Does anyone use dogs to hunt anymore?

[Goat_Walker]

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Man those Jack Russel's are tough LOL Would of loved to seen that fight.

I miss coon hunting but I sure don't miss stitching them up after they ran into bears in the corn here.

the old boy was about 10 y/o at the time. He was recently put down due to not being able to walk or hold him self up. He was mostly blind and not an inside dog.

 

[Zookeeper9000]

At least they gave him the self respect of going with pride instead of suffering.

Man what a life, he got to be a dog, can you hear the stories he is telling those house dogs on the other side of the bridge. He is probally teaching them all how to hunt.

 

[Chicky Joy]

My hubby is a big hunter. He has a beagle mix that he uses for rabbits, and our newest addition is a 4yr old blue tick. She's trained for bear but he'll be training her for coons. We don't have bear on the island where we live so she won't be distracted by any of them.

We also have a choc lab/brittany mix that I've had for 9 years now. She loves to chase things but that's about it. She's always been nutty and a bit gunshy. I know she could be trained by the right person, but that's not me. She does stand guard over our chicken coop (no one but her is allowed to drool over her chickens). She even treed a few coons that were sniffing around the coop.

 

[nightshade]

we have coon hounds

 

[apbgv]

One of my pups that is living in Maine with a retired general goes out small game hunting, the beagle guys apparently didn't think she was going to be worth anything, but she has been out hunting them Myself i don't hunt but they still have the instinct I saw them running and baying after a rabbit one day, lucky for the rabbit there was a hole in the fence

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

My Golden Retriever is a mouse hunter...does that count?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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I have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that does that. He never even knew what a mouse was until I found one in a feed bag on the back porch. The mouse jumped out and ran to a corner of the porch and I called the dog out there to help me get him. We chased that mouse around for 20 minutes until I caught him. Now that he knows what they smell like, he spends his time hunting them in the backyard.

 

[Goat_Walker]

Now that I think of it, I could say my white mini schnauzer Lacey ( R.I.P.) was our official hamster catcher. Ive always had a hamster in the house, no idea why though. They often got/get loose. We look around for 15 minutes and if we cant find them we used to call in our old girl. She would sniff them out then either paw at their hiding place or bring them to us.
First time we lost a hamster we were worried the dogs would eat it, but about 45 minutes after her disappearance here comes Lacey. We thought she had a cotton ball in her mouth, we sure were surprised when she opened up and there was a damp scared hamster in there!

 

[fowltemptress]

I think most dogs originally bred for hunting would pleasantly surprise their owners if they ever decided to try them out. The instincts are there, waiting to be encouraged. It's always so sweet for me to see a pet allowed to use their instincts freely for the first time in the field . . . the pure joy it gives them.

I love dogs . . . I love the fact that working with humans is a joy to them rather than a chore, I love that when I'm training them they try so hard to figure out what it is I want out of them, and that when they do figure it out, you can hardly stop them from continuously doing it. I love that they are an animal that domesticated themselves, rather than wait around for us to do it for them. I love the fact that so many people on this forum work with their dogs . . . I know, I'm gushing. I'm not sure why I'm so sentimental at the moment. Thanks for sharing the pics and stories!

Hmm, my dog just tracked down and killed the fly in the house that has been bugging me. What a hunter!

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

I have to tell you our mouse story....long story short our Golden (2 years old) spent a good hour sniffing out a mouse in the leaves that had blown against the house ...we watched from the deck with our 6 year old female black lab...aka the Queen....watching...when he finally got it and was loving it to death in the darkness in the yard I went out to praise him and the black Lab followed me I praised him and patted him and the Lab sniffed around and then followed me around while I closed the coop etc...it was pitch dark and then we came in the house I wiped the black Labs feet off and away she went into the house and the kids were concerned because she started whining and pawing them..meanwhile the Golden is frantically sniffing around outside running back and forth ....back and forth...the lab comes to me and is whining and pawing my leg and then in dawned on me she had something in her mouth I told her to drop it...and out came the mouse...dead thank goodness....and there in the patio window barking "hey thats mine !!'....he also loves to catch chipmunks and he really wants a squirrel ! But both of them have never gone after my chickens...