Refused to retrieve...

[azhunter]

My 3 year old male EP is not the best bird retriever, but most of the time he makes a serious effort to bring the birds to hand. He has not been forced fetched. I had him out recently on some pen-raised pheasants and chuckars. The first bird he pointed was a hen chuckar and when I flushed it I didn't wait long enough before I shot and practically dis-embowled the bird. The dog went to the bird, started to pick it up, and then dropped it and went back to hunting. He then also refused to retrieve the other 4 birds that were pointed, flushed, and shot. In similar situations, he has chased down cripples for 200 yards and brought them back, but this day he showed no interest in retrieving. I've seen the dog eat some very questionable stuff, so it's hard for me to imagine that the first bird put some bad taste in his mouth? Any ideas on what's happening??

[surferdave]

I'm sure everyone is gonna say it, but sounds like you need to FF him. It's as if he chooses to retrieve when he wants to, and when he doesn't, you let him get away with it.

[kninebirddog]

quite a few things sound like they happened
One not uncommon for weak retrieving dogs even some of your better retrievers to not want to retrieve a blown up bird

once your dog didn't retrieve that it set the pace for not retrieving the others

as for why a dog will do better on a bird they have to chase down..the prey drive has been heightened so that desire to GET THAT BIRD is also heightened

So yes if you want the retrieve FF is in order if you don't care then don't worry about it