Gun Dog Forum

Ok so I was up at my inlaws farm running my dogs today and my lab busted a covey of birds so i heeled her up and called my 12mo shorthair over. he crowded the birds and busted the covey so i let him figure it out while i marked some of the birds, i headed him down the tree row and same thing happened, but while he was sniffing around he locked up solid, i figured there was a single so i walked over to kick it up and as I did he reached down and snatched up a hen that had been burried in the grass, I took the bird from him and gave her a toss and she made a shrt flight into the brush. i led him off and kept going. is the fact that he cought this bird going to cause me problems? i have been working him on good flying pigeons and quail for several months and got him pointing fairly solid. im not concerned that he didnt point the covey since its been so dry and he was pretty hot when it happened im jus hpoing that catching this bird wont send him back to ripping bird...... any thoughts?

a one time situation like that i wouldnt worry too much. catching a wild bird is probably pretty rare so chances of it happening again are pretty slim i would think. just keep an eye on the dog and see what happens as the training continues but i would think you should be fine with an isolated incident.

I agree with Sprig. You always hate to see a dog catch a bird but things happen. Problems usually occur with pen raised birds when a dog is allowed to repeatedly catch them. I have never seen a real problem with isolated incidents. Your dog will be fine.

Charlie

I had the same thing happen, the quail was wounded and my pup caught it. Was worried myself, especially when he ended up flushing a single instead pointing it. I just looked at is as a lesson, now he knows that he can't always try and catch them.