Dog That Catches Birds.

[Alison03]

At first my Shihtzu only had access to a quarter of my garden, since fixing up the rest of the fencing she has the whole of the back garden, which is a good size with lots of trees, shrubs etc, that's when the bird murdering started, she hunts like a cat and is very successful at it. I've put a large bell on her collar which has slowed her kill rate down. She also catches rats and mice. Has anyone else got a dog that does this kind of thing? It's horrible to go into the garden and find a little body on the grass.

[Tralee]

Yep.

Maremma Sheepdog puppy boy.

He also catches mice, lizards and anything that moves.

Mostly vermin but it worries me what he'll do if he finds a snake.

[persephone]

Most dogs will do this, given the opportunity . I knew a little JRT who would jump up onto an outdoor table ,sit really still , and grab any sparrow silly enough to fly low!!

[Podengo]

My dad's Dobe gets magpies now and then, and often kills sparrows, black birds, thrush, starlings and swallows.

[RiverStar-Aura]

I really don't mind if my dogs catch birds, provided it's the pests they are killing. Kirah has so far only got a hold of Indian Mynas.

[persephone]

Catching mice & rats is OK ... provided she doesn't eat them!! rats & mice she is able to catch may have been poisoned ... and it's risky if she then eats them .

[mita]

Yes, dogs like that, are just showing natural instincts that help survival. That was a good idea about the bell on her collar.

I agree the worry is going after rodents that might've been poisoned.

Our tibbie girls have never had the prey drive against small creatures. But I know other tibbies that have ... like catching mice.

One was an expert bug catcher. His owner would say 'Bug, Charlie!' & he'd leap and get it. Then spit it out, at her feet.

[Sandra777]

LOTS!!! We always have a bird catcher in our familly. The one that excels in snakes doesn't care about birds tho

[Alison03]

Thanks everyone it's good to know she's not unusual. She is so cat like in how she hunts. She's frightened of lizards and I hope that means snakes too. She doesn't attempt to eat anything she's caught Persephone, thank goodness. She caught her first mouse when she was just a pup.

She's caught mainly Indian Miner birds at first, the non native ones, so I wasn't too horrified but still sad though, then she caught a bright blue kingfisher, that's was upsetting when I found its beautiful little body. That's when I put the big bell on her. It works most of the time. :)

[GeckoTree]

I had to train my dog to leave certain animals, same way as stockproofing dogs, never had a cane toad incident yet since being in Qld, the bell is a good idea for birds, mine caught a couple pigeons early on and I would come home to a pile of feathers now maggies just walk around her lol.

[Alison03]

I had to train my dog to leave certain animals, same way as stockproofing dogs, never had a cane toad incident yet since being in Qld, the bell is a good idea for birds, mine caught a couple pigeons early on and I would come home to a pile of feathers now maggies just walk around her lol.

I'd certainly have to stock train her if we lived in different circumstances or if we ever decided to get chickens. The keeping of rabbits or guinea pigs is out too, she goes silly over those, any small animal and she goes goggle eyed.

[Rozzie]

I had to train my dog to leave certain animals, same way as stockproofing dogs, never had a cane toad incident yet since being in Qld, the bell is a good idea for birds, mine caught a couple pigeons early on and I would come home to a pile of feathers now maggies just walk around her lol.

I'd certainly have to stock train her if we lived in different circumstances or if we ever decided to get chickens. The keeping of rabbits or guinea pigs is out too, she goes silly over those, any small animal and she goes goggle eyed.

She's a Shih tzu... she already is

[rubiton]

Dogs are predators and they will hunt if it interests them. We came back from a walk and the young one nearly had him a Galah that was sleeping on the front yard and we pretty much walked into (it would eat then sleep in the afternoons and I didn't see it til he pounced and it squawked and flew off. But both are trained to ignore magpies and the magpies ignore them on the front yard and when out on a walk.

[Tintin Jac]

Our cocker catches birds. He looks like he would be cumbersome and useless but boy he can move! So far, he's only caught the Indian mynas. We don't have many smaller birds left around here any more. If he starts to catch others, I'll try a bell. Good idea, thanks :)

We used to have a tree climbing possum/snake/lizard hunting JRTx. That got a bit hair raising at times! He was so focused on the prize that he didn't think about where he was going :laugh:

[Alison03]

We've had some near misses with Galah's too, it's only me saying "No" that has saved the bird. My dogs eyes practically pop out on stalks when she sees a target and she is so fast, you can see the predator in her. She pounces on them with her front feet and then her mouth grabs it, then shake, crunch and its over. She can leap up quite high, gets over the child gate someway or other. No tree climbing yet, that would be scary.

[Podengo]

Dad's Dobe hangs out with the chickens, as the magpies seem to enjoy dive bombing the chickens then Lottie takes her opportunity and *crunch* scores herself a magpie!

[raineth]

my GD Del loves catching birds. They are nearly always Mynas, although once she did catch a sparrow. She's not very cat-like in her hunting though.

The bell is a good idea for dogs who start catching natives, I'll remember that.

[Bjelkier]

All my Samoyeds are avid hunters.

I don't like it but they're dogs, dogs hunt, it's natural to them.

[j]

I had a border collie who would leap in the air and catch birds on the fly. Only Sparrows and Starlings though. I had chooks that used to free range in the yard and one who made her nest and raised her chicks in his kennel. The magpies used to come down and share his meal. He never bothered the chooks or magpies and was fine with our cats and bunnies.

The dog I have now has killed quite a few blue tongues that have come into the yard and he also managed to get one of our chooks. He was obsessive about the chooks and used to sit at the gate to their yard, so we ended up rehoming the chooks so it was less stressful on everyone.

If he could get hold of the possums that pull faces at him from the power pole every night, I'm sure he would make short work of them.

[Dame Aussie]

Yep, both ours chase birds and Lili has caught and killed them before