Gun Dog Forum

what is the general consensus about porcupine encounters? Mine had her first encounter this weekend which resulted in a trip to the vet to have quills removed under anesthesia. In your past experience will a dog learn to avoid or will they be more inclined to seek revenge? thanks for your responses. I am hoping they tend to avoid. Can't wait for my skunk and raccoon encounters yet, there next on the docket I suspect.

I have seen it every way you can think of- from a dog learning it's lesson the first time to a dog that could care less that it was quilled.
It just had to kill it no matter what. Luckily the older dog I have now I was able to e-collar correct it before it happened . Just hope I have that opportunity with the new pup coming up.

Seem's to me that every dog I've seen only want revenge!

50 50 shot. I have seen dogs that wont go near another porky after first encounter, and I have seen dogs that want nothing more than revenge.

I am hunting in north eastern Montana right now.

Several dogs have been quilled including my hunting partner's GSP. Serious stuff needed to spent the night at the vets. The quills if not totally removed will continue to penetrate the dog and can be fatal.

Most say a quilled dog will go right back for more.

German dogs seem to love porkys....Never had a problem with my pointers messing with them even when they see them.

After max's first encounter I can easily call him off one and I have watched him to see what he had in mind on several occasions. Once while max was out of site in porky territory I called him once. No max . I started to move in his direction & asked him what he had and he came back imeadetly with this one quill in his nose.

Me hound now is on his seventh encounter with porky. The last two he pointed with no quill's to the mug & upon my arrival his ear's went back & I could see he knew full well he was in big trbl with me. After a little lighting combined with a a$$ chewin I think there is hope...

My Britt is not yet 3 and has had 2 encounters. The first was with a young one and he only had the quills in his chin +2 or3 inside his lip and they were only about an inch or so long. It was hard but I managed to pull most of them out with my fingers. The ones inside his lip I needed to use some needle nose pliers. His 2nd encounter was just 2or3 quills just under his nose I removed them on site without much trouble. This past weekend was the first encounter I know of with a coon. I saw him on point but 3 times he reset his point and backed off it as to say what is this. I knew there was something in that brush other then a bird or rabbit so I crept closer and saw a large coon just sitting down and looking up at us. Because it was about 9:00am. I was a little alarmed and put him on his leash immediately and moved off a distance and continued his run. Things I know of that he has encountered are 1 box turtle and he pointed it out, 2 snakes, both were black racers. He does naturally keep his distance from the snakes. And 2or 3 opossums. I was able to call him off them though. No skunks yet thank God!!

QuillGordon wrote:Me hound now is on his seventh encounter with porky. The last two he pointed with no quill's to the mug & upon my arrival his ear's went back & I could see he knew full well he was in big trbl with me. After a little lighting combined with a a$$ chewin I think there is hope...

That certainly look's like hope to me! That one is not bad at all. Carry surgical clamps to pull those with.

I've had skunks and porkeys. I can handle porkeys myself until they get in their mouths. No snakes yet...knock on wood.

A piece of 1" dowel makes it way easier to get quills out of a mouth.

displaced_texan wrote:A piece of 1" dowel makes it way easier to get quills out of a mouth.

You supposed to knock your dog out with it before going into the mouth?

AZ Brittany Guy wrote:

displaced_texan wrote:A piece of 1" dowel makes it way easier to get quills out of a mouth.

You supposed to knock your dog out with it before going into the mouth?

That's an even better idea! Lol

Dude!

My dog got into one on a day, the following day he got a coon and three porkies... :roll:

The coon got a whooping and the porkies got the upper hand....

He doesn't care about the quills just wants to kill them and waste my hunting time...

Just curious if any of your dogs have encountered any bears? There are bears where I grouse hunt on the land around our deer camp. It's kind of thick with hemlock and laurels and I always see bear tracks in November and early December. I'm afraid if we run into one my dog would be curious and want a closer look.