Killer puppy....Anyone got a hunter doodle?

[Donna P.]

Over the last two weeks, I have pulled the strangest things out of Bayley's mouth. (She's 6 months old). 3 dead birds, 1 dead mouse, and today a baby snake. I can't swear she killed everything...One bird I think commited suicide by a kamikase dive into the window. But the one she ate yesterday, I think she did kill. When I went out to see what she was eating, I saw a panicked young dove that didn't have his flying certification trying to hop/fly over the fence. I think that there is a nest in the spruce tree, and the chicks had fledged and couldn't fly well enough to escape Bayley. I'm fairly certain she killed the garter snake, and she is digging a trench across the back yard trying to catch the mole.

I'm thinking there must be some latent terrier in her ancestry. She has been in the chicken yard when the chickens are out, and she has been respectful, but we have been there to check her. I don't think I would trust her to leave them alone if we weren't there.

Does this seem like odd behavior for a doodle?  

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Both poodles and retrievers are from hunting and sporting lines.  You do have a dog of prey  :)

No, not odd behavior. It sounds like a healthy dog to me.  Although, if he eats much more he may just get sick.  Good luck with all of that.

My dog knows the name of each animal. If I say Bird, he looks up.  Squirrel, he goes to the tree.  Chippy, he heads for the drain ditch or wood pile.  Believe me, in no time, your dog will rid you of all that in your yard. Not even a Robin can fetch a worm, or he is on it.

[Carol and Banjo]

LOL....Spud hasn't even graduated HS yet has he???    I'm impressed!   Banjo just looks around aimlessly with that little tongue of his hanging out.   He's not prey driven at all....we were just remarking on that this afternoon as we sat on the deck watching the birds and chipmunks within 4-5 feet of us.   Banjo seems oblivious.  I think however if I got up and petted one of the chippies he'd have something to say.

Donna,  Baylee looks like such sweetie.....apparently she's got some killer instinct going there!

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

And when you yell "squirrel", he attacks the ball... :-)

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Poodles were originally used for game birding/sporting/hunting/water foul.

The picture above is from Wikipedia. 

Poodles have a fascinating history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poodle

[Donna P.]

yeah, but weren't they bred to "retrieve" the game after it had been shot. I didn't think they went out and killed and ate the critters.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Do some more reading.  They are hunting dogs also.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Poodles were originally water retrievers. They definitely were and are used to retrieve game that had been shot, mostly from wetlands. Their coats are water repellent, and the fact that they spent so much time in water was the reason for those strange haircuts.  

http://www.redhuntingpoodles.com/

Of course, no good retriever should be eating the game, lol. And the gun is what kills the game, not the dog. But any dog would kill and eat whatever it could find to survive out in the wild.

[Elizabeth, Bailey & Bruin]

Interesting article about poodles...Did not know that they originated in Germany...I always thought they originated in France

 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That's because they are the National Dog of France. But they did orginate in Germany, and their name (Pudle) is of German origin, despite the fact that some people call them "French Poodles", lol.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Really good site on the history of poodles: http://www.poodlehistory.org/

From the site:

Poodles and their "water-dog" cousins are the original versatile hunting dogs.
Water-dogs predate the use of firearms in waterfowling; to understand their
behaviour--what they were "bred to do"--we must examine what they did before
1600. Members of the European water-dog family, identified by the dense, curly,
ever-growing coat, are closely related.

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

All I can say is, you are very brave! I would be more comfortable disarming a bomb than i would be touching any kind of snake, dead or alive!

As Joanne said, retrievers are hunting dogs, and poodle used to be. Hunting breeds have very high prey drives. So this behavior is not at all unusual for a doodle, considering her heritage.

If JD wasn't obsessed with tennis balls, I would question whether he had any retriever in him at all. He has picked up baby rabbits in his mouth and set them back down again unharmed. All the neighborhood rabbits know this, and consequently choose to make their nests in our yard.

They may look cute, but they dig up my lawn and make holes all over it. Then they eat my violets and dianthus. I think I'd rather have a hunter, lol.

 

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I'll send Spud over.  He would love to be in your yard. I think the only thing he does not bother are the Butterflies.

The other day though, he did get a Dragonfly and foamed at the mouth. Jumped up and caught it straight out of the air.

I have to look up if a  Dragonfly is poisonous.  The foaming was alarming.