Lab pup is afraid of birds!

[shotgunner]

I have hunted with labs for more then 30 years. I have a 10 month old pup who was looking like she was going to be a great dog. She is a little "spooky" and afraid of things like thunder storms and the vaccume, but not guns. Her training is going well. I tried a phesant wing with her and she loved it. I took her out on opening day of the dove season and she was afraid of the doves, not only avoiding them but running from them with her tail tucked. I did not pressure her at all and the next day shot a pidgeon for her. She started slow on it but ended up retrieving it several times for me. Has anyone out there ever had a bird dog pup that was afraid of birds? Shotgunner

[Don Fischer]

How did you teach the dog to retrieve?

[Thebear_78]

I had a lab mix that wouldn't bite a bird at first.  He would find it and sit on it but wouldn't bite it.  After a few years of hunting he came around and would retieve and even kill a live bird.  My next dog would hide and eat a bird if you didn't keep track of him.  He also caught a lot of birds before they could get up in the air.  I guess there is no telling their personalities.   

[Graybeard]

Doves are notorious for loose feathers which come out in the dog's mouth and choke them. I suggest you teach them to fetch a lot of other things before trying to move them to doves. And you'll most likely have to help clean them from it's mouth after each retrieve even if you get them to pick up doves.

[shotgunner]

I think this dog will turn out fine, but a was worried for a while. She never got as far as the feathers, the first bird landed in the river, she swam up to within 2 feet and turned tail. After I had a bird in my pocket and she would run if I showed it to her. After a while she would take a tail feather if I pulled it out. The pigeon was a better option. I held it for her until she would bite it, then threw it a short ways. First time she picked it up by the wing, after that she would grab the body. At one point she was afraid to enter the water, in early spring, and she got over that, so I am hopeful. She shows great promise, but needs to get over her fear on one thing at a time. If she turns out I'll post some pictures of her with birds this fall. Shotgunner

[Trav]

shotgunner
Does your pup retrieve a dummy well?  You could try working up to a bird by using your dummy as an incentive.  I have a 11 month old lab that would not retrieve at all when I got her about 2 months ago.  I also have 3 german shorthairs, and have used frozen pigeons when I work with them.  My new lab had no desire to retrieve, none, zip (do you get the point that she had no deisre to retrieve?).  I was able to get her interested in a frozen pigeon, and she began retrieving it well, but would not even give the dummy a look.  Then I used a few zip ties and attached the frozen bird to the dummy.  She would retreive the dummy to me, but only grab the bird.  After our short sessions, I would throw the dummy, and the attached bird back in the freezer.  After several days, I  tried the dummy alone again, but no success.  I eventually cut the mangled wings off of the pigeon, and wrapped them around the dummy and continued with this routine for several more days.  I kept working down untill I had just a few feathers attached, then finaly she would retrieve without any.  Right now she is a retrieving machine.  She gets so excited when I get the dummies out that you would think she is going to turn inside out.  When I read your post I thought that if your pup will retrieve a dummy, you may be able to get her to start getting used to birds by trying my experiment in reverse.  Attach some feathers, or a wing to the dummy, and work her up to a frozen bird.  Can't guranatee that it will work, but it might be worth a shot.  Good luck.

[halfacop]

I remember seeing my dogs first flush. He was getting birdy running up this Iowa ditch bank - he knew he was onto something but just wasn't sure what. Then as he dumps over the edge this big old hen comes busting out and he came running back out of that ditch like someone lit a firecracker under his ass. He ran for like 10 yrds and stopped looking back over his shoulder with a look on his face like, "What the hell was that thing"?

I just laughed and gave him all sorts of praise - from that minute on he has been a pheasant hunting SOB!

I give you............Winchester The Super Dog!

[shotgunner]

I took this pup on a duck hunt yesterday. Shot a drake mallard in a fast running stream. It floated down to a nasty spot and hung up. I couldn't quite get her to find it, as it was hard to approach. I risked life and limb, made a long walk/wade to the bird. She was very pleased to pick it up and run around with it. I will set up in a better spot next time. The little dog is coming around. Shotgunner

[The Gamemaster]

At 10 months, you were a little late to start training on live birds.

That pup probably sat at your dinner table and ate people food and played with the kids and did all the things that a family dog did.

Now you take it out of that environment and in one day expect it to become a hunter.

My brother in Law bought a Lab pup a couple of days after my sister - not the sister that is married to the brother in law, but her sister, had their Brittany Spaniel put to sleep.

The Brittany Spaniel - Katie, sleeps on the couch and in my sisters bed.  Ate off the table, barked at the UPS man every day of it's life.  Would go nuts when ever it saw a blaze orange hat or a shotgun.

Was the first out the door when the truck started to go hunting.

The new dog, ate off the table, sleeps on the floor, was only at my brother in laws house.  Due to the fact that we were stuck with all the vet bills and food bills and expenses of taking care of his dog for 13 years.  And the fact that there was hard feelings that they abandoned Katie when she was sick / old, at our house and bought this other dog to take her place.

That dog would sleep in the woods while the chainsaw was running and also at home when the vacuum cleaner was running, but would run back to the truck and hide under the truck the first time you shot a shotgun and quivered and refused to come out!

It's not afraid of thunder or anything else.  But it doesn't like guns at all.

My brother in law tried everything he could think of to make this dog into a hunting dog and all it does is lives at his house and eats.

Some dogs just weren't meant to be hunting dogs.

[shotgunner]

Gamemaster

I don't think you got it right. I own a 100 acre farm. This pup, like the 4 or 5 working labs I have owned before her, has been in the outdoors all her life. She has been worked on retrieving since she was old enough to run, in the water and on land. I disagree that it is late to start on live birds, I have trained all my dogs this way, using a real bird when they needed a little more incentive. At this point she will retrieve a duck that is thrown for her until your arm is too tired to throw any more. She is just a very cautious dog and needs to test every new thing she experiences. The best retriever I have ever seen was a black lab named Ike that I got from a fellow gun club member. He was used on the Great South Bay for 6 or 7 years and never lost a bird, then moved to PA where he also became a great pheasant dog. he slept at the foot of my bed, and ate scraps from the table and played with my kids. Shotgunner

[The Gamemaster]

When I was just a boy, my daddy always said that you get you a new dog before the old one gets too old to hunt.  That way the old dog can teach the new one.  No two dogs are the same and sometimes you get one that doesn't do things the way you want them to do it - when you want them to do it and does things that you don't want them to do.

I left my dog out of the coop today to clean it and he ran off like usual to visit the neighborhood dogs and didn't come back for 15 minutes.

When he did, he was all smiles.

If I would have took him hunting, he would have done the same thing, just that I would have been a little further down in the woods and I would have had to wait a while till he came back.

There is just some habits that you got to put up with if you got a dog that loves you and wants to hunt, but still wants to do his own thing.

But 10 months old is pretty old in dog years to start training them to do hunting things - after he has done what he wanted all of his life.  You are going to have to spend some time and pay your dues to make him into a hunting dog in my opinion.