Dogs and Ducks

[Maria Shtemberg]

Hi everyone, thanks for letting me join!

I live on a rural property and was wondering if there are some specific tips that I can utilize to get my Shepador (9 weeks) get used to ducks and learn not to chase them. At the moment his Shephard herding is very confused with this Labrador retrieving desire lol. Right now i try to expose him to the ducks as much as possible and teach stay, leave, etc but the moment he gets to run he chases them. I have a flock of 17 domesticated ducks that I need to teach him to coexist along side.

Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks, 

Maria and Blue

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi Maria and Blue, 

Welcome to the forums! Your farm sounds lovely and it's great that you are starting to train your Shepador at such a young age. 

When a dog chases ducks, we often assume the dog simply doesn’t like them, but in reality, the drive to chase them is the ultimate result of a dog’s ancestral instinct to perform the predatory sequence. What is a predatory sequence? A predatory sequence consists of a series of behaviors that predators carry out in order to hunt and capture their prey. 

The sequence is therefore a set of behaviors that lead one to another, starting with the mere detection of prey animals and culminating in consumption. In simple words, it consists of behaviors that lead to “food acquisition.” Predatory sequences will vary from one species and another. For example, a lion will stalk its prey, then ambush it, deliver a fatal bite and then will proceed to eat it. A spider on the other hand, will spin a web, then inject the prey with venom, and then will proceed to eat. In modern humans, it’s going to the grocery store, paying, cooking a meal and eating. 

What is the predatory sequence in dogs? This is often described as a chain of motor patterns composed of the following sequence: orient → eye → stalk → chase → grab-bite → kill-bite → dissect → consume.

Domestic dogs rarely perform the entire sequence, and selective breeding has exaggerated or suppressed different components based on different factors such as breed. A Border Collie may therefore stare and stalk a duck intensely but have relatively inhibited grabbing, while a retriever may be strongly motivated to pursue and carry, but without necessarily wanting to kill.

What triggers a dog to perform a predatory sequence in the first place? The big neurological trigger is movement. Fast, erratic movements are extremely salient to a dog’s visual system.

When a duck suddenly waddles, flaps, or takes off, it can therefore activate an orienting response and rapidly increase arousal. It’s as if the dog’s brain is essentially saying, “Something just moved! Track it!” Just the chase itself along with the dopamine release can become a rewarding experience.

There is also a neat sensory component: contrast and motion detection. Dogs don’t see the world in quite the same visual way humans do, and their visual system is particularly good at detecting movement.

A stationary duck may therefore be noticed without eliciting much response, but compare that to a duck suddenly sprinting across the pond and you get the idea.

The rapid movement of ducks, rising arousal, and anticipation of what happens next engage a dog's dopamine and motivation systems. In this sense, the pursuit can become its own reward, allowing the dog to learn that chasing is exciting even when the duck consistently gets away.

Chasing can therefore be intrinsically rewarding. The dog doesn’t necessarily need to catch the duck for the chase to be exciting or for the behavior to become more likely to occur again. The duck moves? The dog chases causing adrenaline and arousal to rise. The duck flees? The pursuit remains exciting and reinforcing. Predatory chasing can also be strongly motivated by innate motor patterns and species-typical predatory behavior.

And because the dog gets repeated opportunities to rehearse the sequence, chasing can become increasingly automatic and difficult to interrupt, making it more likely to repeat. In a nutshell, the more a dog practices the behavior, the more he will want to engage in it because the dog is repeatedly practicing a highly arousing, intrinsically reinforcing sequence.

So now that we know why dogs find chasing ducks so rewarding, it’s time to dedicate a whole section on how to train a dog to no longer pursue this behavior. But firstly, I find it important to point out something important: it is a bit unrealistic to expect dogs to simply stop wanting to chase ducks, or any other type of furry critter for the matter.

Sure, you can teach a dog to control the behavior, but you generally cannot expect training to completely erase an innate or strongly reinforced motivation. There is also a major difference between wanting to chase and choosing to chase. A well-trained dog may notice a duck, experience the urge to pursue it, and nevertheless turn back toward the handler. The absence of a chase does not necessarily mean the dog has lost the desire to chase; it can simply mean that the dog has learned an alternative response and has attained sufficient impulse control to perform it despite the motivation.

Furthermore, your puppy is only 9 weeks so we need to keep in mind that pups at this age the goal is not really “stop duck chasing.” It is to prevent the puppy from developing a strong chase habit while teaching attention, disengagement, recall, and calm observation.

I would also avoid deliberately bringing a 9-week-old puppy closer and closer to ducks. At this age, sessions should be extremely short, the environment should be carefully controlled, and management should do most of the work. The puppy should have many successful experiences of seeing interesting things without automatically pursuing them.

When you're working with a 9-week-old puppy, the goal isn't to teach the puppy that ducks aren't interesting or somehow eliminate the natural urge to chase moving objects. At this age, we're laying the behavioral foundation that will help the puppy make better choices later. Think of it as building good habits before the chase becomes a habit. With all of this in mind, here are some tips:

1. Prevent the Puppy From Practicing the Chase

At 9 weeks old, management is your best friend. Every time a puppy sees a duck, takes off after it, and gets to experience the thrill of the pursuit, the puppy gets another opportunity to rehearse that behavior.

Use appropriate management such as:

• A regular leash when appropriate

• A secure puppy-safe area

• Secure fencing

• A suitable long line when the puppy is old enough and the environment is appropriate

• Carrying the puppy in situations where a chase could occur

At 9 weeks, I would prioritize preventing the puppy from getting into a chase in the first place rather than testing whether the puppy can resist one.

2. Don't Wait Until the Puppy Is Chasing

This is one of the most important principles. Once a puppy is already sprinting after a duck, you're no longer teaching a calm learning exercise, but rather you are trying to interrupt an emotionally arousing behavior that is already happening.

Instead, look for the moment when the puppy first notices the duck. You want: “What's that?” rather than:“ DUCK! MUST CHASE!” At 9 weeks, your puppy's attention span is extremely limited. You cannot expect an infant puppy to stare at a duck and then calmly perform a complicated obedience routine. Your job at this stage and age is to notice those tiny moments of attention and teach the puppy what to do next.

3. Build Attention and Check-In Behaviors Away From Ducks

Before you use ducks as a training distraction, teach the puppy that checking in with you is worthwhile. Start inside the house in a quiet environment.

You can practice with Blue desirable behaviors such as:

• Responding to his name

• Looking toward you

• Coming when called over very short distances

• Hand targeting

• Turning and following you

• Offering eye contact

Keep sessions extremely short and fun. For example practive 5 minute sessions of  “Bluuuuue!” → puppy looks toward you → “Yes!” → treat. Repeat until the puppy begins automatically checking in when you say their name. Then practice in progressively more interesting environments.

4. Teach the Puppy That Seeing a Duck Is No Big Deal

You don't want your puppy to learn that ducks are forbidden, frightening, or something that produces a battle with the handler. Instead, if your puppy notices a duck at a safe distance mark the calm behavior and give a reward. 

This is where counterconditioning (https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/)and differential reinforcement (https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/differential-reinforcement-incompatible-behaviors/) can become useful. You're helping establish a positive association with the presence of ducks while selectively reinforcing behaviors that are incompatible with launching into a chase.

5. Reward Disengagement

One of the most valuable behaviors you can teach is disengagement. Suppose your puppy sees a duck.The puppy looks.Then, for just a moment, the puppy looks back at you. That tiny moment is gold so you want to mark it. 

Duck → puppy looks → puppy disengages → “Yes!” → reward.

You're basically teaching Blue something along the lines of: “I can notice something exciting without having to chase it.” Don't expect a perfect automatic response from a 9-week-old puppy. At first, you may need to help by moving away, calling the puppy's name, or using a hand target.

As the puppy matures and gains experience, you can gradually expect more independent disengagement.

6. Use Rewards That Matter to the Puppy

At this age, food is often an exceptionally useful reinforcer because puppies are still learning that interacting with their human can be rewarding. You don't necessarily need exotic treats. Tiny pieces of something the puppy finds highly motivating can work extremely well.

The important point is that the reward must actually compete with what the puppy is interested in.

7. Keep the Distance Large Enough for the Puppy to Succeed

With a 9-week-old puppy, I would not start by deliberately walking toward ducks to see how close you can get. Instead, use whatever distance naturally exists. If the puppy sees a duck across a pond and calmly watches it, that helps. If the puppy immediately pulls, lunges, barks, or tries to run toward it, you're too close for that particular training exercise. There is no magic distance such as 10, 20, or 30 meters. The appropriate distance depends on the individual puppy, the environment, the movement of the ducks, and the puppy's current arousal level.

Think: Can Blue notice the duck and still eat, respond to me, and move away with me? If yes, you're probably working at a productive level. If no, increase the distance or leave the situation.

8. Don't Make Moving Ducks the First Big Challenge

A stationary duck and a flying duck are very different training stimuli. A puppy may calmly observe a duck sitting on the water and then immediately try to pursue it when it suddenly waddles, flaps, or takes flight. Movement is an especially powerful trigger for many dogs.

So don't deliberately create a difficult scenario simply to “test” the puppy. Let the puppy gradually encounter different levels of movement while maintaining enough distance for the puppy to remain responsive.

You might eventually progress from: stationary duck → walking duck → moving duck → several moving ducks → duck taking flight...But these are later steps, not a checklist that a 9-week-old puppy needs to complete.

9. Teach a Fun “This Way!” Response

Rather than relying on repeated commands such as “Come! Come! COME!” when the puppy is already distracted, teach a cheerful movement cue. For example:

“This way!” → turn around → puppy follows → reward. Practice it around the house. Then the yard. Then other low-distraction environments.

Eventually, the cue can become useful when something interesting appears. The important part is that the puppy has a long history of practicing the behavior before you expect it to work around ducks.

10. Be Especially Careful When the Puppy and Duck Both Start Moving

This is where the situation can escalate very quickly:Puppy moves → duck moves → puppy accelerates → duck accelerates → puppy accelerates again. You don't want to turn this into a game of puppy-versus-duck. If a duck suddenly begins moving away, increase distance and calmly move your puppy with you rather than waiting to see whether the puppy can resist the temptation.

At 9 weeks, management should be priority. You are trying to prevent the puppy from learning: “When ducks run, I get to run too!”

11. Don't Punish the Puppy for Being Interested in Ducks

Looking at a duck is not bad behavior. Neither is being excited by movement. Those are normal puppy responses. Rather, the behavior you want to influence is what happens after the puppy notices the duck.

Instead of yelling "“NO! Leave it! Don't look!” think in terms of: “You noticed the duck. Good. Now let's check in with me.”

12: Remember your puppy is an infant.

This may be the most important point of all. A 9-week-old puppy does not have the impulse control of an adult dog. The puppy is exploring the environment, learning how movement works, developing motor skills, and discovering which behaviors produce interesting consequences.

You should therefore expect: short attention spans, imperfect responses, sudden bursts of excitement, and occasional lapses in judgment.

13. Management Will Still Be Necessary

Even with excellent early training, I would not expect a puppy to become reliably trustworthy around ducks simply because you've practiced these exercises. As the puppy grows, predatory interest may change. Adolescence can also bring changes in arousal, independence, and environmental motivation. Therefore, continue using appropriate physical management around ducks until you have substantial evidence that the dog can safely respond in those environments.

I hope this helps! Happy training!

Best, 

Adrienne