn't. He knows our birds are off limits, and I have had them land at his feet and he did nothing. The birds,squirrels, and cats, etc, that get in our yard are chased, but it is all about just chasing them to him. He could easily catch them many times, I can see him put the brakes on. I do keep a screen door on my bird room now, but it is more so no bird goes on a wild flight out of the bird room and lands in a hot pot , or whatever...

 

[Allessa]

I was always told it would never work with my dog because she is half Westie Terrier. I had ONE incident with her as a puppy. She managed to get out of her crate and kill my 9 year old parakeet. I know it wasnt her fault, but i ignored her a good week..i was just so upset. And from that day on she NEVER touched any of my birds. It was like she "knew" she hurt me.

Her and Jaden hang out all the time (supervised of course..more so for Jaden because he gets rough)..and my lovebirds ride on her back and walk all over her when shes lying down. I close the birdroom door when i leave the house, but its more so for her not to eat the seeds than me not trusting her. My IRN Tequila is in the living room and never locked in..she never ever bothers him.

 

[CosmoKramer]

All 3 of our dogs are around the birds 24/7 and we have a terrier, greyhound, and rhodesian ridgeback mix. None of them have ever bothered the birds or even shown interest in bothering them. It can easily be done but there are deffinatly some precautions that must be taken.

 

[MarleysMom]

We also have two dogs and a cat existing with the bird. The dogs could absolutely care less, the cat still has his moments. Marley is out of his cage all day unless I have to leave and then he is locked in for his safety.

 

[tammie]

We have 2 chis and a jack russell that live in the house with the birds. One of the chis likes to run from the birds and for them to chase her! It's a game she and Scout have. Then she will chase him, but she slows down if she gets too close. They know their limits. A few years ago my chi was sick, and after she got home from a vet visit I prepared her a place on the sofa to lay. Scout, the goffin went and layed beside her and preened her hair.

 

[SallyQZ]

We have a dachshund that completely ignores the birds. As a puppy, Tonka used to call him over to the cage then bite him through the bars. So Bubba will leave the room when the birds are out. He does, however, like to go into the birdroom so that the galahs can throw food down to him.

We also have a rottweiler who is great with the birds. As a puppy, we carefully introduced the concept of out of cage birds to her - she never once attempted to go after any of the birds. The galahs have jumped on her back from the sofa (sigh) and all the flighted birds have crash-landed on her, or in front of her, at times. She's NEVER shown any signs of aggression with them, but we NEVER leave her unsupervised when the birds are out. It just takes one second for an accident to happen.

When we got Hardy, the rottie WAS very interested in him. And not in a good way. His musky smell was different than the other birds, who were in the household before the rottie, and he was new. Plus being handicapped, I think she sensed that he was an easy target or different somehow. She had a very alert expression in her eyes when she watched him, so I made sure that I was always between the two of them. It's been a year and a half now and Jemma has relaxed around Hardy. In fact, Hardy has gone after Jemma, biting her toes to drive her away from me, and Jemma doesn't do anything.

However, any wild birds in the yard are enemies and must be chased from the yard immediately!

 

[KellyBelly]

We have 2 Italian Greyhounds. I do not trust them one bit. They both have a high prey drive and when
Indigo is out of his cage (which is in the main room) the girls have to go into their room. They usually do
not mind since alls they do is sleep anyways. But if they ever got a hold of Indigo it would not be pretty at
all. Which is why we take every precaution when we have him out of his cage.

 

[Bokkapooh]

My blues heeler/rott mix has been around birds all her life. She would never hurt my fids (go after them on a predator-prey instinctual drive). Ever. And I'm confident in that. However my birds, even when raised around furred animals, cannot be trusted. They will seek harm. This is why I have to keep an eye on a few of them when my dog is in the same room.

 

[HungryBird]

I have a dog and manage but I think it is important to be cautious. I'm sure my dog would be happy to kill them if he knew it was okay.

 

[jmfleish]

I used to have four cats but have slowly lost three and only have one left. I totally trust/trusted them with the birds but none of them have/had their front claws. They were literally terrified of my guys, but my guys are a bit bigger (325 grams to 550 grams). Honestly though, I won't be getting any more cats once my last one passes and a dog and birds scares the bejeezus out of me. Personally, I wouldn't ever do it with dogs and now that I'm on my last cat, I wouldn't do it again with cats even though I've never had an issue. That's just me though.

 

[Daisy's Mom]

My mom's friend lived with us when she really had nowhere else to go... She had a cat and did not watch it close enough during the day when I was in school.. I was heartbroken to come home from school and to see feathers all over the place and to find out that her cat killed my sweet parakeet (her name was Pixie) when I was 13.. I had nightmares for a long time after that day..

 

[Bokkapooh]

My mom's friend lived with us when she really had nowhere else to go... She had a cat and did not watch it close enough during the day when I was in school.. I was heartbroken to come home from school and to see feathers all over the place and to find out that her cat killed my sweet parakeet (her name was Pixie) when I was 13.. I had nightmares for a long time after that day..

I'm so sorry

I hope that 'friend' is smarter now about watching her animals when she is a guest in a house..

 

[Greycloud]

This is a very sensitive subject for me. I lost a very dear friend many years ago to a very trusted dog. My little brown headed parrot was killed by one of our dogs. It was our totally our fault. Rose, the dog has since passed away due to kidney failure. We have three dogs now who have been raised from puppies with the birds. I would like to say that I can trust all three of them with the birds. When the birds are out, the dogs actually leave the room. Would I ever leave the room while the dogs and birds are out, NEVER! For thoses who say you can completely trust your dog, I hope tat you never experience the sadness I have.
Dogs are predators, birds are prey, it is natural and bred into them from the day they are conceived. Yes, you can train your dog what is off limits. We live in a happy harmony here in our household. If one of the bird flies from its stand the dogs run from the room! LOL! It is rather funny. I just speak from experience that you must never truly trust a dog or cat with your birds. Always be on alert for their protection.

 

[Thugluvgrl187]

I think it really depends on the individual dog and birds or cat and birds we are talking about. But either way I think if they are going to co-habitate they should be supervised.

We had a Beagle/Bassette Hound mix named Cosmi that had killed a dove from our backyard as a puppy. My Dad since then showed her and told her that the tiels were the "Babies" from them on she knew the birds as such and no longer went after birds. She would only go after things like squirrels, rabbits, rats etc. Since she was a hunting dog we always still kept an eye on her but she was a good girl. She would actually protect the outdoor aviary we had from outside animals.

 

[Greycloud]

Always Miriam!

 

[Vega]

I have a Catahoula mix (herding/hunting dog) and he's amazing with my birds. I adopted him from a shelter when he was about 10 months old. I introduced him to the birds slowly. To help adjust him to the flying I crated him and had them fly over the crate. Then we practiced with the dog being held while the birds flew. Then on a leash (inside of the house) and finally...I just let them all go. He's been with me since 2007 and there's only been a few occasions that I've had to reprimand him, generally for being overly excited and jumping up as a bird flies by. He's never hurt them though and often takes the brunt of my ekkie's aggression. That being said, I keep a careful eye on all of the fids when they are out. Once you learn the body language of both the birds and the dog, its easy to stop things before they escalate into one of them getting hurt.