Hello from beautiful, sunny Florida!
Well, at least I hear it’s beautiful and sunny… I’m inside working. Currently catching up on client work in my hotel room, then for the next two full days–7:30 to 7:30 Wednesday and Thursday–I’ll be walking five miles of pet products at Global Pet Expo. That’s right: five MILES. I can’t wrap my head around that, but I’m definitely wearing my Fitbit (our health insurance gives us some kind of credit for steps… #bigbrother).
So, for today, a story:
When we were looking for a house, one of our must-haves was a pool. Because we live in Indiana and because we moved in around Thanksgiving, it’s been covered. Sometimes when we’re playing fetch with Coop in the yard, an errant ball will bounce in there, which we fish out with a rake. But, the pool has been untouched and unused until about a week ago.
That was when these ducks decided that it’s their pond.
I wouldn’t mind that much if I didn’t think it was a play to make their nest and have their babies in the yard, and I have nightmares about a reenactment of Bunnygate 2015 but with ducklings. I just can’t. The pool has its own little gate around it, so the dogs can’t actually get them, which I do not want anyway. But with the gate, I figured… let the dogs out, they bark like mad at the ducks, the ducks fly away, close that chapter!
I threw open the back door and said, “Go get ’em, boys!” And Emmett and Cooper stood in the doorway. They peered outside. They looked up at me. Their faces clearly said, “But it’s raining.”
I pointed: “Look! Ducks!”
Nada.
The next day, we let the boys out, and just as they were trotting back to the door, the ducks swooped and landed on their pond the pool cover. Both boys stopped. They put their faces right up to the fence. Cooper stiffened up, and I thought… this is it! He’s going to unleash a torrent of crazy, animal-chasing, high-pitched barks and that’ll be the end of the ducks!
But Emmett pranced off toward the back door and Cooper followed.
This morning, getting ready to leave for the airport, I spotted them doing what I can only describe as, well, sleeping. The boys had already been outside. And there were the ducks. Sleeping.
As their daily routine, as soon as they finish breakfast, Emmett and Cooper put themselves back to bed. They had just finished eating, so I knew getting them out–instead of going right back to their cozy bed–would be a tough sell. “Come on, Cooper!” I dashed to the door. “I think there’s a squirrel!”
I threw open the door, he dashed over and out onto the deck. The ducks started to quack.
It was his chance to scare them off!
Cooper, my tough little defender, turned around, walked back in the house, and jumped straight into bed.
So, we have these ducks.
Of all the reactions you’d expect to be pretty “basic,” defending or warding off any foreign creatures in the yard is something you’d expect from dogs. But you know, dogs are just weird sometimes.
Thinking about it now my neighbor has ducks & chickens. Laika doesn’t give a crap about the ducks, but when those chickens come by our yard she’s a hot mess. I don’t get it.
Of all the things to leave alone…haha!
Ducks can be pretty tenacious and birds in general have had a chip on their shoulder ever since the asteroid dethroned their big brothers and these stinky mammals started scurrying about like the own the place.
HAH! love this! It’s funny what they react to and what they don’t react to. Cash goes ballistic if there is a rabbit out in our yard, he didn’t even so much as sniff our bunny Shasta, he goes bizerk at squirrels or chipmunks but could care less when our pet rat ran around the sofa, go figure.
My friend has a pair of ducks that visit her pool every spring, she’s never had them nest in her yard though, they leave when she takes the cover off. But if you’re weeks away from taking the cover off and worried they’ll nest in that time, draining the water off the top should get rid of them. If you’re planning on opening/closing the pool on your own, you might want to invest in a submersible pump or rent one for a few hours to drain the water. We only had a cover like that for one season, Sandy had passed away and with no young kids to worry about we took the fence down from around the pool but we decided to install a safety cover because we did dog sit for friends and knew we would get another dog eventually. The safety covers make opening and closing so much easier and make an awesome springtime trampoline. I’ll have to share my video of Melissa and the frenchies running back and forth on it, very cute and funny. Enjoy your trip and fingers crossed to no ducks when you get back
Sounds like you either need to embrace the soon-to-be expanding duck family, or buy a plastic owl and mount it to the fence. If they are anything like chickens, they may be fooled by a dummy owl.
This made me laugh so hard. Oh Maggie! Why do they do this to us? We expect one thing and they give us another. I usually have the opposite problem, so the other day when I had Bert and Gert (our annual resident ducks) in the backyard, I did not let Jasper out for fear there would be carnage. Now I am wondering if I would have had the same reaction?
Enjoy the ducks! (BTW – Bert and Gert have moved to the front yard now, so I think I can safely assume there will be no carnage or barking to make them leave.) 🙂
Awww sounds like Emmett and Cooper have such loving good natured personalities. I guess the ducks will leave once its time to start using the pool again. Until then it sounds like they’re going to hang around and be a part of your family.
Aw, those ducks seem to have very little fear sometimes and maybe Cooper and Emmett sensed that and decided not to waste their time. Hopefully, they’ll move on soon. 🙂
I wonder what Ducky would do if she saw a real duck in her yard? She’s not much bigger than them.
I love how dogs can so easily and naturally engage with other species! I run a blog myself, and it is about my dogs and cat and all our experiences rescuing animals! https://romeospaws.wordpress.com/
I hope our blogs help people better understand the gift animals give!
Sending love to you and all your little monsters!
Those ducks are awesome. Yeah, you mention right about dog are barking on ducks and they fly away. You have to do something that those dogs will not come near this pond.
We had the same issue- and our yard is fenced – with the pool in the middle. The ducks didn’t care that our dogs would run around the pool and bark. They swam to the middle, obviously being blessed with the sense to know our dogs are yellow-bellied water sissies and would never go in after them.
We definitely didn’t want baby ducklings in the yard (necessitating a duck ramp for them to get to water) and to be easy prey for raccoons and skunks. I could keep my pups in for 8 weeks (ugh!!! potties by walks only) , but I had read online that survival rates for yard-born baby ducks is extremely low.
Why these darn ducks wanted to nest here is beyond me – we have an actual duck pond – creatively named “The Duck Pond” right down the road. They must be antisocial.
Sooooo… I got colorful floats and tubes and put them in the water- since they seemed to shun company. For added measure, I ran out with a magazine in each hand, flapping, and shouting “Git! Go to the Duck Pond”. It was an ugly vision for the neighbors, but…
No more ducks.