Training a herding dog to hunt, is this possible??

[Nicole01]

I have an Australian Shepherd. I'm not sure if she's mixed due to getting her at the HS. Maybe with border collie down the road a bit. Her coat is oilier then it should be.

Anyways, we've trained our golden retriever to hunt pheasant, but shes not the best hunter. She likes birds and her prey drive is low. My golden loves the chickens and has accepted them as a part of her "dog pack".

I think I had a fox take a hen. I took both dogs and my Aussie show much more interest then my golden. My Aussie protects our home and our property.:/. This includes stray cats, dogs, possums, people, and the occasional gopher.

When my hen was taken, both dogs picked up the scent trail, but my Golden got bored and went off to another area. Meanwhile my Aussie kept up on the scent trail until it was gone right up to the swampy waters and gone.

I have this idea to try and fox train my dogs. I can not shoot a gun, so this is an option and I'll set traps back behind the swampy area along the trail. I'll use a de-scenter to get rid of the human scent for the trap. Plus both dogs are gun shy.:/

What do you think? Am I going to waste my time training the Aussie or should I give it a go? What do I have to lose? I bought a fox pelt online. Hopefully it's not washed. Maybe there is a fox scent spay I can use on the pelt too.

 

[sourland]

It might be possible. We hunted pheasants with a farm collie as kids. The drawback to such a plan is that fox can have extensive territories and will even leave their territories when pursued. Your dog might end up far from home and even risk getting hit by a car while trailing the fox.

 

[Nicole01]

There are no roads for miles in the woodland. We are fencing in our 4 acres next spring. This will stop my Aussie from getting lost. I know fox can jump a fence. I have no idea if my Aussie would follow it beyond the fence.

Right now I'd worry about her getting lost. I'll whistle train the come command, but she'd have to come every time I called and no ignoring. My Aussie loves to train and lean new tricks. I taught her fun things last year like crawling, rolling over, jump high:/, ect... It was fun. I love training the dogs.

 

[Nicole01]

Here she is hanging out with my daughter on the couch.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I know a dozen people who shoot game birds over a German Shepherd Dog. Herding breeds can be trained to hunt.

However, if you can't shoot a gun, what are you going to do with the fox when you find it? If you are using a trap, you don't need dogs. The fox won't eat when there are dogs close by and if he won't eat, he isn't going to go into your trap while the dogs are chasing him.

 

[Nicole01]

My husband will shoot it in a live trap. I was going to put a trap back by the swamp where our dogs do not trample through. My husband owns many guns, he's a hunter and likes guns.

My Aussie would kill the fox in an instant. By using the dog and live trap, I hope I'm increasing my chances of killing it.

I do think it's moved on for now. I do expect it will be back.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I have heard of cattle dogs and catahoulas being trained for various types of hunting (and cats are already bred for some types of hunting), including pheasant. When we move to some acerage, we'd like a catahoula for various farm tasks...and I'd love it if training will allow for pheasant hunting too.

I haven't personally heard of an Aussie being used for hunting myself, but they are generally very trainable dogs.

 

[dutchhollow]

'hunting' a fox will consist of the dog trailing it (chasing) it until it is worn out and works it's way to the den. Then you will either have to dig (probably impossible) or wait it out, or get yourself a terrier small enough to go in and drive it out, and since you don't have a gun, hope the aussie catches it befoe it goes on another run. So, yes, they could probably be trained to hunt, to some degree, using them to 'hunt' fox, probably not realistic. If your area is fenced and the dog has free run of fenced area 24/7, it should do a fine job of keeping varmints out without any training.

 

[Nicole01]

I know where the den is. :/. It's in my backyard on my property and not far from the house.

We are planning on digging up the den tomorrow. I have no idea if it's in use with the fox.

I'm going to try and train both dogs. It is only to keep them off our land. Once we fence in the property our dogs will have more freedom outside. They will be able to stay out there without us. We can not leave them out since they do protect our property.

Also, both the dogs could use a refresher course in training. It's been a while since I worked with them. The Aussie is very easy to train due to being so focused, my golden is much more difficult with her short attention span. I think this will be good for the Aussie anyways by giving her a job to do.

I'm very lucky both dogs get along with the chickens well!

Here's my golden watching over the hens in the front yard.