Have you ever seen your dog balk?

[crabbait]

I think you hit it right on the head. Either she ran into a varmint or something else hurt or scared her in there. I suspect the former.

I would get the dog back into birds as soon as possible. I bet that she will not hesitate to retrieve. If the episode was bad enough she may start "blinking" birds (pretending she can't find them or refusing to pick them up). If so, consult a professional.

Just my humble opinion. Good luck and keep it fun.

[Dogfish]

I went hunting on Sunday with Zen Leecher (Bill) and while we didn't knock a bunch of birds dead, we had a nice walk and saw a few hundred elk.

Bill got two mallards off the bat, jump shooting, and I took my dog to retrieve them from the other side of the slough (our side was a cutbank with no access). My dog gets the bird in the water first, then we start looking for the one that dropped on land. Jenna found the scent trail and tracked down her first wounded bird. She did just great on it. She set it down, and off the duck goes, and Jenna caught it again. She didn't do a great job on bringing it to hand, gotta work on that.

A few minutes later we get to the other end of the slough, and I jump a small flock of teal. I fired the customary warning shot, and then drop a teal on the other side of the slough. Unfortunately the grass I shot from was taller than Jenna, so she didn't see the bird fall so I mark the bird while Bill takes his dog over to find it. Once Bill is there, I head over with my dog and the search begins.

The teal had landed in an old brush pile right next to a partially overturned stump. My dog goes in and immediately back out as if she were swatted on the nose. I dig in there and find feathers and blood on the ground, but no bird. I tried to get my dog back in there, but she doesn't want ANY part of it.

I had never seen a dog balk like that before. She loves to go after birds, but I could not get her to go back into that brush pile. Our guess is that there was a mink or some other type of unfriendly animal back there that got ahold of my duck, and that was what Jenna had bumped into that scared her. After about 20 minutes of looking, we gave up because we didn't have a backhoe handy to uproot that stump all of that way.


Ever see this before with your dog? She is just over a year old, and it is her first full season of hunting.

Andy

[Bait O' Eggs]

Andy
When I was in High School we had a big chocolate lab that was fearless. Rocky would spend a couple hours a day swimming in the river and taking on anything.

One day a neighbor that manufactured and sold mink oil stopped by the house. The dog immediately dropped down on its belly and started to cry, whine and act like a wimp. It was so obvious it was the mink oil person that had just walked up that was causing the stir. He tried to pet the dog and comfort him, but it only got worse. Once the guy left all was well. He came by a few more times and it was always the same thing.

We concluded the smell on his clothes from rendering mink fat was so strong the dog couldnt take it. A mink can be a tough little critter with some sharp teeth. The guy had a couple dogs of his own he loved, and he lived to far away to have ever come across our dog and abused it.

[Tilla]

I'm so glad you follow the Geneva Convention rules regarding Teal, so often people don't understand the proper way of doing things (no wonder single shot shotguns are so unpopular). I have to agree that it was some varmit or a sharp object that hurt or frightened the dog. Get a training bird out and make it fun.

[Dogfish]

She retrieved a barn pigeon very happily about 5 minutes later, so I don't think any harm was done. You should have seen her track that cripple on land though. It was a thing of beauty to see her use her nose like that and then the chase. There was no giving up for her. Made me almost as proud as I was when my 5 year old scored his first goal.

P.S. Later on in the season I figure that they have been warned enough, so the warning shots become less frequent.

[periwinkle]

Andy, Some dogs & breeds have real high self preservation instincts. What's that old saying, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread".
A few years ago I was walking my wirehair pointer on our street (wife had lab) and a tom-cat (murphy) was sunning himself on a neighbors driveway. The wirehair was really eager to 'check out that cat". So I unleashed her. Murphy got into his fighting stance and didn't run, the young wirehair ran over and then started circling at about 10 feet and wasn't about to run in and get bit. So I called her back and said to my wife, "let the lab go". She burned asphalt in her rush at Murphy - 'wham', like a bowling ball hitting pins!! One dog was very careful, the other threw caution to the wind!! Was it experience, intelligence, breed, or what?
I had an Airdale once, he eliminated every cat in the neighborhood (wasn't too popular)yet all the kids could hang all over him. Very mild mannered, just didn't like cats (that was a breed characteristic). If Otto had been hunting with you he would have ripped that brush pile apart to get at that critter, a bite for a bite.
So now that my wirehair is older she 'munches' opossums, rats, whatever comes in the yard (cats stay away) no more balking. Now if she encountered a racoon or porcupine (god help me) I think she would be very very careful (a new experience). The Lab, even tho she's old would say 'what the hell lets get it on'!!
So Andy, you may have a really smart dog. Just get it to retrieve again with out a critter challenge.
By the way what color is the roof of your dogs mouth? ha, ha, ha, ha, ha :grin:

[Zen Leecher aka Bill W]

Andy's dog did a good job of retrieving the two ducks I knocked down. One fell in the water and his dog didn't even need to have it pointed out to her.. just spotted it, waded out and brought it back. The other was a running (waddling) cripple and the dog found the scent, tracked the duck down and brought it back to Andy.

We don't really know what grabbed Andy's duck. A meat eater of some sort. Shoot, it could even have been a coyote or a bobcat, but it was in heavy cover under a good sized blowdown.

Whatever grabbed his bird carried it off and the dog could only find where the bird fell and where it was picked up by whatever got it.

My dog is very "social" and thought her first trip out with me was to get acquainted with Andy's dog. Next trip will be a solo trip for her without the distraction of another dog.