# Dog vs. P-ssed off Honker



## rex (Dec 8, 2007)

This may belong in the gun dog forum?

This past weekend, we knocked down a large honker. It wasn't dead and needless to say, it had an attitude. As it was hissing and getting ready to battle the dog, I called my dog off and ended the deal with another shot.

My dog can be somewhat passive at times, and I wonder if I would of allowed her to get bit or hit if she would have had problems retrieving future birds? I also wonder if she would just get angry and end the deal herself........

I really hate to turn her scared to retrieve and she loves doing it so,

I'm sure many of you have had dogs get swatted or bit, how did they respond?


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

IMO, great goose dogs are born, not made. The best have that innate desire to go on the offensive with a big crippled bird.

That being said, solid and consistent training can help a dog develop the confidence to do this. I recommend you get a Dokken goose bumper and work marks with your dog, to increase it's confidence with big birds.
It also helps to get your dog on geese early.

Both my labs learned the best way to handle a crippled honker was to simply hit it like a linebacker and flatten it. I love watching them do that!

My older yellow lab Josie's first hunting retrieve was a 100-125 yard water double on honkers, one of which was a cripple. She never gave that cripple even a chance to nail her, simply overwhelmed it. That was the start of a marvelous career. Josie has well over 800 retrieves in her 4 seasons (this is her 5th) and it's a dead tie whether she likes to hunt geese or roosters more. I get the impression Josie just loves to flatten an aggressive honker!

A couple days ago while field hunting I sent my little (64#) 2.5 year old black female Sunny on a moderately long (125 yard or so) cripple mark. She hit that bird so hard they tumbled in a ball for 10 feet. She came up at the end with a firm hold at the base of the neck of a honker who clearly had just experienced lab shock & awe.

This was Sunny's first hunt of her second season, BTW. With around 30 goose retrieves last year and maybe 120 or so total of ducks & upland, this year she's putting it all together and understands the job. I expect this to be a breakout season for her...


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## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

From my experience I think NDT nailed it. Good waterfowl dogs have that "it's mine dammit" attitude much of it is in the breeding but as NDT said a little specialized training is never a bad thing.

I like the shock and awe comment it truly describes a fearless retriver :lol:


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## h2ofwlr (Feb 6, 2004)

Ditto to the above.

I saw a guys beta gog get pecked on the nose one summer when it was a pup, he was very leary of geese after that. But trained he did well as an adult dog.

I also had a dog that got his nose pecked when he was swimming after them. What he did was if a goose was shot it was total vegence by him.

My current dog is a beta, he likes the retreiving aspect, but not the fighting aspect. He is not agressive. But then again he is also not agressive towrds any person either. And I have seen agressive towrds geese also mean agressive towards people as in overly protective. A dog bite can mean a lawsuit and heart ache. I am not saying it is always that way, but the tendancies seems to be in parallel.


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## Goose Guy350 (Nov 29, 2004)

I think you did the right thing by calling your dog off. Each and every animal is different, if you know you have a passive dog why set the dog and your training back by letting the dogs take some unneeded blows. Dogs can go either way, some would be affected by that or like some have stated some dogs just run through those honkers. I have a 3 year old male, he's pretty good size, athletic, and at times believes he can whoop the world, he loves running through those geese that think they are gonna stand their ground. It comes down to your personal judgment and how well you know your dog.


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## Honker Hunter 1 (Jun 24, 2007)

I seen a black lab 1st hunt. Guy wings goose - sends dog after goose - dog get arse beat by goose and runs back to hunter.

Next flock hunter kills goose - sends dog after goose - Dog does not move and would not even go near the dead goose.

It really depends on the dog if he wants the goose he is going to get it, if he looks unsure it might be better to call him off.

Over time he will probably not have a problem with them but be on the safe side at first.


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## jmillercustoms (Dec 11, 2007)

She hit that bird so hard they tumbled in a ball for 10 feet. She came up at the end with a firm hold at the base of the neck of a honker who clearly had just experienced shock & awe. ...[/quote said:


> that would have been funny to see........ :rollin:


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

I love a good dog, you won't see me write that about people!


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

jmillercustoms said:


> She hit that bird so hard they tumbled in a ball for 10 feet. She came up at the end with a firm hold at the base of the neck of a honker who clearly had just experienced shock & awe. ...[/quote:1369cjya said:
> 
> 
> > that would have been funny to see........ :rollin:
> ...


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## huntingdude16 (Jul 17, 2007)

We had a similar experience with a lone honker sitting out in a field, we assumed crippled. We let our chessy out, she saw the goose, and bolted for him. The goose started trying to take off, and was getting a good run going but the dog caught him and tumbled in a ball. Pretty funny to watch...


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

buckseye said:


> I love a good dog, you won't see me write that about people!


You like good dogs but not good people?


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## POWteam (Aug 26, 2008)

My dog approaches birds at 100 miles an hour on fetch! He's a 70lb lab packed with allot of speed and desire and the crip geese recognize his intent right away. And they quickly go from offence to retreat (and we have big birds in our area). "Trigger" jumps on the runners and flyers in dramatic fashion. Usually both end up on there back in a clump of legs and feathers on impact.

Not much left in the bird after-words.

This aggression came shortly after a good bout of keep-away training with a dead bird. I usually ended training sessions that way (never giving up the bird to him), so he had something to think about between sessions. May not be recommended by some, but it worked for me and my dog.


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## ruger1 (Aug 16, 2006)

rex said:


> This may belong in the gun dog forum?
> 
> This past weekend, we knocked down a large honker. It wasn't dead and needless to say, it had an attitude. As it was hissing and getting ready to battle the dog, I called my dog off and ended the deal with another shot.
> 
> ...


I winged a mature wild rooster one day a number of years ago. My lab who is also a bit passive retrieved him and got spurred up in the process. She's never retrieved a live pheasant again. She'll chase them down and hold them for you until you get there but she won't pick them up. Honestly I can't say I blame her.


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

POWteam said:


> and the crip geese recognize his intent right away.


I swear geese can tell when a dog is or isn't weary of them. Ive seen a couple geese stand up to dogs and honk or hiss at them and actually stop the dog in their tracks and make them think about things. Then another dog who wasn't about to put up with it come at them full speed and you see that same goose retreat or ball up on the ground trying to protect itself.


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## SamnTuck (Sep 18, 2008)

I've been reading the Nodak forums for about a year, but figured this was a good time to join and start posting. I was pretty worried about my lab's first couple hunts involving retrieves of geese. I didn't want things to start off badly for him, but after reading this post I decided that it was kind of a crap shoot and I'd bring him along for a goose shoot. We crippled one lesser out of a big group this afternoon and let me tell you, my 15 month of lab just attacked that bird with a vengeance. I know that a lesser is much smaller than a big resident bird, but it seems that all of my worrying was for nothing. I think my lab will become a goose retrieving machine; the kind of dog that will "tackle" a goose if need be. I'm pretty pumped to see him at work the rest of the year. Thanks guys!


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

SamnTuck said:


> I've been reading the Nodak forums for about a year, but figured this was a good time to join and start posting. I was pretty worried about my lab's first couple hunts involving retrieves of geese. I didn't want things to start off badly for him, but after reading this post I decided that it was kind of a crap shoot and I'd bring him along for a goose shoot. We crippled one lesser out of a big group this afternoon and let me tell you, my 15 month of lab just attacked that bird with a vengeance. I know that a lesser is much smaller than a big resident bird, but it seems that all of my worrying was for nothing. I think my lab will become a goose retrieving machine; the kind of dog that will "tackle" a goose if need be. I'm pretty pumped to see him at work the rest of the year. Thanks guys!


Perfect example of how I believe goose dogs are by & large born and not made. I bet your dog will handle the biggest honker without a hitch...


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

I wish you could have seen my 125 lb Golden handle them, his first battle was at 6 months. He dragged it to me then humped it. Hahaha, wild turkeys really made him smile. Dio was not fat either just big, his back was level with a standard dining table for an example. I love dogs!!


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## Pfeiferada (Feb 12, 2007)

When my 12 year old yellow female was 8 months old, we had her out goose hunting, and she had retrieved a couple birds in the morning no problem, they were dead. then in the afternoon, my cousin winged a bigger bird, and my dog took off after it. A minute later she was coming back with the bird in her mouth, and we watched as the goose lifted his head and neck up, and bit my dog on the ear! My dog dropped the goose. I about freaked out because i thought i would now have a dog that wouldn't retrieve geese, or wounded birds, or maybe just birds from land. But then, my dog cocked her head to the side in that really cute way that dogs do when they are thinking or trying to figure things out, and she picked up the bird and just shaked the dickens out of it and brought it back.

So, yeah, she ended up having a hard mouth with wounded geese on land, but she also ended up being one of those once in a lifetime dogs. She lived to hunt. Didn't care about anything else. She would also run through wounded birds like some of you other guys talked about. Just like a linebacker filling the gap. Them big honkers are tough, but when they have a 80 lb lab running full speed at them, they just crouch down and get ready to take the blow!!

I'm going to miss that dog when she passes....


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## 25-06rem. (Jul 6, 2007)

that brings back memories of my 110# lab, when he was young he got beatup buy demestic geese, and i thaught that was the end of a good dog,
heck all it taught him was to leave them alone. He always hit cripples at full speed, all you could see was alot of s^*t flying abd black, took him along on Pheasant hunt with some upland dogs to see what he could do,
fist thing he figured out iss he could not run with them all day, but he could out retrieve evry one of them, and out do them in the thick stuff, he got spured right out of the gates, took 5 stiches to fix him up, thats when he dicided that he would do the (your going to get the 110#s at full speed on them) and i loved it. Did not make him a hard mouth thou, except you could always tell when he got spurred the bird would make a really funny noise, and alittle snaping and poping noise when he would get back to me, miss that dog had to put him in the big feild in the sky ( 14yrs) of love for huntting out of him  . I agry that the dog is born with it, not made


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