My neighbor leaves food out for the birds. She has decided over the last few months, that she doesn't want to continue. The problem I'm having is that she has been doing this for so long, that now that she has stopped, the birds are in my yard feasting on my dogs food. I leave the dogs outside during the day while I'm at work and don't want to leave them with no food all day. I have moved the food to several different locations around the yard, trying to discourage the birds. Nothing seems to work. I am especially concerned that besides the mess of droppings they are leaving all over my patio, I also find droppings in the dogs water bowl and on their bed. I don't want them to get sick! I have hung shiny (ugly and distracting) aluminum-like strips around the outside of the house and also perched owls on the roof. Nothing seems to discourage the birds. Anyone with suggestions??

They make dog feeders where there is a little door the dog pushes open with his head to get to the food ( sort of like a hog feeder if you are a farm person) No visible food, and I doubt the birds could get to the food.

You could put up some bird feeders of course in another part of the yard and keep them happy also.

A trick you could try is placing a hawk/eagle shaped kite (or something similar to a kite) on a peace of string in that area have it so it can move around. Other birds will see the shadow of the kite think it is a bird of prey flying above them and they will stay away. They use this on a lot of the fruit blocks around where I live to stop birds eat there fruit.