Don't ask your retriever dog to find your tortoise...

[katrvt]

This weekend, my tortoise escaped his outdoor enclosure and I was unable to find him. After six hours of searching, I thought it would be a good idea to give my lab, who is a working bird dog, his scent to see if she could sniff him out.

It worked, she found him immediately. However, it had an unintended consequence. She is fixating on him today. She has never offered him a second sniff before, not even recognizing him as of consequence when he is roaming the yard. Today I couldn't even turn my back for a second to shut the door before she had located him soaking in his tub and was about to grab him out.

He's safe and sound, but now that she associates him with getting to search and retrieve something, she think he's a duck of sorts I suppose. Sigh.

 

[Saleama]

When I was a kid, we had a black lab named Brat that had to get special training for a hard mouth. She ruined a prize goose my Father shot so he ended her duck and goose career and she was retired to my brother and I. We decided that she should be our dove retriever and we continued her training to soften her mouth. One warn September day we took her on a Teal hunt and she promptly disappeared on the first retrieve. My dad was not happy. After about ten minutes, she came back with a box turtle instead of the Teal. Not a mark on him. Over the next year or so we had at least 20 - 25 box turtles delivered to us instead of birds. None were ever harmed and all were released back into the fields she got them from. Once she was honed in on them though, she was almost worthless as a retriever. If we downed a bird anywhere near a turtle trail, she would disappear to go find it. We gave her to a friend who was moving to florida and wanted a beach bum dog.

 

[katrvt]

Saleama, that is hilarious. My girl has a great soft mouth, which is part of the reason I even considered having her 'hunt it up'. And she did find him and bring him straight to me without a mark on him.

I should have known she would go bananas over him once she realized he is something she can retrieve though. There is nothing she loves more than hunting/retrieving birds.

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

I hope it wears off!

 

[wiccan_chicken]

I would give advice on getting her fixation off of him and onto something else if I knew how! Maybe ask Tom. He might be able to help you get her focus off of your tort before things get bad fast.

 

[Moozillion]

May we see a picture of your tort-hunting retriever?

 

[WillTort2]

Sounds like you need a pointer rather than a retriever!

 

[katrvt]

Thankfully, she is losing interest, and his pen is secure. She now already just peeks in to see if he is out before moving on.

 

[Moozillion]

She's a beautiful dog!!!

 

[katrvt]

Thanks!

 

[leigti]

Sounds like you need a pointer rather than a retriever!

My dog is a springer lab cross but she points. She does like to retrieve tennis balls though. If I ask her to find my tortoise she points her out to me. She has been told to "leave it" so she does not pick her up just sniffs and walks away. But I still don't leave her unsupervised.