# goose dog



## whitehorse (Jan 28, 2008)

Quick coupel of questions. First off, what is going to be the best way to begin training for goose season. I know idealy, exposure to the birds is best. However, due to the season being closed, are there any suggestions? I have heard that the Dokken dummy is a good way to start. 
My lab is a year old, and he will take them out of the water with no problems, but as far as the ground, he will drag them and often drop them on the way. 
Where we hunt, we usually only shoot about 3 or 4 geese on a good day, but i still wish for him to be able to produce speedy results. As far as the weight of the goose, it's not an issue, he helps stack wood, carrying logs that I can barely throw 10 feet. any help for the off season will be appreciated


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## magnum44270 (Jul 20, 2007)

force fetch and hold!!!!..................

. dropping birds , problem solved...... dragging birds, just let that one go, geese are big and akward, unless his head and mouth are big enough to get a perfect body grip on a goose, its gonna drag somewhere... geese are not sturdy and solid like wood.....

some help on this would be the dokken goose or a large regular dummy, tie a rope to it for you to grab and hold onto.... get him to hold it, then grab the rope and make him walk around with you while holding. if his drops this head, tell him no, pull up on the rope to bring his head back up and continue.

i make my dog hold all the time. ill finish a bottle fo beer, call him over make hime fetch it and hold it. 10-20-30 min later i will tell him to drop . i make him hold everything. cans, bottles, candles, brooms, mops, logs, keys..... i make hime hold all his treats for 5-10 min before i then tell him ok!

goose size items?? wine bottles, the round oatmeal boxes , 2 liter soda bottles,


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## whitehorse (Jan 28, 2008)

he has been force fetched, and knows hold, but I have never gone the length of holding anything past 3 or 4 minutes... thanks for the help, i think holding things for long periods of time is going to help.

As far as dragging, he would drag them as he walks backwards. I know my lab is larg enough to hold a goose, (just a hare smaller that my friends chessie) but me dog doesn't CHOP it, more or less wants to take a "nip" and drag him....


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## magnum44270 (Jul 20, 2007)

ya work the hold alot. when your just sittin around watching tv . stick and empty soda bottle in his mouth. and enforce it..... it gets kind of funny to watch, drool will start comming out and start stringing down his mouth.


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## magnum44270 (Jul 20, 2007)

also think about taking a step back and hit your force fetch routine again. he should fetch and hold what ever item he is told to fetch, untill he is told to drop..no half A#$ed fetching....


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## BROWNDOG (Nov 2, 2004)

magnum44270 said:


> ya work the hold alot. when your just sittin around watching tv . stick and empty soda bottle in his mouth. and enforce it..... it gets kind of funny to watch, drool will start comming out and start stringing down his mouth.


I don't think thats funny at all,I have never tained with a pro that sat around at lunch and made a dog hold anything for a long period of time, to the point of gagging and droooling. And What are you enforcing at that point???

I walk my dogs a couple miles a night and my female will grab a bumper for the walk, and most nights she will carry it the whole way but if she were to drop it because she was drooling would I make her pick it up just to prove a point NOPE.

If this dog has been FF, what it really needs is more exposure to big geese. My female is 60 poundes and handles geese just fine, but that wasn't always the case. I really didn't start hunting geese untill she was 3, and she didn't handle them very well at all. I sacrificed a big honker and used it as a training bird. It isn't so much the weight of a goose that a dog has a hard time picking up but the mass and they need to learn "where" to grab ahold of the bird (either at the base of the neck or just in front of the leg)

You can try a Goose Dokkens but a real bird will be your best bet. If you have to go buy a farm goose and kill it.









This was a big bird and it fell about half way to the bales in the back ground. It was a blind retrieve and guess what she dropped it about 10 feet from my blind, she was tired. Did I make her deliver it to hand NO I got out of my blind picked it up myself and thanked her for a nice retrieve that saved me a 250 yard walk.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Whtiehorse, I think that we need to go find some big, fat geese in Fergus Falls for Duke to hold.  Maybe we can finally get some bands.

How does this weekend sound? :wink:


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

My dog had been FF'd and didn't really know how to handle geese well when he was only a year old. Keep in mind this is a healthy/strong 90 lab I'm talking about. His second season after getting exposure to many more birds of all sizes he figured it out and retrieves geese reliably.

I think most of all it is a matter of them handling birds and figuring out how to hold them. Experience and a high retrieving desire make all the difference.


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## BROWNDOG (Nov 2, 2004)

USAlx50 said:


> My dog had been FF'd and didn't really know how to handle geese well when he was only a year old. Keep in mind this is a healthy/strong 90 lab I'm talking about. His second season after getting exposure to many more birds of all sizes he figured it out and retrieves geese reliably.
> 
> I think most of all it is a matter of them handling birds and figuring out how to hold them. Experience and a high retrieving desire make all the difference.


Exactly :beer: :beer: :beer:


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## whitehorse (Jan 28, 2008)

thanks guys, we don't really NEED a goose retriever, but it's gonna be nice to get one eventually... this season he'll be about a year and a half, maybe he'll show some improvment. I know his confidence goes up every month, and we'll see how he handles it this fall. The only bird I have now is a frozen pheasant that I keep in the snow.

Seems like the main answer i've gotten from people is that it will just take the dog getting used to it with time...

He's just a hoot to have with me even if he isn't going to get the goose all the way back!


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## magnum44270 (Jul 20, 2007)

BROWNDOG said:


> magnum44270 said:
> 
> 
> > ya work the hold alot. when your just sittin around watching tv . stick and empty soda bottle in his mouth. and enforce it..... it gets kind of funny to watch, drool will start comming out and start stringing down his mouth.
> ...


well guys sorry i putting out suggestoins that work for me. :roll: did i say i was a pro , no.. i am by far an amature, but if it works i will use it.. and once did i say anything about the dog gagging? i think not...did i say jam the bottle down his throat, no, . you place it in his mouth the correct way.......

and what you ask does this enforce. to me it enforces the dog to do what he is told. it teaches him to hold different objects, no matter the size, texture,and taste.....

. do you want your dog dropping a cripple rooster half way back to you?. no, dropping a cripple bull sprig in the reeds?..no....you want him to bring it back to you and hold it.

IMO it is the dogs job to obey master, to follow all commands.. to fetch and retrieve game , to bring it to you and to hold onto it untill you are ready to take it from them.

you guys train how you want, ill train how i want. i was just offering tricks that work for me. but ill be damn sure my dog doenst drop a bird untill i am ready to take it from him.

i see you guys are living up to your reputation , and critizing and picking apart every word someone writes....good job


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## magnum44270 (Jul 20, 2007)

exposure to birds is what it needs. that would be in a perfect setting..but in the meantime in the off time. you need to train with what you have


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## BROWNDOG (Nov 2, 2004)

magnum44270 said:


> BROWNDOG said:
> 
> 
> > magnum44270 said:
> ...


I honestly feel there are better ways to train a dog to handle a bird than training it to hold an empty beer bottle for thirty minutes. It may have worked for you but what you failed to mention is that this type of mundane training could possibly lead to a poor training attitude, exspecially a young dog . Depending on it's personality.

I don't need a dog to hold something for thirty minutes or ten minutes for that matter, I just want it to hold on to the bird untill it is delivered to me. A better training approach may be once the dog is delivering to hand, put some distrsactions in on the return ( A diversion bird, another shot, calling, ect. and then if the dog drops the bird go correct it and enforce)

Or put some major factors in (a steep ditch, a channel , heavy cover Ect.)

Poor training attitude can slow a good dog down alot and poor training attitude stems from alot of drill work with out a good balance of field work.

You were right in saying that this dog needs exposure to birds.


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## magnum44270 (Jul 20, 2007)

of course there are better ways. of course there are different ways.

of course a dogs attitude is a factor in training, if he cant handle pressure dont pressure him.

its not feesable or pratical to be in the field training 24/7. it would be nice if hunting and trainging we the only thing one had to do durring the day, but it isnt so...

field hunting and field training is and always will be the best environment

i could sit here and write every little minute detail and fill up pages, but that is not the purpose. i simply put some quick little tricks , that worked for ME.. they are called SUGGESTIONS...


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## gonehuntin' (Jul 27, 2006)

That doken goose is a "honker" of a decoy for a dog to retrieve. It's so heavy and unyielding, that the dog can't get it's mouth around it unless he's really a big dog. I have a Draht and she never did learn to carry it except by the head. It' s just too big. She picks up and retrieves canada's with no problem. That is one Doken product I don't like. If you were closer I'd sell it to you for $10.00 buy shipping would kill you.


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

Hell Id pay $10 plus shipping to fargo if you want to get rid of it GH!


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