He never tries to catch things in his mouth and instead always tries to use his paws, which never fails to amuse me. My dad was a semi-pro goalkeeper, as is my youngest son (including an England cap for futsal) and Iggy seems to have the same skill set, so perhaps it runs in the family!
Something quite remarkable just happened. I was shooting my air rifle at a pine cones and bits of wood I had lined up along the back of a chair in my garden when Iggy came and sat beside me, watching intently, like, he really had his "game face" on. Then when I'd knocked all the targets down and I went to the end of the garden to pick them up, he ran ahead of me and started snuffling, digging and rooting around in the leaves and bushes behind the chair, trying to find the dropped targets, and when he found one he picked it up in his mouth and trotted around, ever so proud of himself (he wasn't so keen to drop it for me though and so I had to fight him for it, lol). Now, here's the odd thing. He is from a long line of gun dogs and field trial champions and his mum was a worker, but he has never been trained, yet he somehow instinctively recognised what I was doing, what (in his mind at least) was expected of him and, even more incredibly, he knew how to do it. Obviously working dogs are bred to have certain behavioural predispositions (ie: to chase, to guard, to herd, or retrieve etc) but those are natural traits which training then harnesses into specific activities, whereas he seemed to "switch" when he saw me shooting the gun, which is an unnatural activity that should not have an instinctive component (ie: it's not as if he got triggered by seeing a bird - it was definitely the gun and what I was doing with it). Absolutely fascinating.
You might ban me from the kitchen because you’re cooking but I can still look through the serving hatch and make you feel guilty.
Reminder: Classic FM has some 'pet friendly' classic music to help calm your 4 legged family member during the loud fireworks. https://www.classicfm.com/radio/shows-presenters/pet-classics/
The real king looking resplendent in the sunshine this afternoon. No sausage fingers or noncey brothers for this big eared idiot either.
it’s in their dna, got a neighbour with a black lab gun dog, swears he never had to train it, just polish some rough edges. Nell is an absolute sweetheart of a dog but gets her game face on as soon as he gets the gun out
Where is the "recognise gun and switch to work mode" gene and how does it work though? I'd love to know the mechanism for how that's coded ie: how a sequence of amino acids somehow triggers biochemical reactions in the brain which are expressed as a set of innate behaviours. I think I need to munch some mushrooms and think about these things more deeply. It's that time of year, after all. Speaking of "time of year" - he's never been afraid of loud bangs either and I've actually taken him to a few fireworks displays with me.
I wish I had no issues with fireworks and my jack russells… actually Henry doesn’t care but he is rather deaf now but Ella is a nervous wreck when they start… odd really as I live on Salisbury plain and she’s never been bothered by the artillery and rarely a week goes by without shelling on the impact zone which is all of about 2 miles away neither particularly like the sight of my air guns or shotguns and retire to bed when either are out
Yep, it's in their DNA and what they have been bred for. We used to do a little tracking with our last GSD and he required no prompting on what to do. Just indicate the ground by the starting post & off he went. If there was any training to be done it was for us as handlers. One thing I did notice was that it mentally pooped him out and after a couple of tracks along with his usual walk he'd be out like a light after his supper. What I often find disappointing is owners who buy dogs purely on appearance and not take into account what they were original bred for to only realise their character & traits being totally unsuitable for the environment they are placed. A guy at work had a lot of trouble with a border collie dog but when it came down to it the poor thing was just stir crazy and needed 10 miles a day along with mental exercise. That's sort of like asking where is the human gene for speech or walking. It's summat that just 'is' as a consequence of the natural abilities of a canid. Certain abilities of which breeding can focus on and bring to the fore. At GSD shows there is a nerve & temperament test where the dog is on a loose lead and a blank gun fired once or twice at a distance of a dozen paces or so. If the dog doesn't remain calm, steady & showing no fear or concern then there is no chance of it (or possibly it's blood line) ever being used in future breeding and, as often happens in the show world, other breeders would glorifying in gossip & tittle tattle as to the downfall of the kennel that bred it. It's a real big serious failure. Cricket pitches can often make fine hunting grounds for mushrooms...
My now departed Golden Retriever, if off-lead on a walk, used to run towards gunfire if we came across a drive just starting (knew to put him on-lead if I heard it first). Tried taking him on a rough shoot once or twice, he was too keen and 'flouncy' and scared everything away. You could see pigeons on the wing diverting course as they approached seeing this blond thing bobbing around... My Black Lab Reuben doesn't even flinch at fireworks. Haven't ever taken him on a shoot, rarely get out on one these days. Should give it a try, he might be a natural.
I get that working dogs have had their natural instincts and traits enhanced by selective breeding, so eg: they don't need to be trained track scents or chase things and it's easy to breed for tolerance of loud bangs, but "come and sit next to my human and be ready for action when I see he has a gun in his hands and then search for what he has just shot" isn't in that category and is highly specific non-natural behaviour. It clearly must be genetic though because he has definitely never been trained or even been on a shoot. I've have taken him clay pigeon shooting a couple of times, but I can't remember him ever responding like he did on Saturday. The closest analogy I can think of is like when you hear about people who have been hypnotised so that upon hearing a certain word they'll stop what they're doing and start clucking like a chicken or whatever. And you're right about working dogs needing to "work" or have some sort of simulation of working built into their lives. A walk on a lead simply doesn't do it for Iggy as he needs to run off leash and follow interesting smelling trails wherever they go, although he's not really that bothered about chasing and retrieving balls. Tbh, I hate walking him on the lead as he pulls like a husky, keeps swapping sides or suddenly stopping and 3 different dog trainers have tried and failed to break him of these habits. And you're right - tracking definitely wears them out. I supplement Iggy's "walks" with games where he has to find treats concealed around the house. He absolutely loves it but he's ready to sleep afterwards from the mental effort involved. NB: there are genes for speech in humans (FOXP2 and NOVA1), but they developed over millions of years of evolution whereas gun dogs have only been selectively bred for a few hundred years.
