Dogs & Birding (1 Viewer)

[rothur]

Hello there Birders

See I have taken note of your comment Steve (Steve Jones – Birding not Birdspotting.)

What I didn’t mention in my recent Hello is that I nearly always walk with my two dogs. One is a mongrel the other is a German Shorthaired Pointer (a Birddog). I will immediately add that the GSP has never been trained or encouraged to do harm to birds. Instinctively however he would catch them if he could.

Please bear with me here and try and keep calm you’ll see where my thread is leading.
The only time he has ever caught a bird (a duck) occurred a few years ago. During heavy rain, by a local pond, he caught a waterlogged duck and shook it vigorously. It lay there on the ground with it’s head cranked to one side. I grabbed my dog (Bracken) and showed him the duck and smacked him round the face and berated him severely. I looked at the duck lying in such a sorry state on the ground while Bracken started to walk away. Then in the blink of an eye the duck looked up and made a dash for water and safety. How do you describe a dog looking gobsmacked (Foxy and Roadrunner live). I tend now not to take Bracken near waterfowl.

My question for the forum is:- Is there a place for dogs in Birding. I would miss them if they weren’t there and the tree birds don’t seem to bother. I don’t see a mass exodus when the dogs are around. My wife is getting interested but doesn’t think that the dogs being around is very apt. I would appreciate your views. Do you take your dogs with you. Do birders generally become anti-dog.

Regards

Roger S

 

[KC Foggin]

Hi Roger!

Do birders generally become anti-dog? Not in this camp. I probably love my dog more than any human I know. Well almost any human Will I take him birding with me? NOT. I would be too distracted keeping an eye on what he was doing to pay enough serious attention to the birds at hand. I have watched my dog lay on the back deck with the birds feeding 3 feet over him. He'll occasionally glance up and watch but is not concerned with them in the least. Nor do they seem concerned with him. Now squirrels are a whole other ball game.

 

[Adey Baker]

The garden birds allow my dog a much closer approach than they would me.

If you keep a dog calm and under control when out then they cause no more disturbance than you do yourself.

However, letting your dog go sniffing through undergrowth, reedbeds, etc., in the breeding season is another matter entirely and should be discouraged strongly.

I mentioned some time back in another thread how a woman feeds the birds regularly in my local woods. She always has a couple of dogs with her and has seen a Nuthatch actually perch on one of the dogs whilst waiting for her to put down the food!

 

[Jos Stratford]

Absolutely agree with above threads - would say depends on the dog whether it's worth taking birding with you ...obviously a dog tearing round chasing off any living thing is going to not only disturb the birds unacceptably but also mean you will see nothing more than a few fleeting tails! The majority of dogs I see out and about however do not fall into this camp and I would be happy to go birding with them (and this speaking as a non-dog owner).

One tale about a dog worthy of mention though refers to a pointer I was had happen to share time in the field - we were ringing wader chicks and this mutt would go off wandering round the field then stand sentinal over a chick, tail out, nose poiting to the chick. Very useful addition to our team and, of course, it was trained never to touch, let alone hurt, the birds. One time it found us a Short-eared Owl too and several grouse. SO, yes, dogs do have their place and I think dog-owners would know if theirs is likely to add or distract from a good birding day.

 

[John N]

When I take our two dogs a walk I also take my binoculars.The dogs never bother the birds and have been taught from puppies not to chase the ducks on the local park. As KC said "the Squirrels are a different matter". However when I go Birding the dogs always stay at home.

 

[Andy Ledger]

I have a dog, which is about as much of a danger to birds as I am. She never chases rabbits, even when they are in plain view, and won't even fetch a stick if you throw it for her. But I never take her birding, because she won't get any exercise if I'm standing around looking at/for birds, and if any other dogwalkers come past, the resulting kerfuffle is going to scare anything off that might be nearby. I usually take a pair of bins, just in case, but I use them more to keep track of the dog in the long grass. I'd like to say that she's come in useful by flushing out a rare vagrant warbler, but really she's as much use as a chocolate teapot!

 

[mountain man]

At the risk of being strung up, I don't like dogs. I also know many other people that don't like dogs.

Whilst I have no objection to them being walked on leads or let loose spacious open areas, will all dog owners please note that not everyone likes having dogs bounding up to them and jumping all over them as happens far too often. I hate it.

This year whilst birding in Devon, a big stupid dog came charging over, straight into the ditch where I was watching a Dusky Warbler, then began barking at me, before finally trying to jump up me covered in mud and cr*p. I shouted to the owner to get rid of it and she just laughed.

NOT FUNNY.

And dog owners be warned: if your dog gets aggressive and has a go at me (as once happened at a Long-eared Owl site in Stoke on Trent), and you simply stand there and say the usual crap that many of you do

"Oh he's friendly, he won't hurt you"

I will have no hesitation in giving it a kick in the face. I've done it before and I'll do it again. I'm not getting bitten just because you can't be arsed to keep it under control. Sorry, but that's how I feel.

Tom.

 

[Bruce B]

Tom - I agree that dog owners should respect that not everyone is a dog person. I have two dogs myself and I don't let them jump on other people, especially strangers.

As far as dogs and birds, the dumb one likes to chase the doves off the driveway but he could never catch a bird and wouldn't know what to do if he did. Any bird could probably kick his butt LOL. Several broods of baby mockingbirds have been raised in our yard and the dogs didn't bother them at all. The female was interested in them but she didn't try to hurt them. They stay inside a lot though and they are mostly supervised outside (in a fenced yard). The mockingbird parents did dive on the male dog whenever he was near the nest and he always ran off not knowing what was going on. It was kinda funny actually. I don't think I would take them out birding somewhere but that's mainly because they would run all over the place making a lot of noise and what not.

Bruce

 

[mountain man]

Tom - I agree that dog owners should respect that not everyone is a dog person. I have two dogs myself and I don't let them jump on other people, especially strangers.

If only everyone was like you, Bruce! I like to stroke a dog when someone comes past me on a path with it on a lead, and I find nothing problematic with them charging around big open fields chasing sticks.

I guess I have problems with certain dog owners than I do with dogs.

Tom.

 

[Bruce B]

If only everyone was like you, Bruce!

If only o

 

[John N]

If only everyone was like you, Bruce! I like to stroke a dog when someone comes past me on a path with it on a lead, and I find nothing problematic with them charging around big open fields chasing sticks.

I guess I have problems with certain dog owners than I do with dogs.

Tom.[/QUOTE

Tom. I think dog owners have got to realise that not everybody likes to be surrounded by bounding, barking dogs.Our two dogs were kept on a lead in public until they had gone passed that boisterous puppy stage. I don't really think there are any bad dogs, just bad owners. Like you, I have problems with some owners. John.

 

[Cuckoo-shrike]

It's not the dogs who are to blame for their bad behaviour, but the owners who train them, or rather, don't.
When my beautiful and exceptionally well-behaved mongrel, Penny, was alive, she always came out birding with me. In fact, she got me out birding on many wet and unpromising-looking days when I wouldn't have bothered, but she always had at least two walkies a day. On one miserable early March morning when I could have happily stayed by the fire, her morning constitutional led directly to me finding a Ross's Gull on the local beach.
She was in on some of my most exciting birding moments and I still miss her terribly.
Andy

 

[bill lord]

My dog goes birding with me wherever possible, that way we both get exercised, and if I stop to look at a bird she lies down by the side of me with that put upon look on her face. But the problem comes when you arrive at some places on a hot summers day and there is no shaded parking area and the place you are visiting is not prepared to accept dogs. In these instances the only alternative is to move on to somewhere more amenable. Minsmere has a small area where you can park with a dog if you ask, Leighton Moss has a shady area but if someone gets there first tough, but at Leighton there is a public hide with public access where you can take a dog. Many reserves though are totally unfriendly towards dogs having no shady parking and refusing access to dogs.

 

[rothur]

Hello Birders

Thank you for your comments and advice.

Regards

Roger S