Help needed quickly- dog maimed a pigeon

[littlewhitebag]

My young lab chased some birds in the garden and managed to pin a wood pigeon up against the fence. I shouted at her to leave it and she came away immediately and even when i went to get gloves to inspect the pigeon she didn't return to it.

The pigeon is damaged to one side a wound and a wing injury. There was blood coming out it's beak. I have put it over the other side of the fence where i think it will die.

Should i do something? Would the vet do anything? I don't want it to suffer.

Dog meanwhile has slunk off to her bed as she knows i was furious at her.

If you don't want it to suffer, wring its neck or hit its head with something so that it dies quickly.

Very good of your dog to come back so well - please forgive her and praise her for leaving it.

I don't think i could bring myself to kill it.

I was pleased she came back but i think the tone of my voice when i shouted at her to leave it her told her i was less than pleased at what she had done. The pigeons usually just fly off when she approaches but this one flew low towards the fence. I think she thought it was something to play with.

If you don't want an innocent being to suffer you should put it out of its misery. Put your big panties on and go and wring its neck if need be. Otherwise take it to the vet.
In the meantime tell your dog she's a good girl for leaving it when told.

You own a gundog, she may do this kind of thing again and you will need to deal with it as part and parcel of being a good responsible owner.

Don't tell a dog off for following its instincts like this.

I think it's best just to let a dog or a cat finish the job if it's caught something. Particularly if you feel you can't do it yourself.

I have trained myself to kill mixy rabbits when I come across one- awful but necessary.

Pigeons are vermin. I can't see the vets being impressed by being delivered one.

Whack it over the head with a big stone

The pigeon that is, not the lab.

I always drop them off at the vets , I'm not sure whether they bash them over the head or put them to sleep nicely but TBH once I've dropped it off its not my concern . My dog gets pigeons fairly regularly.That said the vet I take them too is the local practice and it's not the vet I use ,I wouldn't want to piss them off !

I really think that as cat and dog owners we need to learn to finish off any prey animals that their animals don't. It needs to be done quickly and as soon as possible- all this transporting to vets and so on just prolongs the agony.

Our vets are really good about taking in injured wildlife and doing whatever is necessary - and they've never charged me (not that I'm always over there delivering injured animals to them, I've only done it a couple of times).

I live across the road from them though, so it's not a problem to be there within a couple of minutes.

You have a labrador. They have very been very carefully bred for years to refine their GAME retrieving instincts. Your dog has done precisely what she has been bred for. Caught a bird.

Why are you furious with her? She will be very, very confused. She came to you as soon as you called her, so nothing wrong there. Caught a bird - an action which is deeply instinctive for her, so nothing wrong their either.

You need to dispatch the bird. It will be suffering. It's not hard to either wring it's neck or knock it on the head, really it isn't. It's not fair to leave it to die by a fence.

With regard to the dog, she will always want to chase birds. Always. The desire won't go away. However, she can be taught steadiness fairly easily which means that she will be able to control her instinct to chase until - and if - you give her the nod. Is she a show or working bred labrador?

daisydotandgertie I think i was furious as i don't like things being harmed. It was my normal human reaction at her normal canine reaction.

She likes chasing birds and normally it is fine. She loves chasing flocks of them at the beach but they just fly away. She has also managed to grab the tail feathers of a pheasant on several occasions. This was the first bird she has caught.

How do i tell if she is a show or working bred lab? She is just an ordinary pet lab.

I have now taken the pigeon to the vet for them to dispose of.

Well done with the pigeon - I'm glad it will be dispatched if it's been hurt.

Does your dog have pedigree papers? That'll give you a clue where she has come from.

She won't have meant to actually hurt the bird, you don't have a savage bird killing dog on your hands. The damage will have come from her inexperience at actually holding one. She is likely to have been trying to catch it to carry about. That's what drives the instinct to chase birds on the beach and on walks - the need to catch them, carry them about and more than likely bring them to you.

I have her parents pedigree papers somewhere. We didn't KC register her so i just filed the papers. I must have a look.

Genuine question - would it make a difference whether a dog was bred for showing or working? Wouldn't it still have the same instincts/breed traits?

Yes, it does make a difference which is which.

Dog breeding is all about refining characteristics which appear in the parents and is aimed towards a certain goal.

Show Labradors are bred to improve and refine the parents characteristics and are aimed at perfectly matching the breed standard physically, and conforming most closely to whichever physical appearance is currently in vogue with the judges and showing community. Currently a hefty, shorter legged, wide chested look.

Working labs are bred to improve and refine the parents characteristics in the same way, but the goal here is to further improve the dogs stamina, bidability, game finding ability, nose, braveness and so on. The aim is to make the dog best able to do the work a lab is traditionally used for.

Therefore, a show breeder wouldn't be concentrating on refining skills - just looks and while the drive to retrieve is still there, because it isn't being refined, it can often be rather deeply buried. That's obviously not to say that a show dog can't work - rather that he might be a bit reluctant to do so.

That ties in with the kennel club fit for function campaign - that all dogs should be physically capable of doing what they were originally bred for and sadly, IMO, there are a whole lot of labs out there who just couldn't do that.

The same goes for working bred dogs though - they're often bred without reference to looks, so trial bred dogs (the pinnacle or competitive side of the sport) and therefore some working dogs can be a quite snipey and very slight.

It doesn't just apply to labs, obviously, the difference in breeding emphasis. The difference between a show cocker and a working cocker is enormous!

A working strain will have been bred on the basis of picking the best workers and breeding them, rather than the 'best' confirmation and breeding that - so, yes, a working lab strain will have more 'working' tendencies than a show strain.

My lab is slim build and has a slim pointed face. She is not at all like some of the stocky labs i have seen. No ides if this means she is working or show breed though.

A working dog will have been bred with a 'soft' mouth to avoid puncturing any birds they retrieve.
As displayed by my Springer and my cockatiel on more than one occasion. The bird shrieked but the dog dropped on command & the bird remained unharmed.
Apart from his minor loss of dignity

As others have said, don't be too harsh on your lab, it's pretty unusual for them to catch a wild bird, she probably won't make a habit of it.

Have a cuppa and put it down to experience

If your dog is slim with a pointier face then she will be a working type. Sounds very similar to ours...and she has brought back birds, three fish, a huge chicken and an enormous amount of rabbits. She's just following her breeding and instinct. If left to her own devices she will finish the job nice and efficiently herself.

Thanks for the responses!

This thread has been an education. Thanks to everyone.

My swedish fox hound is a nightmare will kill anything she can( it's in her breeding so nothing I can do about it). She never brings it to me though takes it to my other two dogs and then they share it. They are fed on raw meat but she dosen't do it everyday.

My boy killed a pigeon last year. I don't know whether it was a very young one on an oldie, or already injured but dog (on lead) suddenly pounced, shook his head, and poor bird was dead in a second.

I hadn't seen it or would have stopped the attack, but am glad it was killed so very quickly. He was dead chuffed with himself and released on my command so I could make sure dead.

Last week he caught and killed a mouse that I've been trying to trap for weeks - good boy!

I wonder if cat owners are quite as squeamish about this sort of thing? A lifetime of living with cats means I am used to dealing with dead and almost dead things- mice, voles, rabbits - and am quite pragmatic about it. I was incredibly upset when my super hunter Burmese killed a kingfisher though

A theory? We think of cats as predators, so, whie we don't like them killing things, we accept that as part of their nature. However, when our dogs kill things, it's an uncomfortable reminder that they are potentially dangerous animals, and we really don't like being reminded of that.