Introducing frequent dog visitor?

[Clueless]

I rescued two amazons several months ago. I had NO bird experience prior to this and I'm grateful to the contributors of this forum. Between this forum, random searching on the internet, extensive reading, wonderful bird stores in Missouri we are all alive and well. They've had vet visits and one needs to return in a month or so for another draw - a few levels were a bit high.

My question - how do you introduce a LARGE dog to Amazon parrots? So far - when the guests arrive for a weekend, the bird cages are moved to the back bedroom. The dog has seen them but only when we held his collar.

I have no intention of letting the birds out of their cages while he is there but I'd like to leave them all in the main area of the house. If the dog presses his nose up against the cage, should we pull him back? If the dog should happen to "lick" the cage bars - do I need to sterilize them?

 

[Safira]

I have 3 large dogs that run from room to room. My smallest, 30 pounds of 5 month old black lab mix puppy, sits at the base of the cage and waits for the birds to drop some of their food. He also spends his time licking the bars hoping to taste the fruit that they dropped. If they get too exciting a simple (firm) 'NO" and throwing a toy in the other direction usually distracts them.. they just want the food the birds drop.

My macaw rides on my shepherd mix's back occasionally.

I wipe down the bars with viniger and water when I clean their cages.

As for introducing them... I would probably just hold the dogs collar and let them see the cage so it's not a huge surprise, then let go as long as the dog doesn't look like it's about to pounce on the cage or growl/bark at the bird.

 

[Clueless]

WOW, riding the dog? That must be a picture!

I read somewhere that dog saliva could hurt parrots . . . . Maybe it's just one of those things that I'm being over cautious about though. Should I wipe the bars with vinegar and water right after the dog licks the bars? What is the proper mixture of vinegar and water?

One of the Amazons widened her legs this morning (sort of like a fighting stance) this morning as she looked at him - but she must not have been scared because she went immediately back to crunching on her pellets while she watched him. The other just sat on his perch and talked at him.

 

[roxynoodle]

So long as the dog doesn't jump up onto the cage and possibly knock it down, they can probably see each other in the same room. I would probably clean the bars pretty fast though if the dog puts it's nose on them or licks them, just in case. I think cat saliva is worse, but best to be safe rather than sorry. Also bear in mind the curious dog may get a surprise and get it's nose bitten by one of the birds, which could injure the dog.

I used to have 3 dogs and they were used to my birds and we had no problems. But, my parents came once with their dog. The dog was fine until my Blue Crown conure yelled out, "HI!". That totally freaked out the dog, who jumped up, rushed at the cage and jumped up on it. After that, my bird was quite terrified of dogs. My mom got mad that I made her dog go outside in the fenced in area of the yard, but she kept trying to attack the cage and wouldn't behave. So if the dog has never heard a talking bird, beware that it might freak out.

 

[luvmytooo]

Try not to grab the dogs collar when directing his attention elsewhere. Pulling on the collar may make his interest to see the cage and its contents stronger. I would step infront of the cage and the dog and say no , or whatever word you decide to use and always use the same word . This way , your dog learns what you expect of him and you wont have to get in between them anymore , the word will work just fine. Hope this helps

 

[Clueless]

Update . . . . it looked good for a while, but then the smaller Amazon decided to climb down the side of the cage facing the 4-footed fellow. We held the collar (sorry, didn't read that post before the event) - and the parrot just eyed him strongly. While the dog was straining to get to the cage, the parrot just climbed back up to his perch and started chomping on his Nupreem pellets.

I believe the bird cages will remain in the back bedroom while a visitor is here. The dog is prone to get up very early to go outside and I read on another site about possible night frights the parrots could get - that they might try to fly or flutter their wings and could possibly break a blood feather. I may be over cautious, but it works for me (and the parrots). There were small dogs around them in their previous home, but this is the first LARGE dog they have encountered. We will just continue the monitored visitations for a while.

Thanks for all the feedback!