Bird Eating!

[JasonM]

last weekend my 3 yr old male gsp decided to munch a downed bird instead of retrieve. He has a fairly strong retrieve. Could this behavior have someting to do w/ hunting him with my 4yr old male....I notice when I have them all out playing fetch and romping around, he will dominate the other dogs to take whatever I toss.....he will take it from them....is this transferring to hunting? it was like grouseburger when I did finally get my hands on it

[gonehuntin']

Quite possibly it is a possessive issue.

Two things may solve the problem: Stronger obedience so that dog instantly spins and comes when it picks up the bird and a thorough force fetch-force drop course. It can be a nasty and incurable problem.

[snips]

It could be the pressure of the other dog, try him alone and see how he does, should answer the question. Or if a bird is hit hard it can expose the meat and make a dog munch.

[romeo212000]

One of mine did that about a year ago in a trial. Not only did she not retrieve it right back to me she turned and ran off from me and ate it. I blamed myself for putting way too much pressure on her too soon. It turned into a big hard mouth problem which surprised me because she had been force fetched by a trainer. I got with a trainer and worked to correct it and take pressure off of her. then I hunted the crap out of her. I would firmly but gently remind him what here means. force fetch would help a lot.

[steady on point]

I have had success with hard mouthed dogs by taking a frozen bird, pigeon or whatever is available. Take their favorite retrieving toy and play fetch. Every few times throw the frozen bird instead and let them retrieve it. They will learn to not bite down too hard on birds. If that does not work a low stress force fetch training would help.