Our dearly beloved Ivan, went on a killing spree Saturday. I had 11 baby ducks....3 weeks old that we were holding back for "breeding stock". Ivan broke into their pen and killed every single one of them. He didn't eat any of them, just killed them. We sell this breed of duck so this is really frustrating. Fortunately, he didn't get in the other pen which had the ones we are raising for sale.
He has been around these ducks for the full 3 weeks and not showed any interest in them. We have even been in the house with him outside and no problems......them BAM. He kills them all. I just don't understand it.
We had an incident last year with him chasing a goose, so we knew he had tendancies to harm birds. We spent a lot of time (obviously not enough) introducing him to the ducks and watching over him when he was around them.
Since he is part lab, I understand his interest, but killing for sport concerns me and I'm afraid it will cause a big problem if it's not taken care of.
Kitty - you raise labs, I'm thinking its going to be impossible to get this out of him due to the lab in him.....what do you think? But shouldn't labs just retrieve and not kill? Maybe he was trying to retrieve and killed them unknowingly in the process? Or maybe its a Boxer related trait coming out in him?
The ducks were not in a permanent pen, and I had hoped to not have to "pen" ducks up because they aren't meant for that. Do you think my only option is going to be keeping them in a large pen (coop) and give them a swimming pool? We have a huge pond, but if he see's a duck/goose on it he goes nuts.
Put an electric collar on him and zap the crap outta him when he approaches them. As you need not be visible to administer the correction, it will give him the heebie jeebies when he sees ducks. That's how they do snake deterent classes. FYI, I never have problems with Labs and birds. I had 30 chickens loose with the dogs on an acre, growing up, and 3 turkeys. My brother had 80 ducks at his place. All our dogs have always been trained birddogs that fetch birds. I train mine with live birds, they rarely hurt the bird, and if they do it is by accident [sometimes exiting the water, they squeeze too hard when they slip coming up the bank]. Labs are known for soft mouths and should bring the birds to you alive, unhurt, and unbruised for the dinner table. Most will not kill the bird for you, unless they have to fight it to subdue it for the fetch.
