Hunting dogs keep attacking my birds

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

This seems so different from what we expect of our bird dogs here. A good hunting dog would never maul or tear a bird! Instead it would swim out to the fallen bird, gently pick it up and deliver it unharmed to the hand of its handler. A good bird hunting dog has what's called a "soft mouth." I don't hunt but years ago a friend of my son's wanted to borrow my Golden to retrieve ducks. I spent a couple of weeks teaching him to pick up and retrieve some of my live pigeons. He never harmed one. Unfortunately, he was frightened by the sounds of the guns so the outing came to nothing.

That's crazy! It's nice to know hunting dogs over there aren't super aggressive! The ones in my valley are mainly high prey drive mix breeds kept skinny to be encouraged to hunt after things as if they are hunting to eat. Poor dogs look like they go days without food between hunts. They're also used to track down deer and boat over here, but their prey drives are so darn high they'll kill anything on sight. And the males are kept intact because hunters want them high in testosterone during hunting but they rarely keep then penned up so they leave when dogs go into heat leading to the situation that happened a few months back when my dogs got into a BIG fight with a hunting dog that came looking for my neighbors female dog who was in heat. My two dogs were bigger but they didn't know how to properly defend themselves so it was an overall extremely dangerous situation...

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

I don't suppose you have a Home Depot there. That's where we got our solar electric fence for the bee hives.

Unfortunately not, we have somethin' similar but they don't sell any electric fences or solar stuff

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

Another neighbor of mine had most of their barn cats taken by a hunting dog that had just been roaming the nearby area. Hunting dogs over here almost always have reflective orange collars which help the hunters identify them

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

It's a sad problem tbh, nobody seems to win, especially the dogs and farm animals involved in these kinds of situations. Hopefully an electric fence will help though

 

[McChooky]

Hunting dogs can be a real nuisance but an electric fence works on all of them regardless of persistence and size.My chickens have a low fence so they can't be trapped.I'm not going to stand by and let anyone else's dogs come on my property and kill my chickens when I don't tolerate it from my own.I spent 2 yrs training 2 adult dogs to not kill chickens.It definitely was a difficult process but my dogs have never killed one

 

[BigBlueHen53]

That's crazy! It's nice to know hunting dogs over there aren't super aggressive! The ones in my valley are mainly high prey drive mix breeds kept skinny to be encouraged to hunt after things as if they are hunting to eat. Poor dogs look like they go days without food between hunts. They're also used to track down deer and boat over here, but their prey drives are so darn high they'll kill anything on sight. And the males are kept intact because hunters want them high in testosterone during hunting but they rarely keep then penned up so they leave when dogs go into heat leading to the situation that happened a few months back when my dogs got into a BIG fight with a hunting dog that came looking for my neighbors female dog who was in heat. My two dogs were bigger but they didn't know how to properly defend themselves so it was an overall extremely dangerous situation...

If I were a hunter, which as I already said, I am not, but if I went duck hunting I would want the dog to bring the bird to me so I could take it home and eat it myself.

I spent about half an hour setting up an electric fencer to teach a new pup not to ever touch a chicken, and he learned that lesson in about 1.5 seconds flat.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

An electric fence combined with a solid fence could certainly deter most dogs.

There are certainly aggressive and dangerous hunting dogs here.
This comes down to irresponsible handlers, and types of hunting.

The hunting dogs I usually hear of causing problems typically aren't associated with duck/bird hunting.

It seems bird dogs are more likely to have proper training and recall. They also pick dogs that are gentle when carrying back a dead bird. ("Soft Mouth", like Golden Retrievers are supposed to be known for.)

However, people who set packs of dogs loose on bears, fox, raccoons... those are the ones I hear the horror stories about.
I don't know if it -used- to be responsibly done, but radio collars have made it easy for some irresponsible people to just release the dogs, sit in a truck miles away, and watch a little screen.
Zero recall, zero control, no care if their dogs are trespassing, no idea if their dogs are attacking children. You get the idea.

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

If I were a hunter, which as I already said, I am not, but if I went duck hunting I would want the dog to bring the bird to me so I could take it home and eat it myself.

People who duck hunt are far and few between over here and the ones I know use dogs that love to grab things and bring them to their owners. The pheasant hunters however...

I spent about half an hour setting up an electric fencer to teach a new pup not to ever touch a chicken, and he learned that lesson in about 1.5 seconds flat.

That's awesome!

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

An electric fence combined with a solid fence could certainly deter most dogs.

That's what I'm hoping, I did find an electric fence from an Italian company but it's for cattle

There are certainly aggressive and dangerous hunting dogs here.
This comes down to irresponsible handlers, and types of hunting.

The hunting dogs I usually hear of causing problems typically aren't associated with duck/bird hunting.

We also have dogs here used to hunt boar, deer, and foxes. Roughly 95% of hunting dogs here are made up of multiple generations of mix breeding creating what they call "mongrel dogs" that they use to hunt down, spook, and trace animals ranging from larger animals to smaller ones like rabbits and birds. I've talked to a few more responsible hunters I know that use their English setters and Labradors, only purebred hunting dogs in my area. Much sweeter than the mix breeds the other hunters who live father up the valley in the deeper forests

It seems bird dogs are more likely to have proper training and recall. They also pick dogs that are gentle when carrying back a dead bird. ("Soft Mouth", like Golden Retrievers are supposed to be known for.)

Those are more so the duck hunters. Pheasant dogs are and I quote by the hunters "find the shot bird and thrash it until it dies" and "the mongrel dogs that find hidden pheasants in the tall grass to spook or kill"

However, people who set packs of dogs loose on bears, fox, raccoons... those are the ones I hear the horror stories about.
I don't know if it -used- to be responsibly done, but radio collars have made it easy for some irresponsible people to just release the dogs, sit in a truck miles away, and watch a little screen.
Zero recall, zero control, no care if their dogs are trespassing, no idea if their dogs are attacking children. You get the idea.

Those are the dogs I'm dealing with. I don't even consider them hunters. I hate how they treat their dogs and the irresponsible practices they do. It's honestly sad because it almost feels like there's no winning. Those dogs are agile and fast and I'm actually worried they'd be willing to hop an electric fence.