Free: Contests & Raffles.
It's not a newsflash but a real bird dog will be tough to break of it. My dad had a German shorthair he beat,whipped,hung dead chickens on her collar until they rotted off. It wasn't until she came home shot through the face from the neighbor at the age of 8 she smarten up. I had some trouble with my springers as well. I have owned more than one dog that were easy to break of it. Those individuals were never thought of by me as high drive bird getting machines. Like my neighbor told me " IF you have a hunting dog that you can leave run around the yard unattended, it ain't no huntin dog". Yup I've owned more than a couple.
I'm pretty sure this conversation has happened several times, and I'm pretty sure I've chimed in before, but...We have had a couple of pretty amazing and birdy retrievers and have always had chickens. It's all about the training, and our dogs have learned (pretty quickly--they are smart) the difference. Amber completely ignores the chickens but she will find any bird out there joyfully and skillfully. Now, if she happens to be running out to the truck and a chicken is standing in her way, does she not enjoy the fact that she sends the chicken fluttering? I'm sure she enjoys what happens, but she never EVER EVER chases them or even plays with them.Keeping her from rolling in rotting *anything* is another story though...
I think it makes a big difference if they were raised around them.My lab would kill chickens...until there were no more chickens. Not even worth trying to break him of it.
I would never break my flushing Labs from their interest in chasing chickens, or any birds for that matter. I too would suspect the birdiness of any flushing dog that "ignored" the chickens.. Better to find a way to keep your chickens inaccessible to your dog.
Quote from: 87Ford on May 25, 2016, 01:07:40 PM When they're on the job, they're on the job.
When they're on the job, they're on the job.
Quote from: 87Ford on May 25, 2016, 01:07:40 PMI would never break my flushing Labs from their interest in chasing chickens, or any birds for that matter. I too would suspect the birdiness of any flushing dog that "ignored" the chickens.. Better to find a way to keep your chickens inaccessible to your dog. My very, very birdy lab pup (she was a little over a year old) chased down and retrieved a free-range, beautiful gold-laced Wyandotte hen from the grounds of the property where we had our wedding...on our wedding day. I yelled and cursed, and she eventually dropped the unharmed bird. A couple of weeks later, she did the same with a barred rock hen at home, in spite of me calling her off. I chased her down, threw her over the 6' fence, chased her down again, and made her believe that she would never see the light of another day, much less another chicken. It's the only time I really lost my temper with her. She's 8 now, and since then has never taken more than a second look at any of our domestic chickens, turkeys, or ducks, but is a stone-cold pursuer of wild ducks, quail, pheasant, etc. She absolutely knows the difference. When an unfortunate quail or grouse wanders onto the property, she's on the case immediately.I was initially scared to death that I might have driven some birdiness out of her, but she didn't even hesitate on the next hunting outing. When they're on the job, they're on the job.
Quote from: Chukarhead on May 25, 2016, 08:44:56 PMQuote from: 87Ford on May 25, 2016, 01:07:40 PMI would never break my flushing Labs from their interest in chasing chickens, or any birds for that matter. I too would suspect the birdiness of any flushing dog that "ignored" the chickens.. Better to find a way to keep your chickens inaccessible to your dog. My very, very birdy lab pup (she was a little over a year old) chased down and retrieved a free-range, beautiful gold-laced Wyandotte hen from the grounds of the property where we had our wedding...on our wedding day. I yelled and cursed, and she eventually dropped the unharmed bird. A couple of weeks later, she did the same with a barred rock hen at home, in spite of me calling her off. I chased her down, threw her over the 6' fence, chased her down again, and made her believe that she would never see the light of another day, much less another chicken. It's the only time I really lost my temper with her. She's 8 now, and since then has never taken more than a second look at any of our domestic chickens, turkeys, or ducks, but is a stone-cold pursuer of wild ducks, quail, pheasant, etc. She absolutely knows the difference. When an unfortunate quail or grouse wanders onto the property, she's on the case immediately.I was initially scared to death that I might have driven some birdiness out of her, but she didn't even hesitate on the next hunting outing. When they're on the job, they're on the job.That's a cool story, but again, I'm never gonna "train", "break", or "scold" my bird dogs from chasing or having an interest in birds, I mean chickens. Like I said, to each their own. Fact is, I don't even have any chickens, so it's a moot point. I'm saying that for me, if I had chickens, I'd keep them out of harms way, so to speak. You know, keep the chickens safe from the dogs. Pretty simple really.Had one of my Labs over at the local feed store one time and as soon as I turned my back, that dog was in the coup roughin' up the chickens. It ended when he brought me a chicken that was still kicking and plenty alive. No harm, no foul, pun intended. The owner was an avid bird hunter himself and understood. Shame on me for letting my dog sneak away from me, but I certainly wasn't gonna scold the dog! Good grief!
I think that train-ability and prey-drive have a lot to do with it. Labs and goldens make excellent service dogs because they can be taught very easily to ignore distractions. Their train-ability over rides their prey-drive. On a blind retrieve you can train a Lab to bypass a dead pile on the down wind side to where you you want him to look for the fall. A spanial or VHD it is a lot harder to train to bypass a dead bird he know is there because his mission is to find a dead bird. The labs mission is to go where he is commanded to and then look for the bird.When you look at trials and hunt tests, retriever trials are based on train-ability and spanial/pointing dogs trials are more natural ability based.
I should add that I only use my two Labs in the uplands, specifically chasing wild roosters. I don't think breaking your dog from chasing the chickens in the yard would have much, if any, negative affect on retrieving.. Since I mainly run my dogs on pheasants, I want them as aggressive and birdy as possible. The notion of "breaking" or training a high prey drive flushing Lab from his interest in chickens just doesn't make sense to me. It would never be my intention to train my upland dogs so that they are "barnyard buddies" with the chickens. I want my dogs looking for birds as soon as they hit the ground.. Pheasants, pigeons, grouse, CHICKENS.. Let's take our bird dog and nick him with the collar or spray water on him for doing what comes natural, good idea NOT in my opinion..
I'm just going to show some ignorance here. When many people talk about their dogs killing chickens, I'm curious how that translates to the field. My actual duck or pheasant hunting experience is limited compared to many of you, but if you have a dog that is out to kill birds, how do they retrieve them without "chewing them up" or mangling them or anything like that? If a dog both kills chickens but also brings back a bird without destroying it, it almost seems like they already know the difference?I mean I get what some of you are saying...don't push it for fear the dog loses birdiness...but I'm just curious if the same dogs that kill chickens are also a little less than gentle with ducks or pheasants, etc.
Mine could not do that, no way no how *gulp* innocent look
Seems like results will vary regardless of what you do. If you teach them to leave the chickens alone a certain way then it may likely effect their birdyness. Teach them a different way and it likely wont.
Quote from: weathergirl on May 25, 2016, 07:26:52 PMI'm just going to show some ignorance here. When many people talk about their dogs killing chickens, I'm curious how that translates to the field. My actual duck or pheasant hunting experience is limited compared to many of you, but if you have a dog that is out to kill birds, how do they retrieve them without "chewing them up" or mangling them or anything like that? If a dog both kills chickens but also brings back a bird without destroying it, it almost seems like they already know the difference?I mean I get what some of you are saying...don't push it for fear the dog loses birdiness...but I'm just curious if the same dogs that kill chickens are also a little less than gentle with ducks or pheasants, etc. No one has really addressed this question, and I've been curious since I posted it. What if you throw your dog and dead birds in the back of the truck...is your dog going to tear the dead bird up? Is that what prey-drive is? What if your bird is sitting out on the deck waiting to be cleaned and your dog is out alone with it. These are also scenarios that we don't have to worry about, but I'm wondering if others do. The same obedient part of my dog that can ignore a chicken, also knows that the dead bird is no longer hers. The ability to avoid a distraction in no way reduces prey-drive. I can't imagine Amber having more prey-drive than she has, unless I'm not understanding the definition of the term. She finds the bird; she gets the bird. Period. But the rules are: no chickens, no chewing on dead birds...basically just following the rules and being polite and respectful. But back to my question, so these same dogs that aren't made to leave chickens alone, are they able to leave harvested birds alone?
Pretty sure my parents dog was the reason no predators ever got any of the chickens. Shed follow em around pointing at em all day every day.[/quo :tup:cool picture!
