# Does anyone use a dog that's not in the breed?



## Bowhunter57 (Nov 28, 2010)

I used to have an Austrailian Shepard that was the best goose and duck retriever. She was trained to hand signals and was 98% on all of her retrieves. The only problem that I had with her was that she wanted to go get the waterfowl as soon as she seen them flying towards the decoys. All I had to do to break her of this was to keep her on a short leash, for the first two weeks of hunting. No amount of training before the season would stop her from wanting to take off before being sent...after the hunting would start. Just a couple of weeks on a short leash and she was broke of it and was good the rest of the season.

Currently, I have my wife's Maltese that I use to hunt squirrels. I've not done any training with her, other than the backyard events of sending her after squirrels, when she sees them. She' pretty good and getting them treed and won't give up, until the shot's taken. After the shot, she finds the squirrel, confirms it's dead and moves on to continue hunting.

Here's Carrie, the 8 lb. terrorist, in action! 8) 

















Does anyone use a dog that's not in the breed for hunting...any kind of hunting?

Thank you, Bowhunter57


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## north1 (Nov 9, 2010)

yes, a norwegian elkhound. There lineage goes back before vikings and were bread for hunting moose, elk and bear. Have been found in tombs with viking warriors as they wanted to go into the afterlife with their trusted hunting and war companions.

I have used them to hunt squirrels, skunks, raccoons, porcupines and badgers. A good elkie will work ahead of you and not make a sound until they encounter prey. Then they will bark and corner the prey keeping them at bay until you shoot it. For badgers they will remain silent smelling and listening at every burrough until they sense one with a badger in it. Then they bark at the hole that is occupied.

Currently have a 5 month old I,m working with. She has just caught mice so far. Fun to see them smell and listen and then dive into the snow and plow and dig until they catch one, throw it up in the air and catch it snapping their jaws and killing them. Had a 3 year old previously that cornered everything you could imagine including moose. They just seem to instinctively know what to do, but they are headstrong. Once they catch a scent they have a one track mind and will not be detered. My previous elkhound cornered a moose and kept it at bay for over 3 hours until my wife notified me and I got her to release it.


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