A few days ago, Miley decided to break the rules and try to catch a duck.
It was one of those rainy days, and I thought she was just going to chase them a bit.
But I was wrong. She scattered them in all directions, and she ran the white Pekin drake onto the access road below the pond. She quickly had him run down was just about to put him in her mouth when I was able to call her off.
I noticed that one of the ducks– the pure wild mallard hen– had flown off and had actually gone quite high. I didn’t see where she landed.
I figured she’d work her way back to the pond that day, but she did not. My parents looked for her that evening, but they saw no trace of her.
I took Miley out, and she wound up questing around in a stand of small pine trees. She was after something.
It was only later that evening that she went out on her own and came back with something.
She brought the hen mallard home without a mark on her.
I’ve always thought of Miley as a half-assed retriever. She’s not a working-bred dog, but she has a very soft mouth. I call her the “golden take it,” because instead of retrieving, she will take something and hide it from you.
She does like to duck chase and has to be scolded off them if she gets too close on them. She killed a duckling earlier this summers, so she does have to be watched when she’s around them.
But in that moment, she redeemed herself.
She may have been nothing more than a duck chasing “yeller dog,” but now she’s the duck shepherd.
If one wanders off now, I’m pretty sure she’ll be called into find it.
Happens regularly with gun dogs. No interest in retrieving until they hit the real thing. I was raised with an English springer, not from working lines, who regularly went next door and retrieved the neighbor’s chickens. She didn’t hurt them, but it put them off laying for a few days. I’m sure my parents paid off the neighbors somehow to keep it from becoming an issue. But they often had to return chickens. And it’s pretty common for Labbies from show lines to do fine hunting in the field. See, eg.http://www.blackhillslabradors.co.nz/PedigreeforBEROLEEWILLIAMTRIGGIMPUKWilliam.htm
His breeders were show people of Crofts stature. He’s now his owner’s favorite duck dog . . . as well as doing well in shows.
I find compulsive retrievers quite annoying.
I love compulsive ones! LOL.
Did she mean to kill the duckling by shaking or mangling it or was it an unintentional suffocation or similar?