Question about growling

[kaeurl66]

Hey y'all!

 

I've had my Grey, Cookie, for about 10 years, and he was about 8 when I rescued him. He's not a super cuddly bird, and REALLY likes his cage, but we have an understanding. I'll leave him alone for the most part, and communicate from a distance, and he won't rip my digits off. LOL He'll come out with the doors open, but really has no interest in being anywhere other inside his cage or on top of his cage. He has a pretty good vocabulary and whistles a lot...gives kisses, etc. He's not a screamer -- except for mimicking the little girl he used to live with who apparently cried and screamed all. the. time.

 

We've also always had dogs, and obviously have kept them apart. When our current dog (Boxer/American Bulldog) is in the house, the cage is ALWAYS closed. Not just closed, but we actually put clip locks on the doors because Cookie had learned to open them. So sometimes Cookie walks around on the bottom on his cage and eggs on the dog to come over, which she does, and then I break it up before it even becomes a "thing." He basically teases the dog. That's the extent of their relationship. The dog will occasionally pick up food scraps under the cage. All that to say that the dog and the bird are in the same room a lot (I work from home and we're all three in the same room most of the day) but not interacting, and they are never in the same room alone unless the dog is in her crate.

 

This morning, as dog and I were walking upstairs, the dog made it upstairs before me and Cookie went ballistic. He was growling LOUD and basically screaming. I was only about one step behind, so I know there was not a physical altercation with them. I thought for sure he was hurt though. I mean... it was scary!! I think I've heard him make the growl noise one other time in the past 10 years, and that was when I was cleaning the carpets and the machine apparently scared him. This growling lasted today for at least 20 minutes. Every time the dog even looked at the cage, the bird lost it. Even when the screaming stopped, the low guttural growling was still going on.

 

Now he's in his cage, making happy sounds, and seems fine. Usually he knows our routine so well, and this happens every morning and he calls the dog, etc. It seriously freaked me out. Like, a LOT. What a horrible sound that was. I'll take the little girl high-pitched scream any day over that.

 

Could it just be that when the dog came in the room it surprised him and caught him off guard?

 

I know this is long-winded...thanks for all who read thru it all! Let me know what you think!! Thanks!

[katana600]

They don't like surprises because they are prey animals. Cookie is intelligent enough to know that the dog is a predator and to be out of the routine, in his mind a surprise like that could be his last. We also have a parrot who likes her cage the best. She isn't at all afraid of our dogs, but they are little dachshunds and were around the parrots since they were tiny. Plus, they are so close to the floor, and the cage is a stacked one, so Miss Gilbert is eight to ten "dog heights" from the little critters. She also gets freaked out with loud noises but is doing a lot better when I tell her "loud noise" then I turn on the vacuum and turn it off. I tell her she is okay, then I can vacuum to my heart's content and she doesn't seemed bothered. Probably the best thing you can do for Cookie is to put a gate across the stairs so the dog can't get there before you are there, if that is an option. Miss Gilbert still needs me to announce that I am coming out of my bedroom because her cage is just outside the door. If I come around the corner when she isn't expecting it she will fall right off her perch and flap around from being startled. I think it really was Cookie getting caught off guard. I think of Miss Gilbert as similar to a person with PTSD, it doesn't take much of a trigger to make her remember when her life wasn't so routine and ordinary. We have lived with her for five years and she was somewhere between five and seven, had been in at least four, maybe five homes before she came to us.

[katana600]

I had another thought. Is Cookie flighted? The reason I ask is that Miss Gilbert has never been trimmed with us, but she is incapable of flight due to wing damage. If Cookie can not fly, he is more insecure and aware that his main escape plan is unavailable to him and that might make him a little more apprehensive. I'm sure that has added to Miss Gilbert's tension.

[kaeurl66]

Thanks for the response! I used to have his wings clipped, but haven't done so in probably six years now. He doesn't fly...but definitely could if he decided to. Hopefully he'll get over this little scare soon. Things had settled down until the dog decided to walk across the room...LOL. No screaming this time, but I could hear the growling ready to go. I actually just leashed the dog and have her attached me while I work for a bit, just to ensure she doesn't walk over there. It's so funny because the dog's crate is in the same room...every morning I come upstairs and as I'm taking the dog out, Cookie is over there like clockwork..."Hi, honey. Hi, Hazel..." just like me. Never been an issue. We have all three spent the better portion of every day together in my office while I work for the past four years since Hazel was a puppy. So maybe Hazel just busted in too fast this morning. So weird. Cookie has never freaked out about new toys, nothing, not a plucker, no known anxiety issues. Until now. LOL I think he's making up for lost time. (Side note...we used to have a mini Doxie named Oscar who Cookie still calls to this day. )

[SRSeedBurners]

Our Grey does her instinctive wild Grey growl/scream every spring when I put the bamboo shading on top of her aviary. She goes ballistic and it takes her a day to get over it.

[katana600]

It sounds like this was just a startle response and Cookie is mad at the dog for making him "lose his cool". I'm guessing it will all blow over. Your dog is lucky he is just getting growled at... Miss Gilbert has a salty vocabulary and she calls me a lady of the night in her own coarse, sarcastic way if I startle or displease her. I've had a week of it since I have been outside working for two weeks and she suspects I am seeing other birds. Hahahaha.

[kaeurl66]

Hilarious! Miss Gilbert sounds like a riot! Yep... I've kept the dog away for the most part, and even leashed her so when we have to walk by the cage to go downstairs that it doesn't start all over. So far so good. In fact...Cookie is currently walking around the bottom of his cage right now calling the dog over. LOL Such an instigator.

[katana600]

He just wants to make sure the dog knows its place. Parrots come first, humans next and dogs are at the bottom of the pecking order. No pun intended. I'm glad he is settling down. Miss Gilbert has a penchant for cussing and we have been working on downplaying that but she knows just how to get the most impact. She does say nice things too, but that doesn't make her laugh. I'm really glad Cookie is settling down. He just didn't like the unexpected startle most likely.