Thread: Don't get a town dog!

I lost my gamebird dogs Jess and Bolt this year at ages 12 and 6.Shit I miss them.
Got given "Ella" by a mate that was a town dog at the age of 9mths.
Never started real training till after calving when she was 12mths.

She will retrieve the dummy after gun shots but anything with feathers or fur farken useless.

Tonight I tried tieing the pigeon to the dummy, bloody towney don't want too get feathers or fur in its face.

Any advice appreciated

@Dundee

How to fix a useless kuri

Dig a hole

Grab ya 22.

Put it to good use

Fill the hole back in

Get a decent pup.

Put in the time

Go hunting

Jobs done.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Pete

Town dogs are for pre cleaning pots/slowcookers/roasting dishes and eating fish/venison scraps.

That said tho I did take my great dane/black lab out to find a deer the next day and he found it straight away(first time ever hunting)....I didnt believe it was there so we walked around and tracked for an hour and came back to where he first indicated and there it was

After that I decided to take him for a stalk....townie was always behind me tangeled up in Lawyer or looking for a way over a log

Lovable bugger tho and I wouldnt change a thing.

Thanks for the advice @P38 but I took this dog in too prevent the above from happening as I had to put Jess and Bolt down.

my town dogs do OK. and even if one is gunshy I would not trade either of them.


too soft aren't I !!

Not sure this can be a tough one Dundee
But I'd try to make a game out of it. Let it sleep with the dummy etc.
The trick is not to let it chew it? That's the hard part.
The feather fur. Maybe bribe the shit out of it the stomach is key if it gets a treat every time it one makes a go picks it up.
Then move to finally bring it back, maybe thrown out one with out fur feather retrieve then reward then the next one with fur feather retrieve reward.
Try that

"Its hard enough getting out what was put in, it impossible to put in was was left out ...."
At the end of the day, its all about breeding and natural instinct. If the instinct isn't there no end of training will help.

We pick up a 'free to a good home' 3yr golden retriever from a town owner. It had spent all its life on a chain. Brought it home and took it for a walk to the pond, it rushed in, but turned out it couldn't swim. Had to dive in to save it before it drowned. Living on a chin in town it had learned to fight [probably for its life]. It tore up my lab that had never had a fight in its life. The retriever went for a walk that it never came back from.

Years latter, picked up a free black lab boarder collie cross pup. Looked 100% black lab except for a few stray long hairs. Pup would retrieve a ball without hesitation for two retrieves, then on the third would look at you as if to say "if you keep throwing it away you silly twit, you can go and get it yourself". The older the pup got the more the collie temperament came out. If you turned your back, he would be in the house paddock like a shot and have all the sheep cornered and under eye control. Ended up being a top working stock dog. Never retrieved a duck in its life. Always felt/looked a bit strange having the 'lab' working stock, and then leaving him in the kennel come opening morning.

Paid a lot of money for a 'south island huntaway' pup as I needed a dog with a big bark for punching sheep and cattle from behind. This dog ended up being one of the most intelligent working dogs I ever trained. However, he was in no way a huntaway! He was 100% heading dog. Even in a narrow fenced lane with 1,000 sheep being pushed from behind, all he wanted to do was 'head them off' and bring them back to me. Drove me bloody mad! No end of training would resolve the issue. In the end, because he was so good at what he did, I had to compensate by changing my stock handling methods.

My recommendation is get a pup with the right breeding and natural instinct and have two dogs, or re-home the town dog. Your hunting time is too precious to spend it being frustrated by an under performing 'workmate'.

Originally Posted by P38

@Dundee

How to fix a useless kuri

Dig a hole

Grab ya 22.

Put it to good use

Fill the hole back in

Get a decent pup.

Put in the time

Go hunting

Jobs done.

Hope this helps

Cheersa
Pete

Well considered advice.

Dundee after much consideration I think I have the solution to your problem. Firstly the problem is that you have a town dog and you are training it like it was a country dog. This bit is your fault as you knew it was a town dog from the get go. Now even though he is a clever kid and the Dux of his college, you wouldn't take my seventeen year old grandson and expect him to be able to put up a seven wire batten fence would you? He would have no idea how because he hasn't grown up watching that sort of activity. Well it is the same for your town dog so you have to change your approach. Firstly get him a fur and feather retrieve game for his X Box and let him play with that for a few weeks and then get him a drone with a grapple and then (trust me on this mate) you will be sorted and you will be the envy of the local duck hunting fraternity. Ha ha ha ha. Or ridiculed beyond belief but it is worth a go cause what you are doing ain't working.

Although my dog isn't a town dog he's about as much use as a one legged cat trying to bury a turd on a frozen lake when it comes to hunting. Took him out for a blat with a mates very good pig dogs a few years back and he single handedly taught his dogs to bark at possums up trees instead of finding pigs. Mate wasn't impressed to say the least.

Make the useless lab watch a real gun dog do its work and give this real gun dog lotss of prass make sure useless is watching.

house dog


hunting mate



You can have both
Town dogs also double as "fly catchers"

@Dundee,...if she has problems with feathers, do not use a duck or wings as the dummy...I just stuff an old sock with another old sock and make that the dummy...until she gets a handle on the retrieving bit first, which you state she has, then tie a wing on the dummy...when she gets that, tie another wing on the dummy so that the dummy is encased in wing feathers but not body feathers...I am bracing myself for a beating on this, but have you considered using treats...just some slices of sausage (no Watties)...if she does good, treat...no good, no treat...you will not need to use the treat thing for very long, if the youn'un has any clues...I used this method on Jarlou when he was being a little shite...only needed the treats for a day and he had the idea...one of the failings from we humans is that we tend to overdo the dummy work...three to four goes, no more...session over...heaps of praise...

The training stage to get the dog usable maybe a little longer than normal, regardless of the "pet" status prior.
Perhaps sticking with it is all that's needed.

As Kawhia said stick with it, cable tie a wing onto the dummy and get it retrieving that, alternatively one of my dogs didn't like the feathers at first, a stocking over the bird made an easier transition, other method was to tie the bird/wing to a string and get the dog excited chasing it around, the chase/grab instinct when worked up out did the "oooh feathers" feelings and it was all fun after that. Depends what other controls you have over the dog, how compliment it is for you etc as to what methods will be best to avoid causing other issues

Should add I'd read this as a confidence issue, resist the urge to get angry at this point (just from what you have said but haven't seen the dog) have fun with it make sure your able to laugh at situations and think of alternatives