anyone try to train a German Sheppard to hunt waterfowl?

[Duck Hunter Dave]

..........

[God's Country]

Honestly I don't think you would have much luck mainly because the Sheps I've owned over the years weren't much for getting their feet wet beyond a foot or so of water.

I did see a guy upland hunting with a shep once, but it looked more like companionship rather than hunting.

[Exbiker]

While looking at many pups online , I have come across some local german shepards that I can get at a more then fair price. I was wondering how hard if possiable might it be to train them to take hunting for waterfowl. Any suggestions would be helpful. I like the golden retreivers alot but the german shepard pups are all but free. Thanks for the help.

When it comes with German Shepherds if the proper health testing is done certified hips and elbows for many generations, parents have working titles thy won't be cheap.
I would guess the same with Labs, Goldens and Chesapeake Bay Retrievers. Ones with health certs and a lineage of hunters and or field trial titles won't be cheap.
Shepherds don't have the soft mouth or gentle bite of a retriever. You want instinct more then training.

[normanvin]

When it comes with German Shepherds if the proper health testing is done certified hips and elbows for many generations, parents have working titles thy won't be cheap.
I would guess the same with Labs, Goldens and Chesapeake Bay Retrievers. Ones with health certs and a lineage of hunters and or field trial titles won't be cheap.
Shepherds don't have the soft mouth or gentle bite of a retriever. You want instinct more then training.

I was thinking the same thing about the mouth feel.

[edritchey]

Get a portuguese water dog it will be a little harder to train then a shepherd but it will be better suited for the job at hand.










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[Duck Hunter Dave]

Thanks. I was favoring a golden retreiver or black lab, but my cousin had a litter of golden retreiver and german sheppard mix, thought it might be worth a shot, but I will look into a quality golden retreiver. Thanks

[runningdeer]

My shep was an AWESOME dog and very easy to train. That being said.....He hated water with a passion.

[Dredly]

Get a lab... they are dumb enough to jump in freezing cold water and bring back dinner so you pet them... most other dogs have evolved past that level of stupid :P


(I love my black lab)

[Tomcat088]

My father has bred german shepherds most of my life. They're great dogs, and my favorite breed, but I don't know that you'll have much luck training them to retrieve, especially birds from water. Most German Shepherds we've had would fetch, but grow tired of the game pretty quickly. They'll bring back a ball or stick, watch you throw it, and then look at you like, "I'm not going to go get that you're just going to throw it again." As others have said, they don't have a very gentle mouth or bite when it comes to bringing things back, although they were always gentle to take things from my hands because of how they were trained. I'm not saying it can't be done, because you can get them to do almost anything, but just quite a long ways from optimal, and some other breeds will be more fit for the task.

[ALBY]

I have a titled (champion shutzhund) working GSD that i rescued from a friend out in california (they burned down in the big wildfires).

she is a just a family pet, but I had to seriously educate myself re: dog training to even control this dog. the dog literally has 'champion' levels of ball/prey drive and brains. it's been great for teaching her tricks and obedience, but she is a handful. she wears an e-collar whenever she is not crated. i train her in obedience and with a bite sleeve.

Couple things about GSD's.

Mine will fetch all day long and her mouth is fairly soft. she minds as well as any dog you will ever see. that would not be an issue.

what would be an issue ?

1. the dog hates water and does not have webbed feet. so she would probably drown in situations a lab would enjoy.

2. nose is not nearly as good as a lab. i think my dog would do well in the uplands from a training, behavior point of view, but they are not natural pointers and the nose is an issue.

3. coat is not nearly as warm as a lab. your GSD would freeze from exposure where a lab would have no issues.

4. GSD is one of the few breeds that will not honor a command that the dog believes will cause it harm. sometimes you see this played out when a police dog turns on its handler (because it is more afraid of the target than the trainer)

5. animal aggression. and a lot of GSD's have this. not only would my dog not honor your dogs point, she would kill your dog and take the retrieve, and kill that some more. my dog drools and shakes in rapt attetntion in the presence of other animals.

it would not be impossible to train a gsd to hunt, but it would be quite an accomplishment and probably beyond the means of 99.9% of us.