My dog got his first bird

[Tomtint]

A couple years ago now we rescued a 8-10 month old Weimaraner. He was never inside a house prior to coming here.. and adjusted to the couch, fireplace and bed..very quickly.. This morning about 5am we let him out to do his business and in about 3 seconds he lunged into the bushes and caught himself a Robbin... he was thoroughly pleased with himself although my wife was screaming at him to let it go... clearly his genetics are still dominant down deep.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Best bird dog I ever hunted with was a Weimaraner/pointer mix.

 

[Tomtint]

Best bird dog I ever hunted with was a Weimaraner/pointer mix.

He's 100% Weim..he's our second one. Really nice dogs, very smart. .. Our first one was the normal silver gray color that is the breed standard. He was really my best friend... Miss him dearly. We adopted the one we have now from someone who didn't want him because he is the "wrong" color. He is a blue .. The color of his fur makes no difference to us. He is a pampered pet.

 

[nybirdman]

Got to love bird dogs,just doing his job!Lucky it wasn't a skunk,raccoon!We have two pointers(GSP and English) and my son has two(GSP's).

 

[teejk]

Best bird dog I ever hunted with was a Weimaraner/pointer mix.

Hunted behind a German shorthair/Weimaraner/Vizla mix. Best dog ever. The latter two seemed to take some of the stubbornness out of the shorthair.

 

[oosik]

I have a 14 month old Chocolate Lab - OLLY. A month ago he successfully chased two turkeys out of the yard. Two weeks ago there was a small flock of turkeys in my meadow. It's about a quarter mile from the house. He saw them. So excited - he bounded out there to "greet" them rather than simply running.

They ran about 50 feet - stopped and held their ground. He was confused - they were supposed to continue running. However, a couple gigantic "WOOFS" and off they went. All was right, once again.

If he didn't figure it out the first go around - I'm pretty sure he now understands. "Chase but never catch" Bad things can/will happen should you catch a turkey. A turkey could beat the snot out of an unwary dog.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^
Even my domestic (?) turkeys kicked the snot out of me when I was trying to catch them for their last trip. I almost used my .22 on a couple of them. Even worse, they put holes in the new plastic which I had just put on the greenhouse I was keeping them in.

Last year Ruger was laid up so couldn't help; but the previous year it was kind of comical watching him and the Toms interact. He'd walk toward them until they'd back him down, then I'd chide him not to let them push him around. As long as I was there to back him up things went well; but if I wasn't nearby he'd keep his distance.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I watched a couple of hen turkeys kick the crap out of a feral cat that had been stalking them for about 15 minutes. They knew he was there; I noticed them watching him...and when he got too close, they pounced! The cat took off for tall timber! Now that wasn't supposed to happen! They will fly when the dog gets after them, but they also come up right in her face when she is taking care of business, so they certainly aren't terrified of a little Boston Terrier.

 

[oosik]

Olly is young - everything out here is new to him. I keep a very watchful eye on him. He could easily get hurt, or worse, until he learns. He has learned his MOST IMPORTANT lesson so far. He is out and about having fun - the coyotes are out and about looking for a meal.

After coming within a hair's breath of falling thru one of the numerous spring areas on the ice on the lake - he no longer would go out on the ice. The Mallards and Golden Eye quack loudly as he watches from the cliff. He is learning to swim but, of course, will never catch anything out on the water. The ice on the lake is now all melted. Spring and the glorious acres of mud are upon us. However, give it three weeks and, again, we will be dry as a popcorn fart and dusty.

I just wish he understood how much he stinks after rummaging thru the cattails on this end of the lake.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Bird dogs make great farm dogs. I have never had one that bothered livestock. They are intelligent, easy to train, and make great house pets. The old thing about not making a pet out of a gun dog is nonsense. The best retriever I ever hunted with was a little springer that loved to curl up next to me on the couch. She never missed a retrieve, be it duck, pheasant, jackrabbit or nutria. What a sense of smell! She once found a quail that had lodged in a tree crotch 8' off the ground. She couldn't get to it, but showed me where it was.

I've never had a Weim, but have my eye out. At 72, I'm not buying pups any more, but would love to adopt a 5 year old Weim. Nobody seems to turn them in for adoption, though. I guess that says something about the breed.

 

[Jstpssng]

Bird dogs make great farm dogs. I have never had one that bothered livestock. They are intelligent, easy to train, and make great house pets. The old thing about not making a pet out of a gun dog is nonsense. The best retriever I ever hunted with was a little springer that loved to curl up next to me on the couch. She never missed a retrieve, be it duck, pheasant, jackrabbit or nutria. What a sense of smell! She once found a quail that had lodged in a tree crotch 8' off the ground. She couldn't get to it, but showed me where it was.

I've never had a Weim, but have my eye out. At 72, I'm not buying pups any more, but would love to adopt a 5 year old Weim. Nobody seems to turn them in for adoption, though. I guess that says something about the breed.

You can find them, but they don't stay around long. Search for "Weimaraner Rescue" to see what's out there.

 

[PILOON]

You speak of turkeys.
With all this winter's snow we shovelled our roof so presently it is piled mid window high.

Yesterday I glanced out my living room widow and was staring at a pair of wild turkeys about 4 feet from me.
Golly they are tall and menacing looking.
I guessed about 4 ft from talon to beak. Looked like a tom and his mrs.

 

[PILOON]

Hunting dogs:

Back when I duck hunted I was super proud to adopt a Chesapeake Retriever.
Super nice house dog and pet.
Problem was as a wee pup she fell overboard and developed a fear of water.
I'd toss a duck wing into tall grass and she'd retrieve every time, never missed even if I covered her eyes to fool her .
Great nose.
BUT, if her paws felt water she'd sit and balk.
Oh well, she finished her years as a house pet. (and I learned to drop ducks on land)

Gotta add, she was great at getting ground hogs, (woodchucks).

 

[jaxs]

Bird dogs make great farm dogs. I have never had one that bothered livestock. They are intelligent, easy to train, and make great house pets. The old thing about not making a pet out of a gun dog is nonsense. The best retriever I ever hunted with was a little springer that loved to curl up next to me on the couch.
.

I agree that effection and close association does not harm the dog. The rule came about because when they can no longer hunt or otherwise make financial sense to get rid of them,the reality is hard to face. If there's kids in the house,multiply it by 5.
Some say "a bad day of fishing beat's any day at work". I say"the sorriest pointer or retriver I've hunted with was fun anyhow". I would almost as soon spread grain on the road and run over birds with the truck as hunt with mechanical dogs wearing shock collars and constantly being handled by whistles. People have commented "your dogs are natural hunters"because it doesn't appear I handle them. Truth is they just don't notice single soft spoken words that come from daily 24 hour contact.

 

[nybirdman]

We have 3 GSP's and one English pointer we use for guide dogs on our preserve.They are all house dogs first.Have had many labs in the past(great all around dogs for sure) but the pointers work better for us with younger/older/less experienced hunters.
We do run E collars and GPS trackers but let the dogs do the "hunting" and don't over control them.
We have seen some "Pro" trainers that tend to over-handle their dogs(lab field trial guys are the worst).
They forget the dogs are the one with the "nose".

 

[teejk]

We have 3 GSP's and one English pointer we use for guide dogs on our preserve.They are all house dogs first.Have had many labs in the past(great all around dogs for sure) but the pointers work better for us with younger/older/less experienced hunters.
We do run E collars and GPS trackers but let the dogs do the "hunting" and don't over control them.
We have seen some "Pro" trainers that tend to over-handle their dogs(lab field trial guys are the worst).
They forget the dogs are the one with the "nose".

Those field trial guys are a strange breed. Snobs even.

 

[Alien]

We have wild scrub turkeys come in early morning and evening looking for a feed when we tend the chooks and geese. They have got real quiet and come to the door looking for us if we are not outside. Our dogs worried them for a while until they realized we wouldn't let them touch them. They learn quick. They come right up to us now.

 

[GregbkH]

My dog's first bird was a Robbin also. We were walking down a trail in our woods when suddenly he thrust his head into some tall grass and came out with bird legs sticking out of his mouth. I knew right away what it was and in a loud voice I told him to put that down. We don't hunt baby birds. It was a half grown Robbin. He spit it out and it hopped back into the tall grass. Good boy, and we resumed our walk.

Although my dog is a black mouth cur, I believe he would hunt anything. He lives for hunting things and is especially good at squirrels. He runs everything off our property when he is out, even coyotes. His name is MF Jones and he weighs 80 pounds. Here is a trail cam pic from my driveway of him about to confront our neighbors dogs for being in his territory.