Rabbits and feather

[isonychia]

I know a lot of people want their dogs just to be bird dogs for the interest of field trials and purity of the sport. I know that Brittanies are originally a fur and feather dog and my new neighborhood has a LOT of cotton tails. Because my neighborhood does NOT have a lot of birds, I don't want to over-do the rabbit emphasis, but of all the fur game, rabbit is really the only one I would like to use my pup for in the future. Is this feasible? How should one go about this, from what I have read, Brittanies will follow too closely to the rabbit for a safe shot, can you train them to chase at a distance or just to point the rabbit holding so I can jump it (given it isn't near the den). Obviously birds are first importance still.

Thanks

[birddogger]

Most, if not all of the bird dogs that I have had would point rabbits but not as intensely and I will shoot a rabbit that my dogs have found when I have the opportunity. In my case, it has never changed the fact that birds were their number one obsession. If I was doing a lot of or nothing but field trialing, I would probably break them off of fur.

Charlie

[Trekmoor]

I did rabbit clearance work while working the same Brittany I used for trialing. The brit hunted and pointed them and I shot them, sometimes with a shotgun and sometimes with an air-rifle as they sat in front of the pointing dog. She was trained that a rabbit must never be chased unless she was sent for it following a shot .

I found it pretty easy to train this. From a general work point of view the things I didn't allow were tracking the rabbits foot scents, sniffing around rabbit holes and sniffing around rabbit droppings. I kept her hunting until she pointed a sitting rabbit.
She was still a good bird hunter and she won a few trials.

Bill T.

[isonychia]

Pointing a rabbit.

[gittrdonebritts]

I love shooting me a wascally wabbit

[Redfishkilla]

Great lookin' pup.

[crackerd]

I did rabbit clearance work while working the same Brittany I used for trialing.

"Rabbit clearance work" - like that a lot, Bill. One of my FT Labs does rabbit clearinghouse work - catches them and delivers to hand, very alive and tender for the table. Can't beat a free meal of fresh young-of-year rabbit.

MG

[Trekmoor]

Hi MG , as you are probably aware Britain has changed a lot in it's attitudes to the value of game in the last decade or two.

As I said in the earlier post I used to do rabbit clearance work. ............ Spaniel trialers in this country are now paying , if the rumours are true, up to £100 per day for really good rabbit shooting work for their dogs. They are having to pay for what I got paid to do ! :roll:
Much the same thing has happened where both woodpigeon shooting and goose shooting are concerned. The farmers didn't pay me to shoot them but they often did provide me with the cartridges when the birds were really hammering their fields. The farmers thought of these birds as vermin .......now they think of them as a cash crop and rent out the shooting , sometimes in two shifts , for morning and evening flights !

Sorry for changing the course of the thread.

Bill T.

[Modi]

My first GWP, now 13 and mostly retired, has always been crazy for rabbits. He is also the birdiest dog I have ever known. I was always of the mind that bird dogs shouldn't chase fur. I tried everything to get him to ignore rabbits, but he would follow you through heck for a bunny. In retrospect, I wish I had not been so worried about it. We probably would have had more fun if I had shot the odd rabbit for him. They are tasty as heck too. I have a new pup now and if he likes rabbits, I'm ok with it. As long as he is primarily hunting birds and taking rabbits opportunistically. I might even try to train him to point them rather than chase them.