 Porcupine Aversion Training
#273932 - 04/22/2010 01:19 PM |
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Does anyone know of a clinic/club in the Northeast that runs these types of clinics? I'm often in porcupine country, and I really need my dogs to stay away.
I know a musher who was running her dogs in harness and literally ran into a porcupine with the dogs, resulting in serious injury to one due to deeply embedded quills in the legs and chest area. This is why I feel this is an avoidance type issue, like with a rattlesnake. Rather than an obediance (leave-it) situation. Though more training for leave it is always useful.
Basically, the dog is trained that when it smells, or sees a porcupine, it needs to avoid that animal at all costs, whether the animal is in it's path or not. Does anyone in the Northeast have suggestions?
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Re: Porcupine Aversion Training
[Re: Kiersten Lippman ]
#273943 - 04/22/2010 03:18 PM |
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I can't help you specifically with Northeast trainers - but look into Birddog or Gundog trainers and I'm certain you'll find someone who can help. Those dogs are obviously in the bushes constantly, and need to be trained off of all sorts of critters - snakes, rabbits, deer, porcupines, and so on.
If you search for "snake avoidance" trainers, you'll likely be find someone who deals with porcupines, too.
The training is not complicated. It's finding a suitable porcupine as the assistant that's a bit specialized. Other than that, it's just exposure and voltage through the e-collar.
Like snake training, this is a difficult one to do yourself, because the dogs get into all sorts of stuff before you have the ability to train them off.
One of my earliest memories is my dad pulling quills out of our old farm dogs face. I think I was around 3.
Good luck.
A dog has alot of friends because he wags his tail instead of his mouth.
- Charlie Daniels |
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Re: Porcupine Aversion Training
[Re: Rob Abel ]
#274057 - 04/23/2010 09:18 AM |
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Thanks, Rob. Good suggestions. I hadn't thought to look into snake aversion trainers, or birddog and gundog trainers, but both make good sense. I haven't seen a dog yet that doesn't get himself in trouble the first time he meets a porcupine- and it can be pretty horrible for the dog when the quills go through the tongue and gums.
Sounds like the main thing might be finding a suitable captive porcupine to work with.
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Re: Porcupine Aversion Training
[Re: Kiersten Lippman ]
#274068 - 04/23/2010 10:41 AM |
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I posted the question on a gun dog training forum. I'll get back here with any info they provide.
I don't even want to think about any dog I cared about getting blasted by a prickly. I can certainly understand your concern.
A dog has alot of friends because he wags his tail instead of his mouth.
- Charlie Daniels |
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Re: Porcupine Aversion Training
[Re: Rob Abel ]
#274091 - 04/23/2010 12:46 PM |
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Re: Porcupine Aversion Training
[Re: Deb Collier ]
#274094 - 04/23/2010 01:36 PM |
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OUCH! Those are some horrible photos. I hope to never see a dog of mine that badly quilled. Yup, I may spend this weekend going to porkie prone areas, with dogs on leash and e-collar to try to find one to work with. I wonder if animal rehab centers or wildlife sanctuaries would be willing to help me out? Of course, there would be absolutely NO interaction physically between the two (porcupine and dog). My shepherd actually is porkie-wise, but my husky tends to live in the moment.
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Re: Porcupine Aversion Training
[Re: Kiersten Lippman ]
#274104 - 04/23/2010 02:41 PM |
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I wonder if animal rehab centers or wildlife sanctuaries would be willing to help me out? Of course, there would be absolutely NO interaction physically between the two (porcupine and dog). My shepherd actually is porkie-wise, but my husky tends to live in the moment.
Heck yes. Just tell them to put porkie in a crate 30 yards or so upwind. As soon as your dog starts to follow the scent trail, turn him temporarily into a Christmas Tree. His thought? Man, even the SMELL of a porcupine hurts my neck.
A dog has alot of friends because he wags his tail instead of his mouth.
- Charlie Daniels |
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Re: Porcupine Aversion Training
[Re: Rob Abel ]
#274171 - 04/23/2010 09:23 PM |
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I wonder if animal rehab centers or wildlife sanctuaries would be willing to help me out? Of course, there would be absolutely NO interaction physically between the two (porcupine and dog). My shepherd actually is porkie-wise, but my husky tends to live in the moment.
Heck yes. Just tell them to put porkie in a crate 30 yards or so upwind. As soon as your dog starts to follow the scent trail, turn him temporarily into a Christmas Tree. His thought? Man, even the SMELL of a porcupine hurts my neck.
No offense meant at all, but I would run this by one of our experienced e-collar folks. I'm not sure there is a way of knowing in this situation that the dog is going to relate the fact that he is smelling something with getting "slammed"... he might associate it with a rock he stepped on at that moment, the brush he was running through, etc... E-collars are a great tool, but if you mark the wrong thing, you could make your dog a nervous idiot... 
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Re: Porcupine Aversion Training
[Re: Barbara Schuler ]
#274173 - 04/23/2010 09:54 PM |
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That's incredibly unfair, and unlikely to work.
Its hard to get a dog to associate a smell with something, especially at a distance.
If it was easy, it wouldn't be so damned hard to teach them to track, detect specific substances, etc.
About the only thing the dog is liable to learn from that experience, in the manner you describe, is that life is scary and punishments come out of nowhere, for nothing at all.
Training like this would probably be better accomplished by starting up close, and working out- not starting a long way away and punishing the dog for air scenting.
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Re: Porcupine Aversion Training
[Re: Rob Abel ]
#274174 - 04/23/2010 10:02 PM |
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As soon as your dog starts to follow the scent trail, turn him temporarily into a Christmas Tree. His thought? Man, even the SMELL of a porcupine hurts my neck.
I have to admit, as I stepped away from the computer to pop a cake in the oven, the more I thought about this, the more it bothered me. The vast majority of folks on this forum who elect to use an e-collar do so with the utmost of respect for the dog and with the appreciation that the collar is a tool - not something to ever be used as punishment or "to light him up like a Christmas tree". I don't know you Rob, so I don't mean to be rude, but I'm more concerned with the OP getting the impression that anyone on this forum would be comfortable with abusing an ecollar.
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