I am fortunate to walk the dogs in a park with many lovely gum trees. These trees are home to a family of magpies. As we walk into the park, the magpies fly down to say “hi” even in “swooping” season when they have chicks to protect. The reason they don’t swoop at me and the dogs is that I have “made friends” with them …… as a dog training exercise. A recent article on the ABC said that this approach to magpies is the way to stop them swooping at you. See http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-31/make-friends-with-magpies-to-avoid-swooping-expert-says/8856438

How to make friends with the magpies?

I have gun dogs (Vizslas) who are naturally attracted to birds and if they were allowed to chase them, I daresay the dogs’ recalls would get a little “sloppy” to say the least. Also, I don’t want to risk the dogs ever contacting a bird and hurting it, so chasing birds is not acceptable to me.

To train the dogs to be calm and not in “hunting” mode around the birds, I initially lured the magpies down onto the ground with food rewards. I make my own treats so the food rewards didn’t contain anything artificial. They were pieces of carrot or cooked liver, heart or chicken. The treats were also very small, because in the case of the meat treats, they were very high value rewards, even for magpies.

When the magpies were on the ground, I used their presence to condition the dogs to be calm around them. Initially, the birds were wary of the dogs, so they stayed at a distance, which was fine for training the dogs. As the magpies became more trusting they moved closer to us, which increased the challenge for the dogs. Now the older magpies come in quite close to us for their treats which is a little challenging for my young dog. But, he is a quick learner and the magpies are very calm around him which helps the training process.

Over time, when the birds see us coming into the park, they know the training game and fly down for a treat. The birds get rewarded for being friendly around us and the dogs get rewarded for being calm around the birds. A friendly and trusting relationship between us all has developed which has spanned several generations of birds and dogs.

So when you are out walking with your dogs this weekend, why not put a couple of extra treats in your pocket and make friends with a magpie?

Until next time, enjoy your dogs.