Introducing a new dog/puppy into the family

[DRB]

SonId love to get a dog again but my priorities lie with my precious Perjo. Maybe a year or two down the road I’ll consider a dog but I feel it’s best to get a puppy due to A) the size and B) it’s relative innocence and ability to train to accept and treat Perjo properly.

Any idea what to expect from my Perjo if I got a puppy, she’s a tad skidding about new things so I imagine a puppy would be a big change for her.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Lots of folks do manage diverse pet families wonderfully.

I guess my one bit of over-arching advice would be to be paranoid, vigilant, and, well... just use your wildest imaginings of what COULD go wrong and then plan for it. You probably don't even need to hear that. I'm sure you have read the same heart-breaking stories here that I have.

Good luck. We'll want photos, ya know!

 

[Billdore]

Very cool, I love my dog, and am thinking of getting a puppy in the next few months myself. Timneh was cool as a cucumber around my dogs, but she was used to animals from being in the pet store. She calls Bella all the time and asks wheres Bell Bell. She gets jealous but I also think she really enjoys the company.

 

[Laurasea]

I have a bunch of dogs, I think breed and temperament are very important, and your dog must respect you and respect that the parrot is the one (toy) you won't share... My neighbor got a basset hound puppy and he already has a cockatiel. It's a disaster! It's clear he can never ever trust his dog around his bird. The pup is an adult now , and he is frustrated with how he has to put the dog outside before taking his bird out. I should say though that his dog bullies him and doesn't respect him.

 

[itzjbean]

Yes I have a very large dog who has free roam of the house all day and is allowed in the room when birds are out of cages. It is definitely possible to have both and coexist in harmony!

The good thing about getting a puppy is that you get to train them and shape their mind to know that birds are off limits and not play things. You'll have to be very diligent in having puppy around your bird. Of course it would be best to have your bird's cage completely off the ground a few feet on its own stand to be safer. If puppy will be out with bird, have TWO people in the room to secure both parrot and pup should they need to be separated. Never leave them in the room out together unsupervised, I just heard a story of a girl who left her bird out in the same room as her dog and it got attacked, broken wing and bleeding and all. Don't take any risks.

 

[EllenD]

I too have 2 dogs who share the house with the birds. It can work very well, but you do have to be extremely cautious and never let the puppy alone with the bird for even a second, both for the safety of the bird but also the puppy!

I grew-up with a CAG, we got him when I was 9 years-old and we had no dog at the time...We added a Pug puppy, Rudy, when I was 15 years-old and Jagger, our CAG, was 5-6 years-old, and being a tiny little Pug puppy, Jagger was dangerous to her, not the other way around! He was immediately jealous of Rudy and would dive-bomb her...He could have easily grabbed her with his feet, as Rudy fit into the palm of my hand when we first brought her home...So we had to always make sure that we were holding Rudy securely and we never let them out together for the first few months, until Jagger started to calm-down and realize that he wasn't going to lose any attention or time, and that Rudy was not a danger to him...

Now flash-forward and I had dogs in my adult life BEFORE I had any birds (except for breeding-pairs, but they weren't out and about in the house)...When I added my Lita, my Quaker Parrot, as a little baby to the house that was already "owned" by an Australian Cattle Dog and a male Shar Pei, it was completely different. The dogs were absolutely horrified by Lita flying around, they were scared to death of her, and of the rest of the birds that followed...and my birds have no fear and will go after the dogs if they want to, especially Bowie, the Green Cheek, he will walk right over to Lola, my Cattle Dog, and just take a huge bite out of her if he feels like it...

***Here's my best advice for you, regardless of what breed of dog you decide on...In my experience with multiple birds and dogs and having the birds come first and then the dogs come first, etc., regardless of the situation, It's much easier to train the puppy/dog to stay away from the bird and to never go after the bird than it is to try to train the parrot to stay away from the dog and not go after the dog/puppy!!! This is why I would suggest ALWAYS getting a young puppy so you can easily train it to not chase/go after/attack the puppy....With parrots, they are naturally prey-animals, so it's pretty difficult to train a parrot to not think of a dog as a predator. In my experience they can get along well, but it's just easier if you start-off with a puppy and you train the puppy to respect the bird and that the bird is not a toy or something to chase...And then eventually if the puppy is well-trained to respect your CAG, then your CAG will gradually become more and more comfortable with the puppy...And that's important, because a CAG could easily kill a small puppy, and could take out an eye of a large dog, as well as lay some vicious bites on them...

***I don't know what breed of dog you're thinking about, but the only breeds I would absolutely stay away from are the "hunting" and "bird" dogs...So no hounds, like Beagles, Bassets, etc., and definitely no "bird" dogs, such as Pointers or Spaniels, because they all possess natural instincts to just innately go after birds and small animals. I have an Australian Cattle Dog, I've actually had two of them, both lived with birds including my mom's CAG, and they are fine with the birds (but they are also extremely intelligent and very easy to train; they also aren't "hunting" dogs, just herding dogs)...But my mom and stepfather have a French Brittany Spaniel that my stepfather got as a young puppy and he trained her to hunt game birds, and she does not mix well with birds. It's an interesting dynamic, but not one I'd want to have to deal with every day.

 

[Sandy19]

My basset hound was an absolute sweetheart. The only thing that goofball was interested in was smelling the bird's butt. I had him before the bird and he passed away of old age. I never allowed them to interact without me holding the bird, however, and even then she escaped and flew on top of his head one time. He just looked at me like why is this bird on my head, but he could have freaked out and nipped her. Any breed of dog can do that. You just have to be really careful no matter the breed, no room for mistakes.

 

[DRB]

Thanks for all the input everyone. I’ll probably choose side of caution and just not get a dog at all bc I cannot guarantee that I can truly balance out the equal protection for the dog ( in my heart anyway ) and devote the minute dedication to keeping them separate if need be. Parrots are too fragile to take a chance that if something happens I could stop it in time as opposed to a dog, just based on sheer mass relative to survival.

 

[sofonamy]

Maybe you should pick a less-barking puppy? My parrot gets annoyed very quickly if some dog starts barking.

 

[Zoruace]

Maybe you should pick a less-barking puppy? My parrot gets annoyed very quickly if some dog starts barking.

Please be aware that this thread is nearly 2 years old..