My Chip dog is great at retrieving frisbees or tennis balls.  Well, I used to dove hunt before deer season and got to thinking why can't I teach him to retrieve doves?  My brother used to have a golden retriever who would retrieve everyone's birds to my brother!  He told me to get some dead doves and teach the dog with them.  He would tell his dog "dead bird" and Hawkeye would search and search to find dead or wounded birds.  I think Chip would pick it up pretty quick, don't know how soft mouthed he would be though!  He might get the middle and I get both ends.

Any suggestions?

thanks

Kathy

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A tired dog is a GOOD dog.

Water Dog and Gun Dog - Charles trained with Richard Wolters and has expanded, updated and improved Richards Wolters original methods.  Great methods and use of handler techniques.  I own the original book and Charles DVD

Gun Dog

http://www.amazon.com/Gun-Dog-dvd-Charles-Jurney/dp/B00007AXTC/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1332446273&sr=1-1

Water Dog

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007AXTA/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0525247343&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0DZ118YE5EYC56W2R2ZG

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LGDR Licensed Breeder
TLGDA Breeding Committee
http://podunkheavenranch.com/puppies_1.html

You aren't wealthy, until you've experienced something no amount of money can buy.

Jessie retrieves doves very well and she has no retriever in her. Dove's are a little tricky because of the feathers and sticking in their mouth but I would be willing to bet that you take em out, let them see you drop one, get a good handle on recall and you will have a retrieving lacy without a doubt. Bet their already trained and you dont even know it...  Make sure their use to the gun before taking them out though, that could ruin your day pretty quick.

 

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Michael Chittum
TLGDA President
Forum Co-Moderator
817-237-7637
lmctexas@yahoo.com

Money will buy a pretty good dog, but it wont buy the wag of its tail...-"Josh Billings"

It wasn't because I'm that great of a dog trainer, but my Lacy "got it" by the time he saw the 3rd dove go down.  I just let him go over and pick it up and then called him to me. 

This was in the December Dove season this past year.  The only issue I had was getting him to turn loose of the doves but he did amazingly well for his first time.

My freinds who have retreivers were very impressed with his performance.

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Ryan Campbell
College Station, TX

Kathy sounds like Chip is half way there. The books Cynthia suggested are great and will fine tune your dogs retrieving skills.

If you wanted to start right away I would suggest a puppy size retrieving dummy for a Lacy. Clip the doves wings and attach one to the dummy with rubber bands or tape and play fetch.

 Next I would introduce frozen birds when Chip is retrieving those with regularity introduce gun fire .22 then throw the frozen bird. Lastly introduce fresh killed birds.

This is one method used to help prevent hard mouth.  

If the dog does not want to release the bird don't tug push the bird into the dogs mouth to induce the gag reflex.

 

That is some great info on retrieving, I`ve never really tried that but get to have to pass along if someone ask me. Do you have any on how to get Rogue to retrieve my shoe when she takes off and hides it, that would be really handy

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Jesse James
912-610-4584

Harlee retrieves doves for me.  Even if they dont sit with you and watch the bird go down, you can walk them in from downwind and they will find em every time.

This is a little known secret about lacy's. A lot of people have told me they wont retrieve; they dont say that after Harlee brings them a couple of birds lol.

I shopped around before I I got Harlee from Jack Foreman for this very reason. Harlee's mom " Brooke" will do everything but take the shotgun away from you and go kill a limit of birds for you.

I dont make her sit with me most of the time, so she doesn't always know where the bird goes down, but its easy enough to walk her over to where the bird went down and she'll find it. Thats good enough for me. I hate to shoot em down and then loose them.

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Kenny Wall
vice president of TLGDA
forum co-modewrator
kennyw0969@yahoo.com
281-844-0969

My female, Star, brought me dove for Mother's day.   It was alive and we had a heck of a time catching it as it flew around the house dropping feathers everywhere.  We finally got it and released it.  

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"James & Jamie Ricks, the people Shotgun and LoneStar call home"

Lonestar brings me live tree roaches.  He just likes to see a fat old lady River Dance. 

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Nancy
Pearland, Texas

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

jessejames:

That is some great info on retrieving, I`ve never really tried that but get to have to pass along if someone ask me. Do you have any on how to get Rogue to retrieve my shoe when she takes off and hides it, that would be really handy

She likes your scent...

Mine has a sock fetish she collects one sock from every member of the family and puts them in her basket where we keep her toys.

 

mine do the same thing........you know you have a lacy when you find yourself walking around the backyard looking for your other sock!!!!! 

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"James & Jamie Ricks, the people Shotgun and LoneStar call home"

You can find the socks?   What about the shoes? 

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Brenda Sturman
Alvin, TX
blsturman@live.com 281-824-5133

My Dad's coyote mix would steal shoes and bury them, then lay there and watch you search.  If you got too close to the buried treasure, she would run dig it up and dash away with it again.  She sure was a "trickster".

I am going to have to work on Chip with gunfire.  I thought he was OK with it but then he suddenly decided he didn't like it.  But we can play frisbee in a thunderstorm.  Go figure!

Kathy

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A tired dog is a GOOD dog.

I took Amos to a turkey shoot and skeet shoot.  He was scared to death until I started playing fetch.  He quickly forgot all about the shotguns blasting away.  It really helped him through gun shyness.

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____________________
Rebecca Ferrell
TLGDA Breeder Member
rebeccaferrell@comcast.net

"If it has tires or testicles it's gonna give you trouble."

My Dog Benelli the first time I went dove hunting started retrieving them.  The big thing with him though he had to be calm enough to pay attention to all the doves and know which one went down.  He really helped out on the crippled ones.  The best part is he didnt eat them.