and im pissed off at her.

I wouldn't be....one more bird you can knock down unless it was a freebie

yeah, that would be great if i was able to limit out.

Wasw that the only bird of the day? and that is why your mad

If I don't get to mine quick she will chow one one as well.

Bird eating is one of the worst habits a retriever can have! Break the dog ASAP of eating birds. BTW hunt by yourself! Dogs have been peppered before for eating birds.( I will not fault any hunter for peppering a dog that is eating a bird.) I took a dog to the pound after he ate the 5th bird.

Guess I'm lucky Remi don'tlike dove so there for she won't retrieve them.

That's what happened. She made the retrieve and another bird flew in, she was at heal with the bird in her mouth, so I pulled up on the next bird, when I looked back down at her she was chomping it. She has no problem holding ducks.

I"m glad I have not had that happen..not sure how to fix something like that

oh yea, and

My first try at a dog had the same issue. He would do great with bumpers but when he got the dove in his mouth, he chewed the heck out of it. Small birds like that are pretty soft and he had a real hard mouth. I tried throwing steel brushes for him to retrieve and that just got me a dog with a bloody mouth. I ended up starting over and got a dog that was bread for it and have not had any issues.

I have seen sime spikes that you can strap on birds that you throw to discourage a hard mouth dog as well. Good luck.

Shooting a dog for eating a bird is a crime, isn't it? Sounds like better training is in order and I am pretty sure that does not come out of the end of a shotgun.

To my surprise Paxton hasn't tried to eat a head yet. lol

Molly's first season, she was great with dove, she had a real soft mouth. Then she had her first duck season, I think then she became more aggressive on the bird, which works fine for duck. Then the next dove season, first bird shot was from my son, his first dove also, and also a whitewing, which he was very excited about. Well it dropped in some high grass, and we were all out there looking for it, Ryan was already asking me about mounting it as we looked for his bird... Then I turn around there is Molly chomping on the bird , I guess she figured she would make the first one hers and have herself a little snack. Man, my son was pissed like I never seen!!!

It was a problem all the rest of the dove season, and I really had to work with her to go easy on the dove. Thing is, she fires on the dove like she is mad at the dove. Those feathers get in her mouth, and that makes her more mad at them I think. I taught her “easy”, and that helped a lot. Right before she picked up the bird I would give her an “easy”, then on the way back I would have to give her an “easy” a few more times. But on a limit of dove, I can always count on her chomping a few too hard making tooth marks in the bird. Duck never a problem, but dove are just very delicate.

My dog did the same thing the first few times we took her out. Just start taking one of those 25 yard retractable leashes and we she retrieves the dove pull her in fast enough so that she does not have enough time to eat your dove. Do that for a few outings and it will correct that problem

Both Buck & Sandy have never ate a dove. I gave them treats right away an they would let go of the bird. Buck does love to hold on to the head as I am getting the dove from him an eat it.

Wow...if I ever witnessed someone peppering a dog because it ate a bird I would probably have to raise dents out of my barrel after your teeth dented it. Lil' tidbit...its probably the trainers fault.

Is it bad if a dog eats 3 or 4...or 5? When cleaning birds last night, I turned around to see Jack finnishing off his 5th bird. we had already breasted them out. Then today he ate one on the retrieve. Is that much dove bad for dogs? Is there going to be problem with him digesting or passing them?

No probably no problem passing them but I don't let my dogs ever eat dove because if you feed a dog dove when ever he retrieves a dove for you he will think it's ok to eat.

At least it wasn't a duck.

I give mine dove hearts and some of the meat as snacks after the hunt. Never had a problem with her eating them.

My dog ate 2 birds this weekend. I shot a bird that landed in the middle of a pond and before he made it back he ate the whole thing. This happen twice on the same day.

I made sure since then he eats a big dinner prior to leaving for the field (something more than the dry dog food). I also keep a package of hot dogs on me during the hunt. So when he brings one back I reward him with a hot dog. So far he hasn't done it since.

And wouldn't you know a bit over 24 hours after posting this she tried it lol.

I'd be careful with that, I thought I read something about never feed your dog a heavy meal brfore a hunt?

Oh, and welcome to the THF