hOW DO YOU PREVENT A DOG FROM HARD MOUTHING BIRDS. LAST WEEKEND I SHOT A GOOSE AND AFTER I WENT TO GET IT IT WAS JUST OUT OF REACH IN THE RICE POND BECAUSE I WAS WEARING SHOES CAUSE I WAS GETTING READY TO GO. mY DOG RAN OVER GOT IT AND RAGDOLLED IT(EVEN THOUGH IT WASN'T MOVING) AND I WAS HORRIFIED BECAUSE SHE HAD NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE. AND WACKED HER IN THE HEAD WITH MY HAT AND SHE DROPPED THE BIRD AND SHE WENT TO PICK IT BACK UP AND I TAPPED HER IN THE HEAD WITH MY SHOE. CAN ANYONE HELP ME STOP HER FROM BEING A HARD MOUTH?

Man don't ever hit her when she brings you a bird!

Easy fix for hard mouth is the bristle brush. I have heard of people sticking pins through tennis balls, but I think the Bristle tire brush works the best, that is, assuming your dog is force fetched.

Put a dummy in his mouth and walk with him on leash; checking him all the time. If he tries to roll the dummy or move it in his mouth, say "no" while tapping him under the jaw. When he gets to the point that you're comfortable, start moving away from him. As your comfort level increases, move further and further away until he's at the point he will retreive without chewing the dummy.

My 2 cents.

Good luck

what is the bristle brush

If you have a copy of waterdog, its explained pretty well in there.

For the most part, the bristle brush is a horse hair or simliar brush that is about the length and thickness of a bumper. The bristles will hurt the dog if she bites down on them hard. You can use a simple hold command to make her hold it. There again, force fetching comes into play, which unless you really know what you are doing, I would let a professional trainer deal with.

srry i don't.

I haven't done this myself, but I have known a couple of people who used pine cones for their hard-mouthed dogs during trainig and play sessions. They tell me that after a couple of hard chomps on a pine cone, the dog's bite loosens considerably.

i'll give that a try

I use a leather glove, my pointer finger and the one next to it. I learned this trick when I was teaching my dog to "hold" the dummy. I got it out of the book..."how to train a super puppy" I have released a couple hen pheasants from his mouth. We used to have chickens on our farm back home and he would bring them to me all the time. Had to get rid of them. I would put the fingers in his mouth and tell him HOLD...He made sure he didn't bite down too hard. Like most dogs though he gets a little hard mouthed when other dogs are around to try and steal the glory.

A good two cents. You may want to start off sitting the dog down to do it before the leash.I put mine dog on a woodbox so he is on mylevelas it can be hell on the back bending down.