Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Retriever troubles...

My 3+ yr old lab has started "chewing" the birds on retrieve. Especially still alive birds. He has also taken to stopping a few feet from me, and giving them a couple of good crunch's before finishing. He's retrieved a lot of birds over the last couple of years, and this just started.
He used to be exceptionally soft mouthed on 'em, and a few roosters nearly escaped. I'm not sure if he thinks he needs to kill them now or what.
Would sure like some input..
I'm wide open for suggestions.

Take a fake "bird"... or even a dead REAL bird (pheasant or quail) and make several "wraps" around the bird with a few strands of "smallish" size barbed wire... and take the dog out in the field with your shotgun or a starter's pistol.

Put him down and get him "hunting" out in front of you, then shoot the gun and toss the bird as far as you can in his direction.

When he "mouths" THAT "bird", he'll quickly learn it's not a good idea to "mouth" or chew birds... and after a practice session or two, he'll quit "mouthing" the birds.

Reinforce the "lesson" from time-to-time to "remind" him that it's a "bad idea" to mouth the birds.

I realize this sounds "cruel"... but it works... and it usually doesn't take a smart dog very long to stop mouthing the birds.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Ron,
My dad did nearly the same thing with our dogs when I was a kid. He sharpend up some rather large nails. Then took a frozen solid bird and hammered them through the bird when frozen. Mostly these were pigeons. When the dog carried one of these back to him it was never bitten, chewed, or fought with. The trick was to barely have the nails sticking out the exit side.

I always wondered how those dogs would carry them back when alive because they were barely held in the dogs mouth. I guess when the birds flap around the dog will squeeze a bit more, but never to enough to risk that sharp nail in the roof of the mouth.

JJHack...

Yes... that's how I "broke" a great, but "mouthy" German Shorthair... a few "tastes" of those "barbs" was "all-she-wrote". From then on, Duke was as soft-mouthed as my high-school sweetheart... hahahahaha...


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

In the off season I use a brush with 1.5 " stiff bristles for my labs to retrive they float in the lake and they sure do not like the stiff bristles poking thier mouths so do not bite down hard. Use the barb wire or small finishing nails if the brush does not work.

thanks all. It has worked on the dummies/bumpers and I'll be trying it with a bird soon.
Another thought on the cause. Could the competition of another dog, that doesn't honor the retrieve, be contributing to it?