# Hopeless but I think you guys can help



## not2muchxperience (Dec 14, 2006)

I'm pretty sure that this is dead before it gets started but I'm determined to get my dog out in the field this winter. She's a two year old, 43 lb Australian Cattle Dog and she's never done anything like this before. So far she waits on command until I release her with OK command and she'll lay down for as long as two hours without getting bored. She fetches real good and is ok on blind retrieves if you give her long enough to work it out. Her coat's too thin for water retrieves but she should be ok with field ducks. What else do I need to do? What kind of excercizes do we need to go through?


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

Get a book on training labs she will do fine. Be sure you intro her to gunfire correcly.

All dogs can and will hunt if given the chance


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## not2muchxperience (Dec 14, 2006)

Is there a book you would suggest?


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## Greenhead88 (Apr 16, 2005)

i agree with getting the dog use to gunfire because that is the worst thing you can do get the dog afraid of a boom. after that i think you should bring her shooting and let her see what it is all about. what i did when my dog was a pup and still now is i brought her to a local farm and i shot pigions for the farmer and that is how she learned what hunting really means. she also has a lot of fun with it too so she has learned to always be interested when i grab my gun


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## brianb (Dec 27, 2005)

get her on some birds before you take her hunting. Save some ducks, get some pigeons. Real birds, not dummies or Dokkens.

I can't tell you how many retrievers I've seen that have fetched thousands of dummies not pick up their first bird. I could see this as a real issue for a nonbird dog breed. 
Work on it in a controlled environment in your yard.


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## not2muchxperience (Dec 14, 2006)

I've got her playing with goose wings right now but she's a little rough with them and likes to pluck the feathers off even as she's fetching it back to me. She's also a little hesitant to pick it up, I have to get her excited before she'll touch it.


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## jwdinius1 (Dec 14, 2006)

10 minute retriever by Jim?? and amy dahl, great book


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

the biggest hurdle with non hunting breeds is to get her to understand the shot means she gets to grab the prey. If you live near a place with squirells teach her to hunt squirells first its a simple process, read the sqirrrel dog thread near this one.

In your case you would want to take it a little farther than I recommended in that after the dog became accustomed to the 22 start shooting the squirells with a shotgun and make sure you aim carefully and make the kill with one shot.

Then take you dog hunting ducks the first year by yourself no buddies. Non hunting breeds sometimes dont have the prey drive that hunting breeds do so you want the dog to develop it and connect the gunshot to the game falling without any other people shooting over her.

I never allow alot of people to shoot over my dogs at the same time even my seasoned dogs can get nervous when 4 -5 guys start blasting away.

I've trained everydog I've ever owned to hunt even the mutts they all do fine.


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## not2muchxperience (Dec 14, 2006)

The squirrels around here are all infested with fleas, is there anything I can do to make her less likely to get them?


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