Has anyone trained a non hunting dog to do some hunting related things.?

[Loo.wii]

I have a pair of mini dachshunds that are pretty well behaved and I like taking them out in the woods for day hikes with my old lady.
I was thinking of teaching them how to find sheds or follow blood trails.
How would I start this process?
Has anyone taught their non hunting dogs to do hunting related tasks?

Have you taught weenier dogs to chase rabbits or flush birds in an organized manner?
They tree my house cat pretty well so I imagine if I had 15 more weenier dogs I could tree a lion or bear.

 

[bowhuntercoop]

They make some of if not the best blood tracking dogs. I have a 7 year old frenchy who is a shed hunting machine. He’s been in the woods since he was pup and always found them.

 

[Deleted member 8-15-23]

My westie is a great bloodtrailer.

 

[Deleted member 8-15-23]

If he screws up?

 

[Deleted member 8-15-23]

Good boy? No tranny fluid jokes. He is transitioning and identifys as a giraffe.

 

[Binz17]

I have a golden doodle that's not a horrible but not great bird dog. I've killed birds over her. She always gets comments when in the field.

 

[CCooper]

I have an American Bulldog that does pretty good with duck bumpers. Although he likes to chew the heads off- we need to work on that.

 

[William Sublette]

 

[Sierra Hunter]

I’ve had my German shepherd trail and retrieve quail for me. I’ve thought about trying to make him a duck dog/retriever but haven’t done it

 

[rabbithuntr]

Took my cow dog out to hunt pheasants, she flushed a few up.


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[Mt Al]

Mine's half lab, but he identifies as "non hunting" and aligns with this boarder collie/Australian shepherd mix. I used to work for field trial dog trainers who beat "Just get the books 'Hunting Dog' and 'Family Dog' and do what that guy says and you'll have a great hunting/family dog"

So that's what I did and he does fine in the field because he knows his basic commands and is just wicked smart. We don't go as much as we should, but he heels when he needs to, understands "get that bird!" and "whoa!" and "fetch it up".

No clue how to train for sheds and tracking, but I'd bet if you put them on a blood trail they would know exactly what to do.

 

[MattB]

Took my cow dog out to hunt pheasants, she flushed a few up.


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There was a guy who belonged to a pheasant club I used to hunt who used a heeler. Pen-raised birds act differently than wild, and that dog would basically herd the birds to the shooter for him to flush/shoot. It was funny as hell to watch.

 

[Roger17]

Lots of folks use dachshunds for blood trailing dogs. I've seen some work and they were outstanding.

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[GSPHUNTER]

My wife's Brussels Griffon has trouble finding his food bowl.

 

[kodyshriver]

This ol boy has found more than a couple sub-par hit animals! Including this one that taped right at 200”. The pup got his own cheeseburger after that one.

 

[darrenk75b]

Grew up with a dog that was a mutt, but mostly a German Shepherd. We hunted with him a ton, mostly for pheasants and chukar. He did phenomenally. We always got snickers and sideways looks from other hunters when we let him out of the crate, until his work ethic and nose put their purebred pointers to shame.

 

[Wellsdw]

Will they fetch and look for a ball that was thrown, and they can see for say 5-10 minutes before giving up. If the answer is yes then you can probably teach them to track.

 

[William Sublette]

Dogs, horses, kids, just take them with you everywhere you you go, and they figure out what you're doing, and what they can do to help.

 

[deertrout]

Our labradoodle was awesome at flushing grouse in her younger years, she'd weave back and forth about 10-20yds out, get super excited when she started smelling birds and work the area till she flushed one. No training, just did it naturally.

 

[MightyWhitey]

I had a Rottweiler that retrieved every duck I ever shot around him. He didn’t bring them directly to me but he got them out of the water and that was just fine with me. I can’t say I really taught him that, he just had a huge prey drive that I always encouraged. I did teach him hand signals, which helped. Possums were his favorite though. So much so that I had to start carrying a 4ft hickory stick with me on our walk around the neighborhood before bed to punch out the ones that got up the tree before he could get to them and finish off the ones that needed it after he got done whoopin and crunchin on em. He’d dig a 30’ trench for a gopher or field mouse and his total disregard for briars and thorns chasing rabbits was hard to believe. I miss him every day.
This picture is in a frame over my bed. It was from a muskrat extraction mission. While he was workin on that spot the muskrat swam out from another hole in the bank and I shot him with my 22, I had to act like I missed him so he went back to work on his diggin and I walked over and picked up the muskrat and stuck it in the weeds next to him while he had his head down digging in the mud. He thrashed it for a split second once he found it then looked up at me like “what the hell?! All that for this lifeless lilttle thing?!” I was laughing and he was visibly underwhelmed with the outcome and about half mad at me.