What do you do with the duds.

moellermd

moellermd

Super Moderator
Reading the shelter post made me think of this. It could happen with a purchased pup also. What do you do when you buy/adopt a hunting dog and it does not hunt?
 
I have an advantage that most of you don't have in the fact that I have a high school full of kids and kids love dogs. If the dog does not hunt, I try to hit it with a week or so of obedience and then find a home for it. Sometimes, I'll bring the dog up to school for an hour or so and let him hang in my office. Usually a day or so and he has a home.
 
Although hunting is important, I don't think I could get rid of a dog if they didn't hunt. Just the time put into working with the dog would make that hard, I would probably just convert him to a full time house dog instead of a part timer! lol
 
I would have to agree with you Labaholic, our new pup could be a bust, hope not, but he has become suck a part of the family it really doesn't matter my wife wouldn't let me get rid of him and I really wouldn't want to.
 
this is a catch 22 question on one hand yea your attached and you like the dog but on the other hand you wanted a hunting dog if it doesnt work than fix the problem sometimes you have to cut your losses and start over fresh with a new positive attitude
 
Gove County Britts said:
this is a catch 22 question on one hand yea your attached and you like the dog but on the other hand you wanted a hunting dog if it doesnt work than fix the problem sometimes you have to cut your losses and start over fresh with a new positive attitude
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Thats a cold but true way of looking at it.
 
I believe I'd keep a dog that didn't hunt. By the time you know if it is going to hunt or not, aren't you usually attached to the animal? I guess I don't get dogs "just" for hunting, though all of my dogs are bird dog breeds.....maybe I shouldn't have responded to this question I guess b/c I've never had a dog that wouldn't hunt. I had one dog that was gun shy for the first 2 years I tried to hunt her. Persistence paid off and she's now the leader of our kennel and I've enjoyed 10 good years of hunting behind her.

When you refer to a dog that won't hunt, do you mean it is not interested or is this related gun shyness? Is there a GSP, GWP, or Brittany in the world that isn't at least interested in the pursuit of live birds?
 
kansasbrittany said:
When you refer to a dog that won't hunt, do you mean it is not interested or is this related gun shyness? Is there a GSP, GWP, or Brittany in the world that isn't at least interested in the pursuit of live birds?
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I guess it is a hypothetical question.
 
Good question. For me, the desire to rather not deal with having to face it at all is strong enough that I don't see ever getting a pup or dog from an unproven breeding or a rescue--unless the rescue came with info suggesting it came from breeding that will likely work out. Or maybe if they'd be willing to loan me the pup or dog for awhile so I could judge it's ability and likelihood of working out.

Have yet to see a dog that couldn't worm it's way into my heart, and if I could bring myself to move it to someone else my family would probably disown me. Just not willing to take chances....
 
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