A (Possibly Stupid) Terrier/Spaniel Question.

TelH

TelH

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Ok so Daisy (jrt) just flushed out a rat in the barn but she missed killing it :( So her and Alice Springer are now busy trying to get to where it ran to. Alice follows her a lot when she goes hunting so silly as it may sound I was wondering if it is at all possible to train a springer to hunt rats? :o Or do they just lack the natural killing instinct of a terrier and so would not be trainable for that job? I have never heard of a springer being a ratter before but just with the interest she shows in trying to help Daisy and the fact that Daisy is not nearly as young or as fit or fast as she used to be I was wondering if it would be possible to train her to be Daisy's replacement. And how would I do it :confused: Daisy's training consisted of placing her in a suitable location, saying 'Daisy get it!' and letting her get on with it, she just had the instinct. See told you it was a stupid question :o :o
 
Not stupid at all don't worry!

Yes, spaniels will kill rats especially if they have a pal that gets stuck in too but be warned, it's quite possible it will retreive it to you and I wouldn't want to be in your shoes then as you'll have to thank him and nicely take it off him. Can't you tell, I just can't do rats at all even dead ones.

Sorry replace the him with a her, I should read better!
 
Not what springers are meant to do if they're working, but my parents' boy was obviously never told this, as he has caught and killed more than one rabbit, with no encouragement at all :o

And he hasn't retreived them thankfully, but I think his breeding for the show-ring means any proper springer instincts are long gone!!
 
Well, our terrier x collie (I think!) is a brilliant ratter and always has been - kills them very swiftly although he is generally so pleased with himself he likes to come and show you how fab he's been and what he's got (cue me running in the opposite direction!). Our GSD x however did not understand at all and would never try hun them out like the other one who would spend ages round the straw and hay searching and flushing rats out. However, the GSD x has cottoned on after my dad and the two dogs did a big clean out one year and got a total of 8 rats, (GSD got 1). She is now pretty good although not as good at killing them as the terrier x - she is ok with the babies but I think wa sa bit shocked last time she got a bigger one when it fought back! Dad had to finish that one off.

She is a sod for catching and killing rabbits though. I definitely think her hunting instinct has come on from learning from the other dog (he's sadly rather deaf now so can't search out the rats quite as well) so i think the same would be said for your spaniel.
 
Anything is possible, few years ago when I had my Boxer (he lived with a terrier)he would often try & was successful catching rats and the odd half dead rabbit. He was so funny as if the rabbit got away he'd go find the nearest tree and take it out on the trunk! My whip/bed girl works like a terrier with rats as had her from a pup and terrier was her role model.
 
I'm not overly worried about her bringing me them because we did a little beginners gundog training course and she was bottom of the class at retrieval :o She just didn't want to know :( But she did redeem herself by being top at scent work :) I would like to train her more because Daisy is 11 1/2 and has mild arthritis in her back legs, whilst her mind is still willing her body is not what it was and she isn't going to last forever, whereas Alice is only 13 months old. Fortunately we don't seem to have a huge problem, it was only the second one I've seen in 18 months here.
 
Well, feel free to bring the terrier to ours - we have a load of rats (although rarely see them, unlike last year when they literally dropped down the walls as you entered the tack room!), they are chewing ruddy great holes in our (new) rubber matting to get behind it and in to the stable walls!!! Grrrrr
 
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