Hi everybody! I'm new here. My parents have two French bulldogs, and we also have an African grey parrot of twenty years. One dog is kind of a meatball - he lays around and smells things. The other is like a super athlete, so much that you can see the muscle definition on her! And she's a total sweetheart! But here's the thing - she wants to get the bird. Any time I take him out of his cage, one of my parents has to hold her. And sometimes they're not around, and I have to get my little guy past the dog and keep him safe! She really shouldn't be jumping at my bird and trying to get him. This isn't okay. I don't know a lot about dogs. What can we do to train her to leave the bird alone?
The simplest answer would be to crate your Frenchies - preferably in a different room - while you allow your parrot an exercise break. Prey drive can be very strong in some dogs, and holding the dog back when she can see that the subject is within striking distance will actually ramp up her desire to get hold of the bird.
Hi, if the frenchies are crate trained, that'll work perfect. Even place a sheet over their crates so they can't see the parrot while it's out. Or as someone else has said, simply put the dogs in another room. Training a dog out of its prey drive is doable but will take massive amounts of work and consistency. It's much easier and safer for the animals to just be kept separate.
