Last Updated on May 10, 2021 by Michelle
My sweet labradoodle is the smartest, most loyal dog I’ve owned. His loyalty is deeper than deserved.
But training my dog to like my birds? For that I do deserve some credit.
As I type tonight, my labradoodle is a black-and-gray-streaked crescent curled at my feet. His long nose wraps across his front paw to lie down parallel with my right foot, and his back paw nestles behind my left foot. While enjoying the glow of the fire beyond the computer screen, I realize I can’t imagine my life without him.
He’s always at my feet. By my side. An innate part of my day. An innate part of the farm.
So training him to be bird-friendly was absolutely necessary when we decided to raise free-ranging birds on our homestead.
Bixby was a two-year-old, great big puppy when we moved to Restful Falls Farm… when we packed up our suburban life, out of our house that was 1 of 22 on a tiny cul-de-sac, on a tiny, pie-shaped, 1/5th-of-an-acre lot… when we moved 400 miles north and sprawled out on 14 acres that meet up with the lake and stretch along the curving rocky river and up the gradual wooded slope behind our home.
We used to attach a long lead rope to his collar whenever we let him out into our narrow strip of backyard, behind our brick ranch. Now we open any door of our 215-yr-old red cape, and he has free range of fields, marsh, river bank, and sun-streamed woods.
Sign up for my Resource Library for our recipe for our homemade peanut butter dog bones–our dogs’ favorite dog treats ever. Just click below, sign up, and you’ll soon have treats on hand that will make your pup wanna please you and–hopefully–leave your birds alone.
And order your dog’s favorite training treats at my favorite online dog food store and take 15% off your order–every order, anytime–with coupon code RESTED15.
The only problem was when we brought home some hens that Bixby saw as a challenging chase and a savory snack. (Last spring, I shared my step-by-step directions on how I succeeded in training my dog to like my birds.) A few months later we added our precious, waddling fowl.
I honestly was a little worried about adding the second type of free-ranging bird. It had taken pretty detailed, daily training for more than a month before Bixby was safe to leave unattended around the chicken. I really didn’t feel up to going through the whole process again only a few months later.
But the baby ducklings were way too cute to resist, as was the thought of their delicious, rich, jumbo eggs. So we brought the yellow-down adorableness home.
It was pleasantly surprising how easy it was to do the first step in the training process without even needing to restrain Bixby on a leash. (Lupine leashes are hands-down my absolute favorite dog leashes, if you do need one.) Since he was accustomed to seeing us hold the bigger hens, I guess the small yellow birds were even less appealing.
. . . By the way, I would love to share with you my recipe for the best homemade training treats we’ve ever discovered, along with all the other resources in my Resource Library . . .
The ducklings didn’t free range for quite a few weeks, so he quickly got used to roaming near their cage but, for the most part, ignoring them. When they were ready to test out their free-ranging skills, we had to keep an eye on them anyway, so we sat nearby and closely monitored Bixby, keeping him in check simply with voice commands. So, like step one, step two was completed pretty easily without a leash. After a week or so with 1/2-hour sessions of letting the ducklings roam under our watchful eye, and Bixby under our ever present voice commands if he started to inch close to the ducks, Bix was ready to skip right on to step five.
For another week or so we continued to keep a close eye on him whenever he was in the vicinity of the ducklings, but the detailed training we went through with him and the hens most definitely paid off, two-fold, making him almost automatically duck-friendly as well and, I’m hoping, fowl-friendly with any feathered friend that we add to our menagerie. So here are the steps, in a nut-shell…
5 Simple Steps to Make Your Dog Fowl-Friendly
- Show your dog that your birds are a permanent, valued, new addition to your homestead by holding them, petting them, even carrying them around in your home, all while your dog is watching. (Remember to NEVER let him see you chasing and catching any bird.)
- Make your dog sit beside you, controlled on the leash, and watch the chicken, ducks, etc. roaming around him.
- Then do the same outside of their living space, while they go in and out freely.
- Take him INSIDE their living quarters, never giving him even an inch of leash to approach them. (And remember to NEVER let him enter their space without the “okay” command from you.)
- After he seems bored with all this and finally stops pulling on his leash, even when he’s in close proximity to them, give him a little controlled freedom. Let him off his leash, by your side, when your birds are in his sight. If he’s not ready, leash him and go back to step 4 the next day.
Every morning Bixby accompanies us on our chores, watches us let out the birds, fill their feed bowls, and replenish their water. Because he’s always at my feet. By my side. An innate part of my day. An innate part of the farm. And, thankfully, after some heartfelt training sessions, he defines himself as the birds’ watch dog, not their predator.
So, can you train a dog to be off leash around your ducklings? Yes, at least in our situation, with our labradoodle, yes. I realize all breeds are different. In fact, all dogs are different. But I hope our successful process works for you too.
I have all these training points laid out in an easy-to-read, printable page for you over in my Resource Library. You’re gonna need to refer to them often, so head on over there and print them and keep them in an obvious place in your home. For us, that’s the front of our fridge. (And yeah, I gave up long ago trying to keep the front of the fridge pretty.)
You’ll want to make sure everyone understands the training process so everyone is on the same page, giving your dog the same message. And, bonus, when you subscribe, snag a recipe for Bixby’s favorite homemade dog treats EVER!
You do need to subscribe to SoulyRested and then you’ll immediately be assigned a password to access a slew of info in my Resource Library.
Have you discovered your own successful techniques at training your dog to be bird-friendly? My post on how we trained Bixby to be chicken-friendly is one of my popular posts here on SoulyRested, and the reader comments are very insightful, so please add to the discussion here as well!
In all toil there is profit. Proverbs 14:23
Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.
Meet Bixby & see him “perform” for his absolute favorite treats–>
Order your dog’s favorite training treats at my favorite online dog food store and take 15% off your order–every order, anytime–with coupon code RESTED15.
Bixby’s favorite items that we order at Raw Paws:
These chicken & potato treats are the ones in the video above that I give Bixby every day.
Venison Jerky Bites are awesome. I give him a whole one for an extra special treat or break them into 3 or 4 pieces for training.
Freeze Dried Chicken Necks–Oh my WORD he seriously loves these!
And I sprinkle this organic sea kelp on his breakfast every day. The trace minerals are super good for him and–bonus!–this gives him good breath (it really works!)
Remember to use coupon code RESTED15 and take 15% off your order–every order, anytime.
And here are more dog products I love:
You’ll love the doggie treats, toys, and training items Bixby and I share on this page.
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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.
Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.
I’d love to connect!
To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:
And please join in on my resource library. I’m often adding sweet bonuses.
Our lab/chow mix is showing promise with our new duck friends..The ducks are in the house for now since they are still babies, and our girl Ellie (the lab/chow mix) was overly excited at first, but now simply sniffs around the enclosure with the ducks, and if we are holding them she comes up and sniffs them then lays down at our feet, which I assume is a sign shes bored and really doesn’t care about the duck. However we are having one heck of a time with our much smaller dog, who is a terrier mix. He hops and scratches, whines and barks to try to get at the duck, so he’s going to take a lot more work, but hoping we can successfully get them to be friends too.
I’m sure it will take a lot more work for your terrier, but don’t give up. It will be so worth it!! Trust me, I came so close to giving up about a month into the process then all of a sudden one day I realized we had been successful. And it may help you that you’re starting with the ducks in the house. Best of luck! Please let me know how it goes! (And I’d love to see pictures of these sweet critters! You can share them on my fb page.)
You’re a great writer. I enjoyed your article. I will try some of your techniques. I have two large dogs and they’ve always seen birds as prey so I’m nervous – but I really want to be able to allow my 10 new chickens and 2 ducks to free range.
Thank you Paula. 🙂 I will warn you, it won’t be easy and it may take longer than you’re anticipating, but it will be sooooo worth it if you’re successful! I truly hope you are. Please keep me posted.
I love seeing you note on training your dog to be bird friendly.
Our daughters were in 4H, raising chickens, cavies, a veal calf, junior beef, senior beef, goats, pigs and horses. In all instances, our two lab mutts quickly learned the new animals were “family” and protected them just as they did our daughters.
Every morning and evening they helped us herd the chickens and found randomly layed eggs for us. Their reward, after we were all outside the pen and work was done, a single raw egg. Most folks argue against feeding them the eggs in full form, but our dogs loved it and NEVER stole any other eggs. They meticulously guarded our flock during the day when we were away and even alerted me to “chicken rustlers” one evening, holding them sitting on the ground until the Sherrif could arrive.
The dogs also saved both my daughter, on her horse, and myself when on foot from rattlesnakes.
One night, they sounded the alarm, and I discovered a man attempting to enter our home. Again, they kept him at bay until the sherrif could arrive. Note, that these are the very same dogs who ran out to greet every visitor to our property with tongues lolling and tails wagging.
Our daughter also taught them to help her exercise the horses during turnouts. And I taught the puppy to fetch avocados from the neighbors yard (we traded fruit) when I needed them for dinner. She would bring them back one at a time until I had enough. I always let her have the last one. Funny that she never got them on her own.
Without a doubt, our dogs were very helpful and we trained them via positive reinforcement of natural behaviors.
Oh my word, your dogs sound wonderful! <3
I just stumbled across your website (recently started sourdough ‘hobby’; going slow, hah.) and what really captured my attention was what I first thought was an Irish Wolfhound—we have 3—and realized he wasn’t big enough to qualify. Bixby is the prettiest Labradoodle I’ve ever seen! So sweet, love his eyes :-). I’m looking forward to perusing your site–thanks for sharing all the talents!
Yes! I am asked often if Bixby is an Irish Wolfhound. And yes, he is genuinely so sweet. I tell him all the time he’s the “best dog EVER.” 🙂 He often shows up in my instagram stories. He even has his own hashtag: #Bixbadoodle 🙂