My staffy wants to eat my parrot!

Hi. I've recently acquired an adorable staffy along with my boyfriend. We've moved in together and I have an African grey parrot. Spike (the dog) is uncontrollable when in the same room as the bird. He snarls and barks and lunges at the cage. It looks to be more than curiosity. He looks as though he would rip her apart given half a chance. Spike is also very unsociable when it comes to other dogs although he is extremely loving with humans (sometimes too loving!). Can anyone suggest any techniques we can try so that we can all relax in the same room together? The bird is caged most of the time for her own safety and her wings are clipped (not my choice). Any advice would be most appreciated.

Hi and welcome to the Forum   

When you get a min pop along here and say Hi :-
https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/f7-new-member-introductions

I have an African Grey also, not my choice, I inherited it   

When my Flo first came home she looked into his cage and the Parrot went for her nose ! He didn't actually manage to nip Flo but that was enough of a warning to her to keep away. She pays no attention to the Parrot at all now.

I'm not sure what to suggest other than controlled socialisation. If you can get Spike to calm down, I would imagine eventually he will lose interest knowing that he can't actually get to the bird.

Thanks. We'll try that. But spike kind of zones out when he sets his mind on something I think it will take a lot of time for him to calm down. We resorted to having him on his lead in the house when he's in the same room. It's not ideal because that confused him because he thought it was time for a walk .

My neighbours holiday sat a parrot once and every time it spoke or squarked Ledger would hear it and go crazy (he has massive prey drive for birds mostly as they steal the bread from the garden!)

I would think consistent commands and distractions until Spike calms the 'watch me' command is great and will work wonders when out on walks too basically when he makes full eye contact with you he gets a treat, even something like a frozen kong stuffed with sweet potato etc or a bull bar to chew something to take hs focus til he forgets the bird is there

My sister had these problem with mason and rooney. The bird really didn`t help matters and would torment mason. Once Mason knocked the cage over and they decided it could not go on it was not fair on either animal. Rooney went to live with my brother in law mum and dad and now has a very foul mouth but is very happy. Oh he also lives very happily with a dog as well.