Oh crud, I completely missed that, I agree with Bob. If he is "catching" them, then it is a different issue entirely.

Steve,
Maybe you could teach him to herd the critters, instead of catching them!
Have you tried to work him on a retreive? Perhaps he'd make a good gun dog. Retreival work may relieve his pent up, I've got this urge,I guess this is what I do with it. Give him some real work to do.
What ya think?


If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

Randy you may have hit on something there I haven't tried. He loves guns and gets very excited when I'm out practicing. He already has a very strong recall EXCEPT when he's after something. Just smelling around or playing his recall is the best. He also loves to track more so than anything else. Heavy distraction recalls seem to be the problem. His retrieving is just so so. They are crate trained but I must admit we don't use them much unless we are going somewhere. You have given me some ideas to try though. I have a question. Can I mention the name of a schutzhund and tracking trainer on this board? I'm sure some of you might know him and I would like to see what you think of him. He has many US and German titles. I worked with him years ago when I had my protection dog Trapper. I may pay him a visit and see if I can get Apache into his tracking program. This dog can run all day long and he is so fast you wouldn't believe it of a dog with his build. Compact solid muscle short legs and big feet HA. What do ya think. His recall in even better with a whistle and he has a soft mouth. Maybe my new hunting dog!!!

I believe you can mention a name on here, but all replies must be in PM's.

You can read the "Rules of the Board" or shoot Ed a PM for clarification.

On the whole critter issue, teaching the dog to retrieve is fine however IMHO, you need to work on his taking off first and separately.

When my Mal was a pup, she would run after the cats. And since she was my first Mal, I thought, "Oh, she will be like the other dogs and I can teach her to get used to the cats." YEAH, that went over like a lead balloon.

She got worse, and here I was, trying to recall her and she just gave me the finger. Same with cows, deer, or anything that jumped and ran.

Finally she killed her first two cats. They had gotten into her kennel.
Since it got into her kennel, and I was not home when it happened, there was really nothing I could do.

Then she got the third one while I was in the day yard cleaning, it was my favorite indoor/outdoor cat. Well, interestingly enough, she grabbed him, carried him around and would out when I told her to, but as soon as Isadore moved, she would grab him and run off again......finally I got to the cat when he was not moving and claimed him as mine, put her in a down and then picked the cat up and carried him to the house.....therefore saving him, although he was in the house mending for a week or more. She never did puncture or tear the cats up, just grabbed them and carried them around.

I got out the e-collar and had it on her, determined to "fix" this issue on the advice of someone I trusted in the "dog world.
So, I set her up. We went outside and we were working a down stay when a cat came out. She instantly broke and I let her get the cat, and then, without saying a word, I fried her. She spit the cat out, and stopped, went after the cat again and got it again.

While this method works, it is not the route I would go again unless it turned out to be the ONLY way.

Finally she stopped, and came towards me......to which I made it really fun for her to come to me and play tug even though I wanted to throttle her.

She now will avoid the cats (unless they are stupid enough to go into her day run and I am not home). Not that I like avoidance, but it is better than the alternative and now, with conditioning to the collar and working really hard on my recall, she leaves all running things alone.

Last night, I had her out while I was cleaning kennels and she was laying there mouthing on a length of PVC she had drug out from somewhere and a couple of the wild cats came out, she broke but when I said "fooey-leave it" she stopped and went back and got her PVC and came to me.

It is my fault for not doing it correctly the first time, but I call it progress that she is at the point that she is. She is getting better and I owe a lot of it to this site, the information here and the people....not to mention working hard and not getting frustrated and pissed off at her.

I am not saying this is how to "fix" your dogs issues, as there are better ways as I am happy to be learing. But, trying to start something new without working on problems that are existing, may only make the dog worse.
Trying to train with Jesea, with the worry of "what is she going to chase next" really bothered me and if you have those thoughts then your mind is not clear for the training you are trying to accomplish.

Yeah Carol,
I guess without a proofed recall retrieving would be kind of a useless interprise wouldn't it, seeing as he already retrieves what he wants to. I can just see it, dog goes out for a wounded duck, comes back with a half alive cat or the cutest damn gray squirrel you've ever seen. It wouldn't endear the hunter at the dinner table a bit.
I'll go back to recall problems.
Randy

PS.
No critter herding?

Funny stuff Randy although I do like rabbit and squirrel as well as duck HA. You are right though giving him a job will not cure the underling problem. I'm just going to take a step back and start new with his training. It will take some time but I'm sure we will get a handle on it. I am going to start him on a back packing hike every morning to release some of his energy. I've been lazy and its time to change that.

Gunman

With all due repect Carol, we are talking about a Golden/Newfie mix here. Not a highly driven Mal or a hard wired terrier. While the dog may have some bad habits he uses to relieve his drive, directing those drives threw the training of retrieval work should accomplish all the ends that the best suggestions in this thread have mentioned. His free time will be necessarily diminished, it will make the owner the center of the world, and the dog gets to do what he really wants to do, run down prey and bring it back.
Sounds like win/win to me.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

I totally agree, but thought I would share anyway. I did add that I was not recommending that for his dog and that there were other, perhaps better, ways to fix the issue.

Just trying to get some more suggestions for him I guess....