Dog mouth size for pheasants

[whoami-72]

So, this is likely to be a bunch of dumb questions.

I've got a golden mix puppy (according to the pound). dna testing to be done later this year. She's 7.5 months old and weighs just 43lbs. She is by far the smallest dog I've ever had. My other goldens/golden mixes have all been 65-80lbs. She's been trained for the last few months on hunting and does fairly well but got her first pheasant today and wasn't able to pick it up. Is she to small? I googled it and it looks like some of the other breeds for pheasant hunting are in her weight range.

I brought the bird home and tried playing fetch with her in our yard after building up to it with normal fetch. She did great with the bumper, stuffed animal pheasant, and frozen dove but couldn't figure out how to pick up the real pheasant and finally just grabbed the wing or head and dragged it over to me. Anyway, I feel like she's tried a few times to get her mouth around it and I'm not sure if her mouth is just to small, the bird is to heavy, or if I need to train her more on carrying heavy loads.

 

[PNWGATOR]

 

[Taudisio]

No, she is not too small.

 

[PNWGATOR]

Not sure what I did to screw up that pic…

Anyway, the English Cocker I had was much smaller than your Golden. She was a machine afield and she’d have dragged a Teratorn back to hand had we been lucky enough to flush one.

 

[Dale264]

My schnoodle (21lb) has toted around a rooster in the backyard after hunts. I'd say the biggest thing is confidence. Cripple roosters can be a lot to handle if your bird dog is younger and unsure or timid. Backyard work with a dead rooster stuffed in pantyhose could be a good way to work up to a bigger bird.

 

[chemist]

Not totally much to add other than I agree with the other posters. She is not to small, she is still figuring it out. I have seen smaller experienced dogs have no trouble with pheasant. I have also seen much larger inexperienced dogs struggle with picking them up. Shoot enough pheasants over her and she will probably figure it out. If you want to speed up the process, hold condition her with a pheasant, duck, or something larger like a goose.

 

[Jason Snyder]

She is a puppy. She is big enough.

My female Drahthaar was packing roosters at 30 pounds a 10 pound fox at 43 pounds.

Work in the yard with her on a check cord, using a pheasant.

 

[whoami-72]

Thanks guys. I think im going to order some roosters from a local hatchery and plant them to "stock" her hunt and then train her on picking them up after we bring them home.

 

[JGood]

Size is not the issue. 30lbs springer. Over 1000 pheasants, hundreds of ducks, and a couple geese….the geese are a problem for size.

Your problem is that the dog doesn’t know what it is or how to grab it. This is a learned behavior. Start on a table and work your way to the bird. Get her super interested. Play with it a bunch. Or force fetch

 

[KurtR]

Boykins pick up big geese so a pheasant will be no problem for the dog if it has the drive