Bishon Friese

Question
I have an African Gray parrot and a Beagle.  The Beagle is a rescue dog from an abused environment and is basically afraid of the parrot.  I have seen a Bishon at the local shelter and wonder what it's instincts are concerinig bird. Thanks!

Answer
While I don't think Bichons have any real hunting instincts, I would always be careful with any dog around a parrot. When I had birds, I never would have the birds and dogs loose at the same time. I periodically would put each dog up to my Gray's cage and let her "take a bite" at each dog so that they would know that messing with that bird could be very painful. It seemed to work as the dogs learned they didn't want to be near that cage and the bird (who was more than willing to try to bite them)! But even so, it doesn't take but having one's guard down ever so briefly for a tragedy to happen, which is why I never had the dogs and bird loose together.

Karen