Dogs eatin the bird

choclabyell69 · 09-11-2003, 08:44 PM

I have a 4 month old lab that I took dove hunting today. He did really good until he tryed to eat the doves I shot. I got them from him but this is not a habit that I want him to have. Any ideas on how to stop him from trying to eat them?

caveman22 · 09-12-2003, 08:24 AM

Get a dove............freeze it................work on retrieves in the back yard. When you feel confident that he is not trying to chew the frozen dove try a half frozen dove............and so on and so forth. Eventually he should be conditioned to retrieve fresh kill without a problem. Just keep a close eye on him.

Howler · 09-16-2003, 08:51 AM

I agree with caveman on this one, but I might also use some sort of small treat while doing the back yard training, after the pup does a retrieve well with the frozen bird, give the pup a small tasty treat, and eventually faze out the treat. The pup is still young, so don' t presure it too much too fast. Keep the training seasions short and fun. If the pup looses interest in the training, it' s time to stop for the seassion.

trkymercanary · 10-09-2003, 06:37 PM

what i did to my first dog was, i got a pheasant and wrapped a small gauge barbed wire around it. threw it and let the dog retrieve it. he soomed learned that the bird hurt when he bit hard on it. this may seem like cruelty to animals but it works, and hardly no pain, or blood.