Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hiya,

My better half and I have recently purchased 4 Rouen ducks. I did a lil web surfing today and came across this site. Holy cow, I mean duck, what a great source of information!

My concern is our dog. We have a 5 month old Chocolate Lab named Wagon. He is very even tempered and LOVES his new brothers and sisters (I am assuming we have some of each as we are unable to tell their sex at this time). He will sit by the sliding glass door that leads to the porch where the ducks are and watch them tirelessly. The ducks are completely oblivious to his existance.

My only concern is this: Do the ducks carry any sort of bacteria that could be harmful to Wagon? Would Wagon be carrying any sort of bacteria that could be harmful to the ducks. He loves them very much and does give them many "kisses".

I want the ducks and Wagon to have as much supervised exposure with one another as possible. My theory is if they grow up together, hopefully they will get along. However, I do not want either of them getting sick at the expense of the other.

Thank you for your thoughts and any information you might be able to share!

Jolene

Hey,

I love the name Wagon, thats really nice
As for your questions, I have 15 ducks and 3 dogs which live along side each other. I have had no health problems in either species that could have resulted from coming into contact with the other animals.
If Wagon is vaccinated and your ducks were brought from clean, healthy stock, and came from a good environment, then I doubt you'd get any problems.
Although just to make sure, you could write to or contact local Vets (particularly ones that deal with exotic animals) and ask them for their professional advice.

My dogs get on fine with the ducks, and vis versa, and i'm sure in time yours will too. Give them time and always make sure they are supervised to begin with.

Mel X

Hi,
I have 4 dogs and 5 ducks and they all get along well for the most part. We have one beagle however that the ducks seems to enjoy chasing and for now the beagle is scared to death of this huge "gang" of Monster Birds coming at her so she does not try to attack them, she merely runs away. I would recommend supervision at all times though because even though they may all get along, there are still innate behaviors in dogs that have a way of showing up sometimes. For example, my shepherd loves the ducks. She has always mothered the ducks from the time they were babies, however when one of them was picking through tall grass last week, the "chase instinct" came over her and she charged the duck like she was going to pounce a rabbit. I naturally screamed and it snapped the shepherd out of it. She looked at me as if to say, "Sorry Mom, I forgot they were my ducks."
So, just keep a close eye on them. You never know what behaviors can trigger that type of response from a dog.

Enjoy your new family of ducks. Mine have given me many hours of entertainment.

Pam

I am no Duck expert but.. I had the same concern, I did lots of reasearch and found that the answer would be no.. Also consider all the hunting dogs grabing wild ducks all day in there mouths. My neighbor is a big hunter and said he never seen his dogs get sick or get anything from retreiving Ducks in their mouths. Something to consider.

Also My doberman and Fowl Do great! They preen each other and lay together. But he has growled at my Duck Quackers once, Quackers started stealing his dog food. So I got on him and he has not done it since. Does not mean a quuck snap for any reason(play or mad)..even un intentional could not end your Ducks life.