Hunting with Herding Dogs
 

Has anyone here every used a hearding dog (collie, sheppard, heeler, etc) for hunting birds or small game. I would think they'd be trainable. I've seen guys on TV that have trained border collies and austrailian sheppards to do just about anything. I read a post from a guy who says the best retriever he ever had was a German Sheppard and I bought a truck from a guy who owned a beagle as a house pet and had 2 blue healers (austrailian cattle dogs) that he used to hunt rabbits.

Now I now that it wouldn't be optimal and that you'd be better getting a dog with a known pedigree of hunting, pointing, retrieving etc, but I'm curious to know if anyone has had any experiences hunting with these dogs.

RE: Hunting with Herding Dogs
 

I have been using a heeler for a couple of years now, she is just an old farm dog, but she can really kick up the pheasants, last season she even jumped up and caught 6 roosters throughout the season, heelers are extremely intelligent dogs, just a matter of training them

RE: Hunting with Herding Dogs
 

I have the best hunting dog in the world; at least from his perspective.

Faldo is a Bouvier des Flandres. His favorite hunt is for big game. During this, he takes the most ideal position on the living room sofa while his master/servant (undetermined at this point) goes out in the woods to find his dinner.

He doubles as an equally superior fishing dog where he assumes the prime role of "wave watcher" on the boat. Although, if you ask him, I bet he would say he prefers Venison to Trout.

Cheers

RE: Hunting with Herding Dogs
 

There are guys who get some nice treedogs out of shepherd dogs. I have heard of using border collies and aussies as squirrel dogs. I believe some of the shepherd dogs are split off breeds from a breed called a treeing farm shepherd. These are old farm dogs that tree well. Also, Mountain Curs and Blackmouth curs are all-purpose dogs. They will tree, bay, and some guys use them for cattle. I have one and should be getting number 2 this weekend.

RE: Hunting with Herding Dogs
 

Rocksfan,

Does your healer point at all? I saw an aussie sheppard mix play a game one time that was very similar to pointing birds, maybe more like halting, and waiting for a command. Does he flush or retrieve?

I'm curious as to what exactly he does.

Thanks,

Spud

RE: Hunting with Herding Dogs
 

I had a lacy that would fetch doves all day long. For him, that ranked right up there with chasin' cows. He was also good at treeing coons and possums.

RE: Hunting with Herding Dogs
 

She, the heeler, doesn't really point, she basically flushes the pheasants up(please give me an accurate definition of flushing, I am pretty sure I know what it is, but I might be wrong, she also retrieves whatever I shoot, or she happens to snag and brings them back to me, she just doesn't always want to give up what "she killed"

A blue heeler is a cross between a collie and a dingo, so maybe that is why it is capable of hunting, just like the sheppard/collie cross that you had seen perform

RE: Hunting with Herding Dogs
 

Thanks for the description. Sounds like a fun dog. Sorry about your GSP pup. Hope all turns out well.

spud