Gun Dog Forum

Do you train for and use your dog to retrieve geese ?

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Yes

A lot of dogs (even those who were properly and completely FF) have a problem with their first number of Goose retrieves, regardless of how many other kinds birds they have retrieved before.
So, what method(s) do folks use to make goose retrieves a 'piece of cake' right off the bat ?

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It depends on how much drive the dog has, but I virtually NEVER force a dog on any bird. Especially a big, intimidating goose. I like to start with smaller DEAD geese like lessors or snows and go from there. I make sure the first geese are DEAD and always try to make it fun. I never send a pup for a goose. I want that dog to have retrieved a lot of duck, pheasant, etc before he is sent for a goose. I can't think of a faster way to sour a dog on birds than to force him on one if he's all ready afraid of it. Bad deal.

Like a mad man I did not save one of last year's geese to use as a training dummy, though as we cleaned the few we got last year we let him do a couple of marks. And when the birds came back north this spring geese were on the todo list on the river, indicating to me he was not intimidated by the bird.

On a more practical note I added 2 duck and one goose Dokens dummies to the bumper pile. The goose was to get him use to the size. The ducks were to see if I could smooth out his hold on birds , my duck search ducks never last long , not chewed up, just dead and at 25$ a bird I wanted to get more than one rep per bird. And after a few weeks with them in the mix of bumpers it does seem to be working, his hold is more consistent to mid body.

Not all of them. But some required extra curricular training

Doken goose dummies. I have never had a problem with the dead ones. Did have a wing tipped Canada beat the poop out of a young golden, she remained soft mouthed, but every subsequent goose after was DOA.

Here's what we do.
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Polmaise is that a Canada or a different type of goose?

CDN_Cocker wrote:Polmaise is that a Canada or a different type of goose?

Greylag .

How do they compare in size to a Canada? Looks a bit smaller? Gumbo sure has a nice hold on it!

Slightly smaller than a Canada Goose Cass.Gumbo doesn't have the equipment genetically to hold the body like a retriever,so we had to 'perfect hold' with also in mind the 'soft mouth issue' we have over here.Still a mighty task for an American Cocker of which he now does with regularity and as often as the season dictates.

I personally have never trained specifically for ''Retrieving Geese'' . Like most I would expect if the dog is confident retrieving a paint roller then it's confident retrieving a bumper. If It is confident retrieving anything of all shapes and sizes then It's confident retrieving ..I agree that a big Flapper/wounded goose would pose a situation to put an inexperienced young dog on,but that also depends on the dog?..and Handler that knows the dog?..some 'dogs' know the value of a Twenty dollar and some have to (l)earn it A bit of patience ,perseverance and especially with a 'Cocker' ..a whole lot of 'Con' going on usually does the trick.

I have recently purchased some Dokken Geese, still not sure how it will affect out retrieval of 12 pounders, we'll see this season. Big geese are big problems for some dogs.

a dog with good drive will figure it out....some take longer but they most always get it figured.

ACooper wrote:I have recently purchased some Dokken Geese, still not sure how it will affect out retrieval of 12 pounders, we'll see this season. Big geese are big problems for some dogs.

If you leave it to chance the chances are it goes wrong.
If It's the weight issue you are concerned about then that's (In my opinion) the wrong route! The desire outways anything in pound for pound

I personally don't like Doken geese. They have the size and weight, but there is no give to the body. It is difficult for a dog to pick them up. I gave mine away. I do like the way Doc does it, but I'd all more weight in it.

I really agree with Polmaise; if they have the desire they will do it naturally, given time and experience. You have to pick your battles and this is one I want nothing to do with.

I have noticed the same thing the pup at times picks the ducks up on a run, but the goose he is always fighting.

I used to shoot a lot of pinkfoot and greylag geese . I found it always worked out O.K. if the dog had experience of retrieving other kinds of game first. I didn't ever train using goose sized dummies as I'd discovered years earlier that hare sized dummies were not liked by most dogs yet those same dogs picked real hares with very little encouragement. Since a greylag goose is even bigger and bulkier than a hare I decided not to even try making a goose sized dummy.

With the dogs I've had so far I often experience more difficulty persuading them to retrieve woodcock than to retrieve geese. Maybe that's because my dogs got far more chances of retrieving geese compared to woodcock though ? Two of the farmers whose land I shot over considered geese as vermin and my permission to shoot over their land was conditional on me doing "vermin control" on the thousands of geese that tried to feed there. I eventually became a bit sickened by the numbers of geese I shot.

Bill T.

gonehuntin' wrote: I do like the way Doc does it, but I'd add more weight in it.

The reason we like the gutted and breasted out version is because a puppy can retrieve one like this, where a "full weight" one would be too heavy.

If I were introducing a nearly full grown dog, I'd want more weight, but we always introduce them to geese at young ages.

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Doc E wrote:

gonehuntin' wrote: I do like the way Doc does it, but I'd add more weight in it.

The reason we like the gutted and breasted out version is because a puppy can retrieve one like this, where a "full weight" one would be too heavy.

If I were introducing a nearly full grown dog, I'd want more weight, but we always introduce them to geese at young ages.

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That was really a good idea Doc.

We like to untroduce even little puppies to geese at very young ages. This helps avoid any "size intimidation" issues later on.
Here is a pic of a little puppy with it's first introduction to a Canada Goose. After trying a number of different (unsuccessful) attempts at picking it up (the goose was bigger than the pup) the pup took ahold of it right where the head and neck connect and drug it backwards for his first 'goose retrieve"



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I've never worried about it....any dog with good prey drive has always made the transition.... Some took half a dozen birds to get em figured out. Generally they don't like leaving behind their prize. In all my years of hunting geese I can't think of any dog didn't make the transition.

That said can't be any harm in doing introductions....