Dogs

[OrrinocosMom]

Hi Folks,
Just wondering if anyone has experience integrating pets...specifically, macaws moving I to a home with dogs. Would love to hear your stories...
Thanks

 

[saxguy64]

Great question, and a tricky one. General consensus, ALWAYS SUPERVISED! Parrots are prey animals, and dogs, even the most docile, are predators. Things might be great, until they're not. Only takes a split second for something to go horribly wrong. Never worth the risk. This isn't to say they can't live in the same house, just to always be vigilant, and never assume nothing bad could happen. Our bereavement forum has far too many stories of things gone bad between the loving family dog (or cat) and the bird.

 

[Flboy]

Your question has two separate answers! In the same household? Sure!
Integrated? Never!

 

[chris-md]

We dogsit on rover.com, and have had - on the high end - 5-6 dogs in the house (2 clients only at a time, three if the third one is our neighbor, a sweet/docile/low maintenance mini poodle).

As stated by my friends above, same household? Sure! Intergrated? No.

You may get to a point where you are fully comfortable - say, while watching TV - with dog sleeping next to you while you hold the bird, or maybe the bird is on a stand next to you (with you between the two).

the key is always supervised, always. And always you between the dog and the bird. Or the bird be completely untouchable, like on the top of a door. Even then, only if the bird is calm and not trying to fly around.

Always supervised, always vigilant.

 

[kme3388]

I have 2 dogs, and 2 parrots. They leave each other alone. I never leave them unsupervised. My German Shepherd grew up with parrots. My Shih Tzu just likes to sleep. I think it depends on the dogs, and parrots. My conure doesn’t like dogs that do not live with him. He is also protective of my Eclectus parrot. He will attack dogs that he feel are a threat, or aren’t apart of what he considers his flock. This could go very wrong quickly if left alone unsupervised. My Eclectus parrot could care less about dogs. He likes to stare out the window with my shepherd. He feeds the dogs as well.

 

[OrrinocosMom]

Hi Folks,
Just wondering if anyone has experience integrating pets...specifically, macaws moving I to a home with dogs. Would love to hear your stories...
Thanks

Thanks everyone. I've taken your advice - never leaving Noco and dogs alone together when bird is out of cage. But I will say that he seems to LOVE the dogs (my smallest one likes him too, the others don't seem to care about him other than when he drops food they can eat off the floor!) He talks to them, immigrated the little ones attention getting yap, and alerts me when something is not right with them ( the other day he called me urgently when one dog got his leg tangled in his leash, and another time when one was not feeling well). He very much wants to join in when dogs are roughhousing with their toys (which he will never be allowed to do!!) And I find his love for them to be really sweet. He and I and the little one wish he could be closer to them but this will not happen as I do not trust my bigger ones.