Murphy, my springer has just caught and despatched of a rat right infront of me on our walk tonight. Whilst i know that its natural behaviour for a dog, particularly terriers, neither of my bitches have done anything like that. Is this fairly normal behaviour for a springer/ gundog and is this anything i should worry about? My instincts tell me that no its natural but i just want to check!

It's a normal thing for any dog to do. They're predators. :)

Presumably its more natural for some breeds than others tho? Gundogs are meant to carry not dispatch all by themselves? I would imagine shaking a retrieved bird who wounded is a big no no in the field?

Maybe the scent differentiates between vermin and birds?   I can remember that one of our labs - long, long ago - would grab a rat, shake it, break its neck and then toss it to one side - then,   half an hour later, be as wellbehaved as possible on a shoot (and believe me, these were prestigious shoots! )

Margot

Not all gundogs behave as they should. ;) Some are hard-mouthed, some are gunshy. Never assume a dog's good at what its breed was designed for without training!

The Mals caught and killed a rat in the back garden the other day ...I was just thankful that none of them ate it :D

> I was just thankful that none of them ate it 

I thought that yours ate a raw diet :D :D :D or is a rat a bit too raw :D :D

Daisy

I guess you dont always know what the rat iself has eaten. I was glad he didn't eat it too, but i didn't really give him much of a chance. I'd only just managed to get a bone off him that he'd found without starting world war 3!!

I would always attempt to take a rat away from a dog ..... just in case the rat had ingested rat poison !

Margot

that was what i was worried about! Unfortunately there was no where to get rid of the rat as we were in the middle of a big field and i didn't fancy carrying it for miles, so i just had to leave it on the side of the path! :rolleyes:

LOL - hadn't thought of that :D Just as well we haven't any rats here and the dogs don't catch things :D :D

Daisy (mental note to not feed rats to dogs)