Protecting the Bird Dog?

Hey guys - I know some of you have bird dogs for hunting upland game or ducks.

How concerned are you about wild predators attacking your dog while hunting, and what do you do to prevent it?



I hunt a lot of wild country, not much in farmland. Like yesterday, Mav was hunting off leash, running, enjoying, working to find birds where there weren't any. I've hunted that same area for mule deer & elk.

There are wolves, coyotes, mountain lion, bobcat, lynx, and black bear in that vicinity. Yesterday when a coyote sounded off, only a couple of hundred yards away, I put the leash back on Maverick to keep him from going after the coyote.

A few years ago I was working Clark on some wild chukar in a nearby canyon before season. He was so intent on the birds that he didn't notice the large black bear about 200 yards above us! The bear clearly had seen us. I put the leash on Clark before he could go running after the bear. Would he? I don't know. Fortunately he never even noticed the bear!

I have a shock collar I put on Mav anytime I might have him off-leash. He's good about coming when I call, and getting better, but if he gets more than about 100 yards away, I give him a quick beep with the collar. That normally works. Only time to time have I had to actually zap him. That brings him running back to me for sure! Normally he just comes when I call.

I almost always have pepper spray and a decent handgun with me. Of course a shotgun while bird hunting.

What do you guys do to keep your dog from getting attacked by wild predators?

Thanks, Guy

Training ! The Boykin is well trained. Retriever water and upland, Blood trail , early warning, and distracting. We dont want him on a leash, as we want him to distract the white bear while we dart or shoot them. Sled dogs are trained to pull a sled of course but also to distract, charge and retreat . At night they are on leases or break away kennels and sometimes a portable/battery electric fence, but that is to keep animals out not dogs in. The wolves were trained to never leave my side. My last line of defense and it wasn't a bad one. Funny story Guy. The most danger I was in where my wolf pets worked was once when two men had had to much to drink and became threatening to me. They quickly changed their mind and possibly even "got sober" all at the same time LOL

P. S. ---Actually in rereading your post my post is probably more than you, or anyway, wanted to know, sorry about that

Thankful Otter":1s4pqnnu said:

Training ! The Boykin is well trained. Retriever water and upland, Blood trail , early warning, and distracting. We dont want him on a leash, as we want him to distract the white bear while we dart or shoot them. Sled dogs are trained to pull a sled of course but also to distract, charge and retreat . At night they are on leases or break away kennels and sometimes a portable/battery electric fence, but that is to keep animals out not dogs in. The wolves were trained to never leave my side. My last line of defense and it wasn't a bad one. Funny story Guy. The most danger I was in where my wolf pets worked was once when two men had had to much to drink and became threatening to me. They quickly changed their mind and possibly even "got sober" all at the same time LOL

P. S. ---Actually in rereading your post my post is probably more than you, or anyway, wanted to know, sorry about that

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To quote John Wayne never apologist it's a sign of weakness.
Beside that was a great post and I loved the use of your pet wolves. They are illegal to own where I live and also any form of hybrid.
I no longer own a dog but when I did I was always worried one would follow game across a road and get hit. Mine were trained to return on the sound of a whistle.

well hell Guy, didn't mean to shut down your thread. Thanks Rodger, talk to you soon
I"m out

You’re getting the work done, recall, recall and recall. I’m cooking dinner, I’ll get back to you on what I’ve done with the dogs and grizz.


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Well Guy it is never a problem in Iowa. In hunting upland game I can only remember a couple times where I or a hunting companion had to pull a dog away buy it’s collar. One being a Badger and another a Ground Hog.
I have shot a couple coyotes and fox with a shotgun when hunting. But a very rare event, and they were shot only for taking the predator out.

salmonchaser":33fwmhtv said:

You’re getting the work done, recall, recall and recall. I’m cooking dinner, I’ll get back to you on what I’ve done with the dogs and grizz.


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For a "wild child" he's doing amazingly well with recall.

A couple of weeks ago we were on a very strenuous hike. I was sweating, breathing hard, we were climbing a steep grade. At the top... I decided to switch the leash from my right hand to my left, so I could get out the cell phone to use as a camera.

I dropped the danged leash! :shock:

He was off like a rocket! I know that I can't catch him. He's got 4wd, huge lungs, and a wonderful power to weight ratio. No, I can't catch him.

I yelled "Maverick! Come!"

He screeched to a stop and turned 180 degrees. I swear, I saw mud fly, he stopped and turned so fast.

Then he was on me. Wiggling, wagging, telling me that he'd done good and looking for praise. Oh my goodness, he got praise. :grin:

We're working on that a lot. Someday it may save him.

Guy

Guy, this is probably a bad question to ask and would be better left unanswered, if in fact while bird hunting your dog runs into a problem with other animals in the wild what would your stance be. I have a cousin living in Wasilla, Alaska who loves to bird hunt and has two English pointers. He has had problems on two different occasions with aggressive wildlife and has eliminated the problem. I guess the three S's apply on many occasions.

Well, I'm going to protect the dog if I can.

Good thing here is that coyotes (and apparently feral dogs) are the most common threats. They're legal to shoot anytime.

Cougar or bear? Unlikely, but possible. I usually have a tag for those anyway.

Wolf? Well... That could be a legal problem, and there are wolves here. But I'm going to protect my dog. Keeping him working fairly close to me instead of running wild, hundreds of yards away, is likely key to that working. Most critters don't want to approach a man. Most.

Guy

Guy Miner":16v0ybtp said:

Well, I'm going to protect the dog if I can.

Guy

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Yeah Guy, me too!
My GS loves to go for walks in the woods with me.
He's a protection dog, not a hunting dog.
People tend to leave us alone, but I'm aware that
he could attract unwanted attention from determined varmints and coyotes.
So its not just a potential problem for bird dogs.

Guy I’ve been more worried about predators in Oregon than I am in Alaska. My neighbors have trail cam photos of coyotes, wolves, black bear and cougar in the last three months.
In Alaska we see bears at camp almost every day, if we go three days without they make up for it in one night.
Molly chased her first grizz at 8 months, we had just arrived, walking around checking things out. Looked up river to see a good size bear about 50 yards away. Molly was gone in a flash, bear turned and ran. I’m yelling to no avail. My brother is scrambling for the office and a couple rifles, I’ve got my 40. Dog and bear are out of sight, actually running past your bear guides summer cabin.
All of a sudden here comes Molly running as fast as she can, bear is about 15 yards behind coming right at me rapidly approaching fifty yards. Couple warning shots he stops, Molly by this time is hiding behind me.
Jump ahead 7 years. Recall is automatic. Actually worked with one of our K9 handlers. She is very experienced with the bears, she’ll alert and charge and typically run them about 50 yards. There is a symbiotic relationship of some sort but between 50 and 100 yards the 500 pound bear is done being chased. Through trial and error Molly has a circle away technique that keeps her from being blind sided by the bear. This only happens when a bear wanders into camp and we are all outside. Nothing like being under a cabin fixing plumbing and watch four furry bear legs walk by. The dogs, like Cheyenne’s handle the distraction detail. If the dogs are inside, and particularly as it starts to get dark earlier we don’t release the dogs. Don’t want to tempt fate. Interesting thing is on morning and evening walks the dogs alert on the bears we bump into, will advance a little but always check back for direction. I keep the dogs close, bear moves off, every thing is good.
I’ve bumped into one black bear at close range down here. Molly was hard after him for about fifty yards, I was going to shoot the bear, had a tag but can’t run bears with dogs in Oregon.
From time to time we’ve bumped coyotes. Sugar won’t chase unless Molly initiates. With deer and rabbits it took one shock on the training collar to break them of chasing. We see deer every day the dogs pay no attention. With the coyotes I’ve had to tag the dogs about once a year. Only had one run in with wolves, about 8 miles out of Milton Freewater in the fog. Wind was wrong and the damn wolves followed Sugar right to me, 20 or 30 yards. Gone in the fog before I could do anything about it. Both my dogs bark when chasing fur. If I hear that and can’t see them they get shocked.
It’s always in the back of my mind, particularly the coyotes and wolves.


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Thanks.

Ya, I do worry bout Maverick - but he's getting better and better about sticking close to me when off-leash. I think that is going to be his best protection, staying reasonably close.

Guy

I was on a rim hunting Chukar, Dog was below me on some fresh bird sent. So was a big Bobcat. When I spotted him he was aggressively moving in on the dog. It then spotted me and took off by me over the top of rim. Dog never spotted the cat. I have a few Buckshot in a pocket when I take a dog out since then. Another guy I know had to kill a Cougar one day. Same basic situation. 5 Chukar rounds later it was dead.

baltz526":3kll0vsz said:

I was on a rim hunting Chukar, Dog was below me on some fresh bird sent. So was a big Bobcat. When I spotted him he was aggressively moving in on the dog. It then spotted me and took off by me over the top of rim. Dog never spotted the cat. I have a few Buckshot in a pocket when I take a dog out since then. Another guy I know had to kill a Cougar one day. Same basic situation. 5 Chukar rounds later it was dead.

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Fellow here in town, several years ago, turned his winter chukar hunt into a mountain lion hunt and got a big one. I don't know the details, but he got a big cat!

Guy