tigerw10

Hello there. You might have read my other post about having a mixed breed bird dog...........anyway, I dont really hunt birds, but rabbits on the other hand I do. I know you are problem thinking I have beagles. No, strangely enough I hunt rabbits with my Black Lab Retriever mix. Yes strange, but thats a different story entirely. He is an awesome awesome rabbit dog. Too good actually! He runs rabbits down constently! I mean he will be running a rabbit for me barking his head off, then all of a sudden he'll shut up. I'll walk around and find where he is by following his last bark, and I'll find him eating the rabbit!~ I've found him doing this numerous times, almost everytime we go out. He is so fast he catches the rabbits, he doesnt run them to me....... what do I do? Thought i'd ask you guys, I've asked friends and dog trainers b ut they are stumped.... they say get a slower dog, lol. but I love this dog, and he's reall well trained/behaived. Any input will help.

Doc E

Do you want him to :
A. Not catch the bunny
or
B. Not eat the bunnies he catches?



.

tigerw10

well..... i'd like him to just run them to me. Shooting them is the sport and fun part of hunting the rabbits.

Lone Goose

If you go back to the basics with this dog you may be able to get him to bring his reward to hand.He needs to reprogram himself thatyou are the man not him . The real reward for him needs to be when he brings the rabbit to you he will be rewarded with the positive stroking he lives for . I would put him on a 30' lead in the yard. The lead will give you control and give you that long arm to help him understand what you want and make the dog come to you. Placea freshkill rabbit in the yard ordo things the same as you would do in the field ( set up your own little hunt as you will ) .His problem is not the rabbit, it is the retrieveor the programing that he needs to learn to bring everything to you .Work him twice a day on this for a week with rabbits or any thing he has come close to eating .
Just my opinion . I have a golden that did the same thing with doves ,
so I started over with him and we have'nt had a problem since , when I see him start to go back to his old way , we start right over with repetitive training of retrieving and returning to hand. LG

sproulman

i never saw any of my dogs run rabbit down and kill it..
now, mix breed dogs i have seen them kill rabbit but my pure breed ones, no..