Where to go from here?

[Cyberdog]

My dog and I are learning to hunt. If you have read my introduction post, you know that I don't own a traditional hunting dog. I live with my boyfriend and our two dogs. Since we live in town, we cannot get another dog without a kennel license. Therefore, I have decided to train my border collie to retrieve birds for me.

I see it like this... She will probably never be a prize winning gun dog, but I think with some work she can get the job done.

Progress so far...

I've traded the tennis ball for some retrieving dummies and scents. For awhile I was just toying with the idea of having Rocket retrieve birds, and I turned it into a game. I would scent a dummy and toss it some tall grass. Eventually, she got the idea that she had to use her nose since she couldn't see the dummy. After that, I began playing the "find your bird" game in the house. I would scent the dummy and drag it through the house (Rocket would be in a sit stay in the other room) and hid it behind a door or in a box. At first she was pretty bad at this game and I lost enthusiasm, but persistence paid off. I can hide the scented dummy pretty much anywhere in the house and she will persistently sniff around until she can find it. Still, this didn't prove anything to me since it was not remotely close to a field setting. We had much higher hopes for my boyfriend's dog, who likes to retrieve, chase small animals, and is very nose oriented (sniffs everything). We have run into a problem, however: his dog just isn't the most motivated retriever. She gives up at the drop of hat unless retrieving in water. We continued are tracking games with both dogs around the house and at the park. I recently decided to take my dog on seriously for this task after an experience this weekend.

We do a lot of retrieving games at our local baseball park here in town and at the local nature trail. We decided to take the dummies and scents with us for fun last Saturday. My boyfriend asked me to hide behind a shed, with both dogs, while he drug and hid a scented dummy across the field so his dog could do a long distance scent/retrieve. The distance was a bit too long and she quickly gave up and lost interest. I gave Rocket the command to 'find her bird'. To my surprise, she ran to the general area of the other dog, pur her nose to the ground, and began zig zagging. She hit the fence line, where the dummy had been dragged, continued with her nose on the ground for another 15 yards and picked up the dummy. I'm 100% sure that this is no big deal for all of you who own breeds that are naturally good at these things.

My question is, if I had told you I owned a lab, where would you advise me to go from here? Rocket is proficient at recall, sit, stay, heel, and "okay" as her release word. She retrieves like a champ on land, or in water, and is reliably sniffing out dummies she can't see. I've also worked a bit with using hand signals to indicate to Rocket which dummy I want her to fetch. So far, she can do this at short distances (10-20ft) with the aid of some verbal commands.

[fishvik]

Cyber, I guess my next step would be go into the hills and try to shoot a forest grouse for Rocket and see what she does. I would use a small shotgun (20ga or .410) in case she might be a little gun shy at first. The good thing is it is hunting season here and forest grouse are easy to get with a little walking.

[Cyberdog]

My goal this week is to take her out with a pop gun, then try a 22, and then maybe a .20 gauge. She has zero experience with guns, but she isn't a fan of fireworks or other noisy things. So, I think I'm going to have to go really slow.

[Winchey]

I don't see why a border collie couldn't make a serviceable retriever. I would advise against just going out and shooting a bird until the dog is properly introduced to the gun, see other threads. If she really loves retrieving then you could probably just toss dummies for her and have someone shoot at a distance when she is in a full run totaly consumed with the retrieve. The only thing other than that would be to see what her mouth is like. Get some dead birds and if she will retrieve those without tearing them up too bad, get her gun broke and take her hunting.

[ArcticRetrievers]

The First thing I would do, even with my labs, is to get a pair of bird wings (you can find them at sportsmans warehouse)and to ziptie them around a 3 inch soft training dummie, Get her used to retrieveing feathers without shoving a bird at her. If she doesnt retrieve go ahead and start the force fetching process with her (something you may need to do anyway) I suggest "Smart Fetch" by Evan Graham. if she does keep it up, you have done a great job of introducing a new scent and game to her.

As for the Guns, most dogs get iffy at fireworks, even gunsteady dogs, but you are right to take this slowly, I would start retrieving or feeding during her first intro to the pop-pistol. maybe have your BF go outside and fire a few off...the important thing is to act like it was nothing, no big deal that some shots went off, no big deal that she was okay with them.

Good Luck in your endeavors, I have no doubt that you will suceed.

[Cyberdog]

Thanks for the advice guys. I was not expecting people to say "well sure! There's no reason you can't do this". I'll go out tonight and start working with the pop 'gun. One question. I want my dog to learn that the "bang" of the gun means that there is going to be something she needs to retrieve, but I don't want her to start on the retrieve without me giving her the command to do so. Is it easier to train her that the "bang" is the cue to retrieve or should i always keep her next to me until i tell her to go?

[r nickell]

Unless you can knock down every bird you shoot at better stick to verbal commands, saves the dirt looks you will get from her if you miss.