CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => General Cocker Spaniel Discussion => Topic started by: Chocolatecoco on February 07, 2010, 10:26:55 PM
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Have had such fun walking the girls lately in the remote woods and fields surrounding us, my girls now love wild live and actively look for birds.
However today chocolate has taken to birds that are flying, she has started to chase them and actually thinks she might be able to catch them dispite them being in the air and her being on the ground, she gets very fed up though when she loses sight of them, and the look on her faces just creases me up - its like oh dear that one got away!
Just wondered if anyone else's dogs think they can catch birds in the air!
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Hi, yes my Lucy is the same. She loves to run after the birds doesnt matter whether they are flying or in the air. You should see her run after them if they have landed on the sands, she's just like a locomotive!! I swear she can run that fast that one day she will catch one :lol: Its fun to watch her tho'.
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yes, i have one here, actually put a post on yesterday about recall, or the lack of it when charlie sees any sort of bird either on the ground or flying( so you can imagine how often that is!!!)
we walk in the open fields, so he can see for miles and as soon as he sees one, hes off, and yes, def thinks hes going to "catch this one"
hes the same with blackbirds in the hedges, almost climbing the trees to get to them, totally crazy if you ask me and getting slightly obsessive me thinks ::) ::)
is it cos theyre gun dogs or what, ive had labradors before but never been like this :o
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Oh yes, Jay loves chasing the crows on our local walk, they are slow at taking off, but even when they have flown he still runs after them expecting he'll have lift off with them. :005:
He also chases pigeons, squirells and basically anything with a pulse.
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Lily chases the birds on the beach. she gets so excited she yips. Ilove it. Was a bit worried that other dog walkers would shout at her but dont think she will ever catch one. She is getting a bit fat. Greedy girl.
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Another bird chaser here! Smartie has even beem know to take to the water in an attempt to get a seagull!!
Worse is wagtails (I think) as they don't seem to ever fly up, just across the ground, She will go for ages convinced she'll get this one!! :005:
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Lily chases the birds on the beach. she gets so excited she yips. Ilove it.
Paisley does this too! I love it when she yips! She sounds so funny! She's forever going in the bushes searching for something and then you'll know when she finds something because of her yipping as she runs after it. I'm sure sometimes she does it for the sake of it though, since there's hardly any leaves at the minute I can usually see her, sometimes she just starts running and yippin and I can see there's nothing there! ::) :005:
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Jake loves creeing up on the birds when we walk in the fields, he tries to get as close as possible without them seeing him and then he pounces. He leaps in the air to try and catch the flying ones and he has nearly got one or two as they take off. I hope he doesn't get one !! >:D
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Bella loves to chase birds, she got told off yesterday actually as she chased one into a field where she she should not be >:D
I thought I was going to have to trespass into the farm to get her back the little >:D >:
She has been on restricted excercise and yesterday was her first off lead run in months and thats the first thing she did!!!!
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Yep - thats the one time I've come close to losing Maggie.... she saw a crow flying fairly low and she was off, nothing I could do to stop her. Ran to the other side of the park before it disappeared over a garden, luckily I was just able to see where she was but she turned round and had no idea where I was.... :005: left her to run around cluelessly for a bit and then gave her a shout, since then she's chased a few but always keeps a half eye out :) Not sure I'd have the same luck with a cat tho - even tho I have two she still goes nuts when we see them outside *sigh*
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Harvey's pretty keen on any form on aviation. Brids, planes, helicopters, butterflies >:(
He's not the smartest! :005:
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Some great stories, Bless harvey. I must be quite lucky as my girls always come to my call, even though there are other distractions. Mind you it might help with the fact that they are very food orientated and i always give treats when they return lol
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I have to point them out to Dave and rev him up a bit then he gets going, legs, tail and tongue flying everywhere :005:.. Normy will quietly stalk birds but she wouldn't degrade herself by chasing them once they've clocked her, making an arse of yourself is not etiquette if your a Weimaraner... :shades: :005:
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::) Ooooooh yes ...............
CLICK ON PIC FOR VIDEO
(http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g72/flojanny/th_001-1.jpg) (http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g72/flojanny/?action=view¤t=001-1.flv)
FLO
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Jann that video of Flo is so funny, we have been looking at holiday cottages to rent this summer and loads boast about free roaming chickens or peacocks!!!! they are struck off the list instantly!!! I had a good chuckle at that what a sweetie :luv:
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Jann that video of Flo is so funny, we have been looking at holiday cottages to rent this summer and loads boast about free roaming chickens or peacocks!!!! they are struck off the list instantly!!! I had a good chuckle at that what a sweetie :luv:
Forgot to say there were sound effects too ! :005:
This was in the car park where we often go for a walk, the chickens are always there wandering about ,I don't know who they belong to ::)
She'd never actually chased them before :005: I stopped filming to call her back she totally ignored me and disappeared after one of them, you should have heard it sqwarking :o (I still don't know whether she caught it or not) ph34r she appeared about 5 minutes later ::)
,
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:lol2: at Flo.... Maggie gets rounded up by my mates two chickens... they stand between her and the door when we go over there so she can't get back in and she does her "Mum I want something..." grumble till I pop them out the way :luv:
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I'm afraid Alfie's been known to chase jet planes as well as birds. With the birds, I try to stop him before he gets going but it's hard work. I've been hoping that, because we've so many birds in the garden because of my obsession with birdfeeders, that he'll get used to them. So far it's not happened, though the other day he was under our huge oak tree yipping at them and a little blue tit made a stand (about 6 feet up) and really told him off. It was hilarious. He was really giving the dog some cheek.
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A goose, a seagull, a helicopter and aeroplane is there a difference :005: Molly chases them all, but only if she is in the, very small, garden she barks and runs along looking up with obvious ooppsss event when she hits the fence.
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Re Chickens
I stopped filming to call her back she totally ignored me and disappeared after one of them, you should have heard it sqwarking :o (I still don't know whether she caught it or not) ph34r she appeared about 5 minutes later ::)
I was wondering if a cocker would dispatch a chicken if she/he got one cornered (I suspect the answer might be yes especially a worker). Saffi then 18 weeks chased next doors chickens which had escaped their coop, managed to corner one and before I caught up with her feathers were flying (recall - forget it!!). Luckily no serious harm was done on that occasion but if I hadn’t been in hot pursuit neighborly relations might have become strained (the chickens are pets belonging to the children).
Any suggestions on how I might stop Saffi considering chickens as legitimate pray - one of them has ended up in our garden on a couple of occasions!!!
Any sugestions on how I might stop Saffi considering them as legitimate pray - one of them has ended up in our garden on a couple of occasions!
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Our rottie once crashed into a tree chasing a bird that took off just as she was about to pounce :005: :005:
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If I ever hear the yipping sound from Chloe, I literally go weak with fear. Chloe never makes a murmur outside unless she is in full chase mode, and the yipping tells me that she is off on one. It hasn't happened for a while, but the sound of the yipping fills me with dread...it means:-
She is no longer listening to me
Her chase drive has kicked in and I can't control it
I'm afraid I don't find the yipping sound very cute ph34r
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One day when we were on our walk in Fritton, I decided to take the left route thro the trees BIG MISTAKE :huh: Smudge got the whiff quite early of some chickens in a nearby garden and nothing was gonna stop him. When I eventually caught up with the little >:D he had got into the garden cos the lady had no fence round (thought that a bit silly with the fox population to be honest :dunno: the chucks where in a run ::) - but foxes are more determined than cockers me thinks
Anyway I put Smudge back on his lead - apologised profusely and off we hurried. Having got the whiff I now avoid going that way - just in case.
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If I ever hear the yipping sound from Chloe, I literally go weak with fear. Chloe never makes a murmur outside unless she is in full chase mode, and the yipping tells me that she is off on one. It hasn't happened for a while, but the sound of the yipping fills me with dread...it means:-
She is no longer listening to me
Her chase drive has kicked in and I can't control it
I'm afraid I don't find the yipping sound very cute ph34r
I'm another killjoy and don't encourage a chase - especially with a pup - it can lead to terrible trouble with recall if it's not stemmed at an early age. You just need to look at old behavioural threads about chasing birds and hunting to see that although it looks cute at an early age it can be really awful when your dog goes into hunt mode (as Sue has said) and you can't get it back.
A working cocker shouldn't dispatch or kill anything - they should have a soft mouth - animals that are caught usually die of shock. I would be far more worried if the working cocker shakes them like a terrier to break their necks or bites to kill it's catch.
Anyway, I did let Jarvis chase seagulls as a pup - we put a command to it and only let him chase when we wanted him too. That didn't affect his recall but made it more difficult to train him for beating as he can get a bit excited and go to far - fortunately he's good on a stop whistle.
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Any sugestions on how I might stop Saffi considering them as legitimate pray - one of them has ended up in our garden on a couple of occasions!
Um, tell them to keep their chickens in their own garden?! If it was in your garden and something happened to it, I can't see they could really complain could they? Or is that just me seeing things too black and white as usual?! :005:
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Um, tell them to keep their chickens in their own garden?! If it was in your garden and something happened to it, I can't see they could really complain could they? Or is that just me seeing things too black and white as usual?! :005:
Their garden isn't well fenced (apart from the boundary with us which I have secured) and Saffi does wander in there sometimes. I am trying to stop this without much success at the moment. Even if the chicken was in our garden I still wouldn’t want to face a tearful 7 year old (usually the one to leave the coop open!).
Can you teach a dog to be soft mouthed and not shake? When playing with toys I have noticed Saffi (4 months) shaking things a bit - is that a bad sign in a working cocker?
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I have to say my girls never caught anything but just love the chase although now they are into smelling the grass where i know wild rabbits are so i try and avoid that bit at the moment as the scent of them makes them go wappy. I have to say my cockers are nearly 10 months now and have strong recall. Mind you i have to say i would hate for them to hurt anything but they live with cats and love the cats.
Its quite hard to avoid things when you live in a rural village, I have to say.