Retrievers in Europe and many other countries are required to retrieve furred game. In Europe, they are called gun dogs, not bird dogs. They retrieve whatever the gun shoots.
I don’t see why they couldn’t be use to retrieve squirrels in this country.
One little caveat: A wounded squirrel may fight a bit more than a rabbit.
They also won’t be of much use in terms of squirrel treeing. You might be able to train a golden to bark at a tree, but I doubt that it will ever replace an elkhound or a feist.
I’ve always wondered why North American retrievers are not required to retrieve fur. Lewis and Clark made use of their retrieving Newfoundland many times during their journey to the Pacific Ocean. But after that, I’ve never heard of any North Americans using any kind of retriever for this purpose.
Maybe it’s something that could be started as possible way to reintroduce a British-style trial into the retriever culture. There are a lot more squirrels, hares, jackrabbits, and cottontails in North America than game birds, and since these trials are real shoots, one might have to go rabbit or squirrel shooting, instead of pheasant or duck hunting.
Gray squirrel, I should note, is quite delicious.
Don’t knock it ’til you try it!
I wonder if the treeing ability is simply a more aggressive form of prey drive which has been limited in Goldens to keep their mouths soft. My Border Collies have no problem treeing squirrels, barking, and even retrieving if I ask nicely and repeatedly.
I wouldn’t say that they have soft mouths though, they kill the squirrel when it falls from the tree with very aggressive spine breaking bites.
They will tree the squirrel, but they won’t bark.
In the woods, you need a dog to bark when the squirrels are treed.
Goldens are generally quiet dogs, and it often takes a lot of stimulus to get them to bark.
Exceptions to the rule exist, of course.
What does treeing have anything to do with a dog’s grip? My understanding is that treeing is mostly chasing prey up a tree and baying until that prey is shot. Even if a squirrel were to fall from a tree my English Cocker wouldn’t worry it. He’s caught live bird before and brought them back alive and unharmed. That’s what he was bred for.
Treeing involves relentless barking and a loud gun dog isn’t one that is welcomed at any shoot. In British field trials, even a whimper could get a gun dog dismissed.
Well, the way squirrels are hunted in the US, you must have a dog that barks when the squirrel goes in a tree.
As a squirrel hunting dog, a retriever is useless.
But as a squirrel retriever that doesn’t flush or chase the squirrels until sent for a retrieve, would be useful.
That’s what I was talking about.
The way I imagine using a retriever on squirrels is that the dog walks at a heel while the feist or elkhound puts trees the squirrels. Or as the hunter walks through the woods with the retriever at heel.
Squirrel is shot. Retriever is sent for the retrieve.
But for informal work, you could have a retriever that barked at the tree.
This is how squirrel dogs are used:
I think, very possibly, that you don’t understand American squirrel hunting with dogs.
Which is why a retriever would be useless, except as a pick-up dog. Unless you trained him to bark at the tree.
Have you heard of Finnish spitz?
How do they hunt birds?
Well, it’s the same concept.
Are they not classified as “bark pointers”? Shiba Inus do this naturally too. Rarely they bark around people or in pursuit on ground, but when they tree a squirrel slash bird or bay something much bigger than themselves, they bark to let people know where they are.
Just too bad fanciers and puppy mills screwed the Shiba Inu over and made them undesirable for hunters. There’s good ones out there, just the the breed had a bad reputation with bad imported stocks that still persist today.
But the reason why you want a “bark pointer” is because when you’re in the thickets, you rely on the dog’s barks to pinpoint their location– and sometimes barking keeps the animal at bay. It’s not enough to bay a tree. When you’re out in the boonies, sometimes the brushes are so thick, you can’t even find your dog.
Now, on the other side of the point, hunting is considered as a sport. Here, and in many part of the world, it’s considered as a way to live off the land. Yes, there’s still sportsmanship involved, but it’s a different type and people do it for a different reason.
Er… “other side of the pond.”
http://lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2284
Scroll down. Seaman was more like a retriever than a modern Newfoundland. Travelling down the Ohio, they came across a swarm of melanistic and normal squirrels swimming West to East from what’s now Ohio to what’s now West Virginia, and the dog was sent into the water to fetch them.
He also retrieved several shot deer that went into the water.
And he cut a bison calf from a herd.
Remarkable dog.
Well, let’s see…I know of Goldens that have retrieved squirrels, rabbits, songbirds, gamebirds, chickens, groundhogs, opossum, garden snakes, mice, goldfish, carp, trout, toads (ptooey!), frogs, cats, small puppies, and a live, very annoyed skunk….
As well as any sort of inanimate object that was portable or nearly so.