Boundaries for flighted birds. Safety around dogs.

[Ann333]

Can anyone give me advice or a link for how to stop Pumpkin from landing places he isn't wanted? He keeps landing on my fiance, who both doesn't like him and is a little scared of him. But more pressingly, Pumpkin has taken to flying down and landing on my dogs. Now, I trust my dogs, they are well trained and we'll behaved but I am still very cautious because dogs are predators and birds are prey animals. Pumpkin has taken a particular liking to my pit bull which is the one I trust the least, NOT because he's a pit, but because my other two were raised around small animals but my pit bull was not. When Pumpkin lands on him he gets visibly uncomfortable and runs away, but Pumpkin holds on. I recognize this is serious, but I don't know what to do. My fiance never wanted me to allow Pumpkin to fly and now he is saying we need to clip his wings again. I thing he just needs training. PLEASE HELP.

 

[Mimsy01]

Well, our conure isn't too terrible about this, but the starling is a little monster and loves to ride the pit in this house. Luckily I do trust our pit completely, but he is getting old and I worry about him getting annoyed if he gets an old age ailment. I've seen dogs who are sweeties become unpredictable in very old age due to cancer, or other illnesses. Zeki also loves my keyboard, but he poos on it and I'm a little less than pleased with that one.

I find it just takes a lot of work of keep putting them in the places they can be. Being really quick about removing them from the places they should never be. I have made a lot of bird safe places all over the house. There are playgyms in several rooms. I have some favorite shelves and the top of the fridge as fave places as well that I put down a towel and then put a wicker basket with some bird toys in it and some forging treats. He mostly never goes on my keyboard now, but sometimes he wants a fight..I can tell cause his feathers stand up on his head and he jumps on the keyboard like he's ready for a fight. I have set up a place just over the screen that is a bird place.

The pit he's getting better with and I've at least got him to not land on his head anymore. He looks at the dog as part of the flock so I think it will be difficult to get him to stop completely, but we are working at it. I'm going to guess your conure feels that way about your husband and pit as well.

I think it's a matter of making some places not worth landing on and having several area's that are great and may offer rewards. Ours want to be in the same room one of the humans, which is why we have so many places that are good bird perching area's.

Good luck, I know we get frustrated at times here but I think over time they figure out what are the best places to hang out at with a little encouragement.

 

[Ann333]

Thanks for the reply. It sounds like we have a lot of similarities in our setups. He has several places throughout the house that are just for him so he is always where the action is but still safe. He absolutely sees the dogs as part of the flock. He screams when they get excited and he drops food down to them to make sure they get enough to eat he even likes to climb down the cage and get right in their faces and talk to them. But he is never left alone with them. I just don't trust it. And my pit is not okay with him landing on him. I'm worried Pumpkin will startle him and my pit will do a warning snap or something....

 

[Mimsy01]

We don't allow anyone together without supervision either, just in case. I'm home most of the time, but if I leave, birds go to cages, our aussie goes into the mud room with his bed and the pit goes to our bedroom and sleeps on our bed. Our dogs are 18 years old and 12 and we've never had an incident and I would be so heartbroken if anything ever happened so better safe than sorry. Our dogs have been around chickens, rats and ferrets since they were both young so they are very good around smaller animals. The chickens go through the dog door into the mud room and can usually be found sleeping with Howard in his bed. We don't supervise chickens and dogs, but chickens are a lot bigger than conures.

I don't think we can expect the birds to do right quickly, so it's just keep being consistent with them and eventually they will favor the places we want them too. Is there any color or something that unnerves Pumpkin? Maybe a scary collar or harness could help discourage landing on the pit?

 

[JerseyWendy]

Persistence is key here, Ann. I WAS in a similar predicament. My DHY made it his mission to annoy the living daylights out of my Ziva (AmBull Pit Mix). I trust her, however, she IS an animal, she DOES have a distinct prey drive (outside), and she IS fairly young and very energetic. Most of all, IMHO any animal may react unpredictably at any given moment.

Sam made sure I got my daily workout while he was out. :54: I had to be on my tippy toes constantly. If he wasn't bothering Ziva he was landing on one of the big macs cages - another disaster waiting to happen.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when he made it his mission to fly into my face just one too many times.

I clipped him!

Not a harsh clip at all, mind you, but a very light trim. Light enough so that he can still fly, however, he needs to flap a whole lot harder and faster in order to go where he wants to go, thus giving me time to intervene without giving me a heart attack.

My Sam is 3, and he's had a few of these 'ultra light' trims. He's pretty 'thick' in the training department - but I won't give up. :21:

 

[Ann333]

Thanks you both for the sympathy and sharing your experience. Maybe a light clip would be the way to go. The only thin i have found that Pumpkin is scared of is the spray bottle.

 

[Aquila]

Persistence is key here, Ann. I WAS in a similar predicament. My DHY made it his mission to annoy the living daylights out of my Ziva (AmBull Pit Mix). I trust her, however, she IS an animal, she DOES have a distinct prey drive (outside), and she IS fairly young and very energetic. Most of all, IMHO any animal may react unpredictably at any given moment.

Sam made sure I got my daily workout while he was out. :54: I had to be on my tippy toes constantly. If he wasn't bothering Ziva he was landing on one of the big macs cages - another disaster waiting to happen.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when he made it his mission to fly into my face just one too many times.

I clipped him!

Not a harsh clip at all, mind you, but a very light trim. Light enough so that he can still fly, however, he needs to flap a whole lot harder and faster in order to go where he wants to go, thus giving me time to intervene without giving me a heart attack.

My Sam is 3, and he's had a few of these 'ultra light' trims. He's pretty 'thick' in the training department - but I won't give up. :21:

My cockatiel has a "light" trim. It's like an inch or two off the first few feathers. She's an excellent flier but she always lands on top of the curtain rods where we can't reach! Thinking about getting her a harness though, since I'm a little worried about her around the bigger birds, but she LOVES landing on people's heads!

Sydney is just starting to fly again, and definitely flies at my face which gets me a little worried. Flying bites!

 

[RavensGryf]

It makes me wonder how Raven can fly so well clipped. It's a "regular" clip, and though he has to flap harder and flies slower, he sure can get a surprising height and distance! Thank goodness he doesn't get into trouble. A previously "light" clip didn't even slow him ! I was, and still am surprised by this!

Ann, unfortunately, we have a dog who has an extremely high prey drive, and though she can only go into certain areas, I don't trust having the birds within eyesight of the dog. She'd be barking constantly! I certainly don't need them close enough to fly into the dog's lair either. Especially with Raven's flying skills even clipped. They have to be in a bedroom which makes me sad that we can't utilize the living room or den for the birds, but as long as we have this particular dog it is not an option.

 

[Dinosrawr]

I'm really interested in the solution you find that works. In a couple of years when my boyfriend and I can finally own our own place, we're planning on adding a GSD.

And Julie, Raven must have phenomenal flight muscles! Bet if he flexed his muscles he would impress the ladies

 

[RavensGryf]

And Julie, Raven must have phenomenal flight muscles! Bet if he flexed his muscles would impress the ladies

Haha Chantal quite possibly! His breeder let him fledge, and he was flying for a long enough time before I got him, so he's definitely a strong flier.

 

[Ann333]

Haha I'm interested to see what solution I come up with as well. I'll just need to think about it.