# GSD and pet bird



## Lialla

I really need your help, I feel so frustrated. My 16 weeks old puppy is going after my budgie. The bird now spends most of his time confined in my daughter's room, he used to have a free roam of the house before we got our puppy. I understand he is a puppy, and has high prey drive. We tried to slowly get him used to the bird, we put his cage in our living room and let him fly in the room while holding Grom (the puppy) on the leash and he seemed not to be as focused on the bird, but as soon as the bird flies close enough, Grom tries to eat it. 

I miss having our bird with us downstairs so much, is there any way we can get the puppy ignore him? How to make Grom understand that actually the bird rules the house ? I need your advice on this! :help:

That's our bird, Petrusha









And the Monster , aka Grom


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## zyppi

New one for me!

How do you housebreak a bird? Seriously?


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## doggiedad

this post and the post by sprklnh20 regarding
people being afraid of their 10 week old pup
is a 2x underwear changer from laughter.

your bird use to rule the house. a friend of mine
is deep in the Amazon studying birds. i asked him
and his team of researchers what should you do.
my friends in the Amazon were baffled. they in turn
asked some of my Harvard buddies what should you do.
with a nano second of thought they think
you should put your bird in another room, caged
if necessary with the door closed.



Lialla said:


> I miss having our bird with us downstairs so much, is there any way we can get the puppy ignore him? How to make Grom understand that actually the bird rules the house ? I need your advice on this! :help:
> 
> That's our bird, Petrusha
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> And the Monster , aka Grom


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## Lialla

Glad you are having fun! Cause I'm not, and would like to hear some real advice especially from people who actually have birds. Do you have to separate them all the time? Since he is a puppy, I was hoping we could train him not to react to the bird.


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## onyx'girl

I don't think you can train a GSD pup to not go after your bird in flight. Soft mouth is rare, though Kastle brought his momma a baby cardinal unharmed! http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/chat-room/166741-kastle-caught-baby-cardinal.html Cute budgie and sable!
I would keep them separated for the budgies safety.

My dogs got our little lovie Mojo, and there was nothing left but a few feathers...he was the best violet fischers lovebird in the world. It was heartbreaking that the escaped his cage for a bit of freedom.
I do have other birds and only one dog was safe with them...my golden/border x. She never ever harmed a bird, and let our chickens free range along with her in our yard. 
My GSD's are not like that, but you can train your pup to leave it. Not sure I'd 100% trust it, however.


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## sitstay

I have a parrot, and I don't think I would ever be able to train my dogs to ignore a free roaming bird. It just wouldn't be safe for the bird. 

You might have to ground your budgie, now that you have the puppy. In fact, I wouldn't allow the bird out of his cage while the puppy is in the same room. Things happen so quickly. Better safe than sorry.
Sheilah


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## Syaoransbear

onyx'girl said:


> I don't think you can train a GSD pup to not go after your bird in flight. Soft mouth is rare, though Kastle brought his momma a baby cardinal unharmed! http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/chat-room/166741-kastle-caught-baby-cardinal.html Cute budgie and sable!
> I would keep them separated for the budgies safety.
> 
> My dogs got our little lovie Mojo, and there was nothing left but a few feathers...he was the best violet fischers lovebird in the world. It was heartbreaking that the escaped his cage for a bit of freedom.
> I do have other birds and only one dog was safe with them...my golden/border x. She never ever harmed a bird, and let our chickens free range along with her in our yard.
> My GSD's are not like that, but you can train your pup to leave it. Not sure I'd 100% trust it, however.


I agree with this. You could probably teach your dog to leave the bird alone, but you probably shouldn't trust that training. No animal is 100% obedient. Even people aren't(probably _especially_ people, actually ). It just takes one little slip up to end that little budgie's life . I have 7 birds and a german shepherd with high prey drive. He's nearing 4 years of age, and he's still never met them. I crate him or put him outside when I'm having birdy time in the house. You can train as much as you want, but you'll never have 100% obedience from an animal(even super well trained police dogs screw up sometimes), and it's just too risky to trust them with another life.

It's still a good idea to teach the puppy to ignore the bird, though, for those times when they accidentally are out together. What I would do is bring the bird cage downstairs with the bird inside and the dog on a leash. Every time the dog looked away from the bird, I would praise and treat. Whenever the dog looks at bird, I would say "No" and redirect with a toy. You'd probably want it to the point where the dog makes an effort to avoid the bird. 

I don't think I'd try to train the puppy to ignore the bird when it is flying around unless the puppy was leashed and wearing a muzzle. It's just so risky.

Most likely you'll end up having to keep the bird in a separate room when the dog is out, and keep the dog in a crate or in a separate room whenever the bird is out. My birds have their own bird room, so they don't mind as much that they don't have free roam over the whole house since the room is big enough. Chrono sleeps so much in his crate anyway that having to crate/cage and rotate isn't that big of a deal for any of the animals.


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## codmaster

It can be done as we had a female GSD that we could trust with the budgie out - funny as heck to see the bird walking on the floor near the big bad GSD! 

BUT that was an exceptional dog and really didn't need a lot of training to be nice to little puppies, kids and even cats and kittens. yet outside the house she was a real hunter very like a cat even to stalking squirrels in the yard.


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## e.rigby

Parrots and dogs should not be allowed to interact! Especially not a gsd puppy and a budgie! I think it's important to slowly desensitize your pup to the presence of the bird (while the bird is safe in a cage) but to have the bird out with the puppy can spell for disaster. All it takes is one snap to kill your budgie 

This site (in general) is a good site ... here's the section about multi species households: RP - Multi-species Households


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## pets4life

no interaction ever a budgie is the size of a mouse its not like it is going to put ur pup in its place the way a cat will with their sharp claws and strong arms please avoid it



u can hand tame ur budgie train it but keep them away from each other until ur dog is mature enough at least to be tested some dogs will see it part of the family and eventually ignore ur asking for too much right now tho

if u can train the budgie to sit on it cage that is good but my birds wont listen they will want to walk on the floor of the house or fly try to give them each their own house time the budgie needs time to fly also work something out 

IF UR budgie is full feather and has got strong wing (strong wing i mean the budgie has experience flying the house and can fly strong a poor bird stuck in a cage all the time doesnt use its wings that much and doesnt fly that well smashes into things and falls a lot) IF ur budgie is an experienced flyer eventually it will be okay to let out i think they are fast fast birds like level flight speed of 60kph so the bird will just avoid the dog they have keen eye site the clumsy pup wont sneak up on it they are smart also i hope u have no cats lol


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## Pepper311

Well I grew up with birds and have a bird now. It depends on the dog. My border collie mix was 100% bird proof even chicken proof. In fact one day the bird was missing she got stuck in a weird place. My dog pepper was crying and showed us where kiwi was. My 2 older dogs now are good with the bird. Kiwi flew right at them and the dogs did nothing. I would never leave the bird alone with these dogs but they are good. 

Now I have a puppy half GSD pretty high prey drive and well I am in the same boat. Trying to teach the pup to leave the bird alone. Kiwi my parrot knows dogs so she is fine does not get spooked. Soon the dog learns birds are boring. Training a puppy too leave the bird is not easy. I am working on it. My pup knows the leave it command I use that. 

It takes time some dogs might never be allowed around the bird but you can try. Let them know the bird is off limits no touching. They will get bord with the bird over time and soon not forget about it. Letting the bird out wit the dogs takes lots of time. Let the dog get bite by the bird.


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## Doubleyolk

I have my parrots in their own room and I wouldn't trust my puppy in the same room as them without supervision. I have only had my puppy for seven weeks and I have taken her in the bird room on a leash and she is afraid of them at this point in time,but I still wouldn't trust her to leave the parrots alone. My last GSD was fine with the parrots,but as a puppy he couldn't be trusted either.

I think you might be better off keeping them separated,but try training your dog that your Keet is off limits. I understand your problem and hopefully your dog can be trained to ignore your bird. Good luck!


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## chelle

I have no idea... at one point I owned a bird with my two older adults and I just didn't want to chance it. The bird was in the spare bedroom.


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## carmspack

when I was a kid we had a budgie named Honey. We taught her to push a dinkey car across the kitchen table, climb ladders made of pencils , go into and out holes cut into shoe boxes. Little bird was awesome.
We had an iron grey european german shepherd, Asta .
She would place her nose of the table and watch the bird .
They were friends as far as I could tell . 
After hours of playing with us kids , pulling the wagon , getting dressed in pajamas (dog was "baby") or the endless hours following the Highland creek and fields and farmland in an area still being developed, the dog would be satisfied and resting . We would have the bird out while watching tv or doing homework (not unsupervised) and the bird would sit between the dogs ears and groom the dog. Honey bird loved pulling and grooming the long hair that goes across the dogs ears . She would groom the dogs eyebrow whiskers . 
When the bird was in an excited mode she would nibble the leather collar or beak punch the little metal decorative buttons or the dogs rabies and license tags.

how did we introduce them. We held the bird in hand , and when Asta was young we put the bird to the dogs nose and one chomp from the bird and it was respect for life. 
Now we have a turqoise and white budgie , 10 years old ! named Mutchie the budgie who says good boy . Says good boy to the dogs ! My husband carts him around . If he is watching tv or reading the bird is beside him in his cage making trilling noises or head bobbing , saying good boy. 
When the young pups and Sunday company are all in the living room , the bird is there . The bird is pretty bold. It will go to the side of the cage where the pup is to have a closer look. Pup gets too nosey and one chomp from the bird and the pup is in the room but leaves the bird alone . 

I have the budgie , have canaries for song , which I love and the are totally separate from the dogs, have a lineolated parrot , have had a turqoisine in the past and baby sat an African Grey for a schutzhund decoy while they were moving house. That African Grey was used to the owners dogs - never near mine . Big bird , I think budgie size is about it for me . 
Oh , the cat would sleep on top of the birds cage.
Carmen
Carmspack Working German Shepherd Dogs


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## Gracie's My Girl

I would not allow the bird and the dog to be together. Instead, I would find a way to make lots of time with both of them individually.

We own a conure. We have always kept the bird safe in the cage when the puppy was in the room. However, Gracie did enjoy sitting at the bottom of the cage, staring at the bird, and barking. Our bird has a very solid personality and when Gracie pressed her nose against the cage bars...Percy ambled on down from his perch...and pecked her in the nose! Gracie has yet to go back and stalk the bird. However, I would still never trust them together.


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## Lialla

Thanks everybody for your replies! Carmspack, I wish my bird and the puppy would be like yours, that would be great! Did your dog snapped at your bird when you put the bird on his nose? I can't even imagine doing it, I think it will be the end of our budgie  I need to teach my bird to say "leave it" just in case 

Right now the puppy goes into his crate whenever we let the budgie fly around but he is still very focused on the bird. I'll try to implement your suggestions to teach the puppy ignore the budgie, we'll see how it goes, but meanwhile I'll keep a close eye on them whenever they are in the same room.


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## WendyDsMom

*Birds and Puppy*

I have 5 birds.... 3 Quakers, 1 Cherry Headed Conure, and a Green Cheek Conure. 

We have clipped all wings, no flying allowed - so the pup doesn't try to snatch them mid flight. The Pup sees the birds when they are with us, on us or next to us - NEVER ALONE. They are a parent accessory and not a toy for them to play with.

This is done with the "no bite" command when there is too much interest. She is learning to just ignore the green (or blue) thing on the Momma or the Daddy. You can teach them - but the bird will probably have to be clipped so it doesn't get the same reaction as a ball or toy. She gets the "no bite" when she grabs my pant leg, sleeve or scarf as well... see the logic?

This theory has been successful with our 3 Cats and our Chocolate Lab. So far so good with Wendy (she is 16 weeks old). Yup, birds are pissed that they cannot fly... AGAIN... But birdie feathers grow back eventually - you can never get the bird back if the dog eats it.


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## W.Oliver

The technical expression for having a bird and a GSD in the same house is food chain!

It isn't impossible to have a bird and GSD live together, but at least one of two things must be present...A.) A couch potato of a GSD with little to no prey drive, or B.) A bad  bird that won't take any  from no stinkin' puppy.

This is Louie, and he is a real SOB that has raised three GSDs so far. I raised him from an egg, and he is 18 years old. He takes no crap from anybody, and can inflict a bite that would be comparable to being grabbed by a pair of needlenose pliers. My dogs respect him a great deal...all it takes it one nip on the nose and they give him a wide birth. Plus, whenever they come near him, he yells "Go lay down !" in a very stern voice...they go lay down, and he says "good girl" in a sweet praising voice. It really is kinda bizarre.









The situation sounds like you have a nice GSD with prey drive, and a tiny Budgie that has no capacity to defend itself....keep them separate or expect the bird to be eaten....and keep in mind, if the bird gets eaten, it is not the dog's fault...it is your fault.

Best of luck.


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## marshies

W. Oliver and Carmen, I love your stories! Unfortunately, my fluffy rabbit will never become the fierce beasts your birds were...so no interaction here.


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## JakodaCD OA

you guys crack me up) Louie sounds like a riot !!

At one point I had an orange winged amazon "Barney" (no I didn't name him!) he had free roam of the house, and acted alot like Louie,,it was ok for Barney to climb all over the dogs, wrestle the cats , but when one of them tried to retaliate, Barney would get rather peeved,,SCREAM like a banshee, and bite them good..They all bowed to Barney.. I miss that 'screamer"


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## chelle

W.Oliver said:


> ...all it takes it one nip on the nose and they give him a wide birth. Plus, whenever they come near him, he yells "Go lay down !" in a very stern voice...they go lay down, and he says "good girl" in a sweet praising voice. It really is kinda bizarre.


Video, please! Hilarious!


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## Lialla

W.Oliver; said:


> Plus, whenever they come near him, he yells "Go lay down !" in a very stern voice...they go lay down, and he says "good girl" in a sweet praising voice. It really is kinda bizarre.


Oh my goodness, this is just hilarious! :spittingcoffee: love it  you have a very smart and beautiful bird!

Thanks for all replies, I keep them both separately and when the bird is with us downstairs puppy goes in his crate. And he is watching the bird like a hawk


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## vicky2200

I have 2 cockatiels and a parakeet and I also have 3 large dogs. Dakota has never showed any interest in the birds. Ditto (GSD) had some interest in them when she was under 6 months but after a few times of me correcting her (and 2 times of her nipping the bird, luckily not hard) she learned not to eat the birdies! Daisy is now afraid of the birds because she wants to eat them but knows I will be mad. Now if I take them out she looks away and walks away if I come near her. 

I do not let my birds fly around the house. I only have them out on my shoulder or finger. Since your parakeet is so small and easily injured I would suggest NOT trying to let them be together. Instead, let the bird fly around the house and be with you while the dog is outside. Let the dog spend some time in a separate room. I am not recommending locking the dog away for long amounts of time, but you could have him in a room with someone for an hour 3-5 days a week while the bird is flying throughout the house.


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## Tuckered

W.Oliver said:


> The technical expression for having a bird and a GSD in the same house is food chain!
> 
> It isn't impossible to have a bird and GSD live together, but at least one of two things must be present...A.) A couch potato of a GSD with little to no prey drive, or B.) A bad  bird that won't take any  from no stinkin' puppy.
> 
> This is Louie, and he is a real SOB that has raised three GSDs so far. I raised him from an egg, and he is 18 years old. He takes no crap from anybody, and can inflict a bite that would be comparable to being grabbed by a pair of needlenose pliers. My dogs respect him a great deal...all it takes it one nip on the nose and they give him a wide birth. Plus, whenever they come near him, he yells "Go lay down !" in a very stern voice...they go lay down, and he says "good girl" in a sweet praising voice. It really is kinda bizarre.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The situation sounds like you have a nice GSD with prey drive, and a tiny Budgie that has no capacity to defend itself....keep them separate or expect the bird to be eaten....and keep in mind, if the bird gets eaten, it is not the dog's fault...it is your fault.
> 
> Best of luck.



I was laughing when I read this, I have a grey too and he doesn't put up with anything from our dogs!!!
That being said, one dog looks at him as a friend to play with, the other the GSD looks at him as a snack. We worked very hard at getting her to the point of ignoring the bird, but I would never let the grey (parrot) be out and near the GSD. Every now and then she barks at him to get attention... from us, the bird, or the other dog.

Mine tells the dogs "No, GO!" "too bad" (which we use for time outs when they are being crazy or trying to start something) and many other bossy things. I think the mix of such smart animals is quite exhausting, but fun


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## katieliz

my grey says..."STOP IT" and "BEEEQUIET" and "SLOW DOWN" and calls all the dogs (current and even previous) and alot more, all in my voice. freaks people out. got him when he was an adult, prior owner was a paraplegic who had a girlfriend named ann, and when he first came to live with us he would say over and over again 'in ann, 'in ann. he is hysterical...had him almost 30 years now.

everybody else has already given good answers to the original question.


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## robk

We have a 6 year old Amazon Parrot and a 7 month old German Shepherd. We do not allow any unsupervised interaction with them. Having said that the bird is very dog savvy being, when we brought him home we had two adult german shepherds in the house already. He learned to call them to him and then would bite them when they got close. The dogs leaned to ignore his invitations and even give him a wide birth. Now we have a 7 month old working line GSD that is not as easily intimidated. I think he would be happy to have some green chicken for lunch if we weren't looking. 

I love this picture because it looks like the bird is training the dog (you see him holding his foot up and Ruger just sitting there waiting for his next command). What is actually happening is that Yoda (the parrot) is eating something and Ruger is waiting for a crumb to drop to the floor.


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