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Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,286 posts, read 38,953,990 times
Reputation: 7187
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Apollonewton
At what age will it be impossible to teach "an old dog new tricks?"
As others have said, it is never too late to train a dog.
If you are interested in training a hunter, a rescue lab may be an ideal candidate for a first dog. I say that because, in spite of your best efforts, you are going to discover that the learning curve is pretty steep and you are going to make rookie mistakes during training.
Go to youtube and search for Evan Graham or "Evan Graham Smart". He has an excellent training DVD published and you may want to invest in one if you want to go that route.
They wound up in rescues because they weren't good at it.
I have a beagle/basset mix rescue. The rescue group wouldn't allow anyone to adopt who planned to use the dog for hunting.
They said most hunting dogs get discarded because they aren't good at hunting.
The ones they rescue are lucky. Many get shot by the owners for not having good enough skills to be hunting dogs. It's so sad.
As a result, I STAND by what I said:
If you adopt a dog intending to use it for hunting, be prepared for that dog to not be good at hunting.
Don't adopt a dog if you're not committed to keeping and loving the dog when it doesn't meet your expectations.
Um - you are sadly misinformed. I have been active with Retriever Rescue for over 12 years. I work directly with Chessies but also have contacts with Curly Coat and Lab rescue organizations. I don't know who says that "most hunting dogs are discarded because they are not good hunters" because I can tell you that is a crock. There are RIGHT NOW a whole bunch of Labs and Chessies in rescue that are accomplished hunt dogs or dogs that have been started. The reason most of them are in rescue is because of economic hardships or their owner died not because of any fault of the dog. Also, people that adopt dogs for hunting are not idiots. They don't just think "Gee maybe I'll try getting me a hunting dog from rescue this weekend". Hunting dogs don't come with instruction manuals. You have to know how to work them. Also, all the rescues I work with have volunteers and fosters that are knowledgeble enough to KNOW their dog's hunt capabilities. Thats what good rescues do - they get to know each dog individually. They also don't lie to applicants and say a dog is hunt trained or started unless its the truth. Finally -Just because we use our dogs for hunting does not mean we love them less than anyone else. I hunt and know a heck of a lot of other hunters. I can tell you that neither I or anyone I know kills dogs when they can't hunt anymore or if they can't hunt for any reason. Please check your facts and sources before making such broad accusations.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,286 posts, read 38,953,990 times
Reputation: 7187
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopes
They wound up in rescues because they weren't good at it.
I have a beagle/basset mix rescue. The rescue group wouldn't allow anyone to adopt who planned to use the dog for hunting.
They said most hunting dogs get discarded because they aren't good at hunting.
Hopes,
I like the things that you have to say on this forum and I think you are a smart and capable person, so please don't take it the wrong way when I say that you are buying bullsquat by the truckload if you believe that.
The human circles surrounding hunting labradors are not the same as those surrounding racing greyhounds or fighting dogs. It isn't AT ALL like what you have heard. Sorry, but that's crap.
If I were a betting man, I would bet that the most common reason for labs winding up in rescue is much closer to "People unknowingly bring a high-powered lab into the home expecting a sweet, biddable, relaxed animal and get a bored high-powered lab." If you've ever met a "high-powered lab" you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopes
The ones they rescue are lucky. Many get shot by the owners for not having good enough skills to be hunting dogs. It's so sad.
As a result, I STAND by what I said:
If you adopt a dog intending to use it for hunting, be prepared for that dog to not be good at hunting.
Don't adopt a dog if you're not committed to keeping and loving the dog when it doesn't meet your expectations.
Bull-effing-butter... Bullbutter. No one loves labs more than hunters and field-trialers. Furthermore, even the fattest, laziest, most dense, most corpulent labrador in the world can be taught to sit at heel and go pick up a bird. I stand by this: hunters don't shoot labs and if you can't train a labrador to retrieve a bird then you have a training problem, not a dog problem.
All I know is that the beagle rescue group wouldn't allow anyone to adopt a dog if they were planning to use it for hunting.
What I explained is the reason they gave me.
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