# Vole Dogs on countryfile



## Evie91 (28 February 2016)

Apparently they are wearing boots to protect them from stinging nettles - not heard of this before. Anyone else?
Seems a bit odd as no nettles in evidence but they are still wearing boots. Never occurred to me to boot a dog......


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## Exploding Chestnuts (28 February 2016)

I think a cocker x springer would be quite a handful, but the older dog seems pretty trainable, surprised he is considered old, as its not too strenuous paddling along a riverbank compared to rough shooting work.
I would have only booted if they were sore, not as a precaution to be fair, maybe they were asked to "sex it up" for the cameras.


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## Dry Rot (28 February 2016)

My boss in the Hebrides introduced me to edible sea urchins. I trained my cocker spaniel to find and retrieve them when the tide went out. She got so keen on them, she'd put her head under water to get them and then curl her lips up and carry them back holding them with her teeth! Cockers get quite obsessional about what they are taught to hunt! Mine just got praise, no tennis balls. I've a photo somewhere.


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## Goldenstar (28 February 2016)

I had a friend whose labrador could mark where a lobster was lying under the rocks .
He catches lobsters from the rocks at low tide using a pole with a bent nail on the end .
He took the dog with him from a pup and she learnt to mark where the lobsters where lying you had to see it to believe it .


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## Dry Rot (29 February 2016)

The list of things that dogs can be taught to do is endless. My GSD is trained to chase the free range hens out of the barn because they mess on the hay. That is the first thing she checks every morning without being told. Once outside, she leaves them alone. She also leaves hens with small chicks in peace even when they are in the barn. But things do get a bit dodgy when the chicks are half grown!

We really ought to have a thread of the tasks dogs have been taught to do. Someone on another forum was asking about frightening migrating geese off young grass bcause they can cause a lot of damage. I've seen sheepdogs trained to do that too and they get quite fanatical about it. I've literature on a whole range of artificial scents somewhere -- most drugs, money, cadaver, etc. I believe they can also detect certain illnesses in humans and even dry rot in buildings! 

Forgot to add that an old man who had been in the SAS reckoned they trained a pointer to point German sentries during WWll! Apparently, the races smell different! Then they'd sneak up and bump them off in clandestine raids. The list just goes on and on.


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## ester (29 February 2016)

Goldenstar said:



			I had a friend whose labrador could mark where a lobster was lying under the rocks .
He catches lobsters from the rocks at low tide using a pole with a bent nail on the end .
He took the dog with him from a pup and she learnt to mark where the lobsters where lying you had to see it to believe it .
		
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Have you seen the video of the labrador diving off a boat to catch lobster?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBldzJWNjM


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## Honey08 (29 February 2016)

I was watching it thinking my oldest lab would be superb at that.  She can sniff out anything's poop!!  Shame she then eats it though.


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## stencilface (29 February 2016)

I've met a golfing labrador before, trained to follow its owners ball and sit next to it on the fairway. Taught not to set foot on the green and other weird things.


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## Goldenstar (29 February 2016)

ester said:



			Have you seen the video of the labrador diving off a boat to catch lobster?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBldzJWNjM

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Yes I have and my brother has seen it when he was living in the US .
Our parents live on the coast and as children we had a lab who was a dab hand at catching founders ( a type of flat fish ) at low tide .
This of course was original dogs did that the labrador developed from .
We thought my friends dog could hear the distinctive way the bubbles from the lobster rose to the surface she certainly tilted her head intently as though she was listening rather than sniffing .


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## Alec Swan (29 February 2016)

Dry Rot said:



			The list of things that dogs can be taught to do is endless. ..

We really ought to have a thread of the tasks dogs have been taught to do. 

I believe they can also detect .. dry rot in buildings! 

Forgot to add that an old man who had been in the SAS reckoned they trained a pointer to point German sentries during WWll! Apparently, the races smell different! Then they'd sneak up and bump them off in clandestine raids. The list just goes on and on.
		
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A:  And all so often,  the most seemingly unlikely dogs can provide the most surprising entertainment.

B:  Agreed,  we'd all be surprised I feel sure.  The number of dogs with secondary 'uses',  never fails to surprise me.

C:  Come on now,  any decent search dog would find you in a building! :wink3:

D:  In Malaya,  dogs of the most unlikely heritage would pick up an ambush at 4-600 yards,  wind permitting.  The RAVC, with the most remarkable and team-led dog men,  achieved results which were nothing short of spectacular,  and they weren't all Bloodhounds either.  The stories from the RAVC and in the 50s and 60s would make your hair curl.  Dogs,  especially in Malaya were seen as a vital resource,  and their correct application saved a great many lives.

Alec.


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## Goldenstar (29 February 2016)

Dogs are wonderful .


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## Evie91 (29 February 2016)

Some very interesting stuff going on with dogs! Particularly like the story of the dog sniffing out lobster - how bizarre!


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## Dry Rot (29 February 2016)

Alec Swan said:



			A:  And all so often,  the most seemingly unlikely dogs can provide the most surprising entertainment.

B:  Agreed,  we'd all be surprised I feel sure.  The number of dogs with secondary 'uses',  never fails to surprise me.

C:  Come on now,  any decent search dog would find you in a building! :wink3:

D:  In Malaya,  dogs of the most unlikely heritage would pick up an ambush at 4-600 yards,  wind permitting.  The RAVC, with the most remarkable and team-led dog men,  achieved results which were nothing short of spectacular,  and they weren't all Bloodhounds either.  The stories from the RAVC and in the 50s and 60s would make your hair curl.  Dogs,  especially in Malaya were seen as a vital resource,  and their correct application saved a great many lives.

Alec.
		
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If you can lay your hands on a copy, have a read of Paffenger's "A New Knowledge of Dog Behavior". It's about the start up of the seeing eye dogs in the USA (equivalent to our 'Guide Dogs for the Blind'), but a lot more. The author describes one man and his dog working behind enemy lines in, I think, Malaya, as you mention. The pair would get so attuned to each other that when the men came out of the jungle they were almost uable to talk as they had been in daily one to one communication with their dogs, searching out the enemy in thick jungle. Before the use of dogs, the losses had been pretty horrendous, but after the introduction of dogs, losses were very few. Sounds like we are talking about the same thing, Alec.


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## Alec Swan (29 February 2016)

Dry Rot said:



			.. . Sounds like we are talking about the same thing, Alec.
		
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We are.  The first hand accounts which I was given and of those who lived and worked under such conditions were such that the level of attuning between dog and man,  approached the level of mind reading,  and this came from a 'squady' a man who with no previous dog-experience,  who lived for weeks in near total silence,  except for his canine contact.  He also wasn't alone.  My own rather potted theory is that the dogs picked up on the understandable fear and the silence.  Interestingly the man who I knew very well (now deceased) assured me that the only rest that he got was when he slept with the dog beside him,  certain in the knowledge that he could never be approached,  without warning.  He also said that during periods of R&R the dogs would be as vocal as all others,  but when working,  their entire life was one of total and 24/7 silence.  

Alec.

ets.  I'll see if I can find a copy of Paffenger's book.  It sounds interesting.  Thanks.


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## Clodagh (29 February 2016)

It astounds me to watch a working dog with it's human. What they can achieve. I didn't know about the Malay dogs, but am not surprised. 

Our young lab mole hunts, she will work over the mole hills at tip toe, head cocked and listening, when she hears the mole she digs it up, she has caught quite a few. I then have to kill them as she is at a loss once they are exposed!
I use older lab to cathch chickens sometimes, if you show her which one you want she will bring it to you, even if it gets in a flock. I assume collies do that too.


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## Alec Swan (29 February 2016)

Clodagh,  we too had a mole-hound,  and as yours she would tiptoe up to a mole hill,  5 seconds of frantic digging and out it came,  and it was very soon dead!  Many years ago I had a yellow Lab come in for training and it seemed that I was the last resort.  Everyone had 'had-a-go' it seems!  Young Honey was a nightmare and her passion was retrieving stones.  She'd rush off,  find one and deposit it at me feet.  I soon tired of this stupidity,  and one day threw the stone in to a stream.  It was a fast flowing and shallow stream which was barely 6 inches deep and over gravel.  Imagine my surprise when she stuck her head under water and came back with the very same stone.  I was sceptical and wondered;

The next day I took a stone and one which I recognised by its shape and colour and again threw it in to the stream and again,  with the same result.  She couldn't possibly have used her nose,  so how did she know 'which' stone to pick?  I remain confused,  30 years later!  Goldenstar's Lobster-hound,  and as a breed,  could have a real future,  I feel certain. 

The bond which can be achieved with collies can often defy belief.  I've had the odd collie or two which would display what can can only be a level of reasoning and dare I say it,  intelligence.

Alec.


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## Clodagh (29 February 2016)

My Grandpa, years ago, had a useless black lab called Rosie. When we were kids we spent hours throwing things in our pond and she would dive for them, usually stones, no wonder she was a rubbish gundog! 
My mum has collies (rehomes as pets) and I am sure they understand what she is saying, they seem to know actual words, not just tones.


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## Exploding Chestnuts (29 February 2016)

Clodagh said:



			My Grandpa, years ago, had a useless black lab called Rosie. When we were kids we spent hours throwing things in our pond and she would dive for them, usually stones, no wonder she was a rubbish gundog! 
My mum has collies (rehomes as pets) and I am sure they understand what she is saying, they seem to know actual words, not just tones.
		
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gosh yes, I worked on a farm, and armed with the sheepdog commands, I set off to bring the cows in for milking, the darn dog cut out three heifers and took them away in the "wrong" direction, turned out they were dry cows, just had got in with the main herd that day!


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## Clodagh (1 March 2016)

Bonkers2 said:



			gosh yes, I worked on a farm, and armed with the sheepdog commands, I set off to bring the cows in for milking, the darn dog cut out three heifers and took them away in the "wrong" direction, turned out they were dry cows, just had got in with the main herd that day!
		
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I bet the collie was rolling it's eyes at your stupidity!!


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