# The art of getting a dead rabbit from a Vizsla puppy



## Claire (May 21, 2012)

So Liesel is 6 months, and I'm home in the Shetland Isles with her for Easter.
Yesterday was perfect, our first day back, she is absolutely loving the freedom of running around in the fields and although I'm still intending to practise lead work with her, there is zero need for it as there's no traffic anywhere near the house.
But today we saw 2 dead rabbits (the only house near us owns a cat and I think it's been on a killing spree) and Liesel got hold of one of them. I said NO, then walked away quickly - she followed, as I knew she would, but obviously wouldn't let me near her. I got back to the house, she followed me in and I grabbed her collar and sat saying 'DROP IT' and waiting for her to do that... turns out a dead rabbit is the most tempting thing she's ever come across, because she absolutely refused, so we just sat there for a while with me holding her, kind of unsure what to do... I didn't want to have to prise the half-decomposed rabbit from her mouth, but eventually I had to just open her jaws from the side and take the rabbit away.

It probably comes alongside her fast-eating problem, which is still an issue - though this is probably my fault, I've worked on all her other issues in great detail but have let this one slide a bit. Last night my dad looked after her and said she was eating really fast so he put his hand down to 'get her to slow down' (I could've told him that wasn't going to work) and she inhaled the rest of it, twice as fast.

Any more suggestions for getting her to trust me more near her food/high value treats/rabbits would be much appreciated. At the moment when she eats her dinner I try to just sit on the floor nearby, not so close that she worries, quite often not even facing her full-on... but I haven't done this enough to know if it's working. My fault, again.


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)




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## River (Sep 24, 2012)

There is no stopping her now!

At least there are no rabbits in Cardiff s parks.

Don't tell her off, try calling her to you, whistle pip, pip, pip, whatever you use, signal her to sit and the put your hand down to take the rabbit, and like you did if she won't give push you fingers in to the sides of her mouth to give to you, praise her.

If its Mankie, try a poop bag on your hand first.

What do you feed, dry raw.?

Do you use raised bowls, our eat fast, they eat better in this position, stays down, I make them rest afterwards when I remember.

Trying adding a small amount of kibble to bowl, and keep adding as she's eating, rather than taking away and giving back. You can always do that one once she's stopped rushing.

Or if you feed wings or meaty bones feed by hand.

I get ours to wait, sit and start them off with a go on then command , and then come back and add the water bowl after as they are eating.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

As nasty as the dead rabbit was to you, it was pure gold to her. When she went to come inside and you took hold of her collar, I would have praised her. Good girl and a rub, before asking her to give.
My Cash brought me a rotten cat head when he was young. Mind you the last thing I would ever want in my hand is the cat head, but he came to heel position.
He was fully expecting me to say Give and get praise.
That's exactly what I did. Then I had my daughter get the dogs sidetracked so I could get rid of the cat head. If I had thrown it, it would have been retrieved back to me.


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)

Aha, I've heard of those raised bowls, my auntie uses them for her Weim and GSP... I'll look into them, she eats out of a bowl just on the floor at the moment. I had a slow-feed bowl for a while but it's in Cardiff, I stopped using it when her eating seemed to improve.
I feed dry, Arden - usually mixed in with something nice like a bit of plain chicken or tripe because she's not too fussed about it if it's just on its own. Having said that, now that I'm home for Easter she's on plain chicken and rice, just temporarily because it's easier than getting dry food sent up here just for 10 days. The fast eating actually first STARTED when she was about 10 weeks old and I temporarily put her on chicken and rice because she had an upset stomach - she seemed to love the chicken and rice so much she just inhaled it, and started caring much more when I approached her.

As for something like the rabbit, she has a great recall on whistle but I bet it'd be challenged if she had a rabbit in her mouth - she'd come close to me, I'm sure, but never close enough for me to grab her. She's very quick!

P.S. She sure is challenging today, I guess this is terrible teens at last... Absolutely constantly looking for mischief, usually she's pretty good after she's had her morning walk... I'm finding it hard to eat my lunch as she won't take 'no' for an answer and keeps trying to take it off me...
And WOOPS that was a close one, she just got the lid off a tub of GLITTER... luckily I was quick ehough to take it off her before any spilled, that could have been very messy... She's acting like a 10 week old puppy again...


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)

Wow, a cat head... And I thought a mangled rabbit was bad!!

That's really good advice, for some reason it didn't even occur to me to praise her when I got hold of her, but it makes perfect sense - if she knows I don't want her to have it, of course she's going to run away from me...
I'll definitely try that next time. Wish I could practise with her tennis ball (she's getting much better at giving that back to me) but she dropped it down a rabbit hole today...


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

LOL!! ;D Hang in there, Claire!


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## River (Sep 24, 2012)

Forgot to say praise!


We have booked the csi course for the end of sept, get in touch with mrs jones if you want to attend.


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)

River - Yeah I think the date that would work best for me is end of September, if I decide to go... problem is, me and my boyfriend are moving in together at the end of July - in Edinburgh!
I'm still hoping to visit Cardiff regularly though, so this might be a perfect opportunity to do that, if I can fit it in amongst work commitments etc.

And thanks mswhipple, she's really trying my patience today!!


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)

In fact, here are some of the things she has managed to get hold of today...

A pen, a pencil, my lip balm (twice), a slipper, glitter, a rabbit, a rabbit SPINE (which I think she ate),
a bunch of stuff from the kitchen counters (must be at least 5 times today I've caught her at that), glue, some kind of spray can from the kitchen, a jar of paintbrushes and several teddy bears - and I'm not sure where she got them, she just keeps bringing them through from somewhere.
Oh and a pack of sanitary towels. And my shoe, and two of my dad's boots.

I guess she's used to being in a (relatively) dog-proof household, which this is definitely not.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

The teenage stage really keeps you on your toes.
I remember it well.


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)

I think I will have to keep reminding myself it's just a phase!!
She got hold of her SECOND dead rabbit this afternoon... wonderful.
I tried being full of praise, and being all inviting with her, using treats etc but still couldn't catch her - and considering her whistle recall is usually great, it was quite annoying... I guess even our one experience this morning stuck in her mind! Ended up getting my dad to help me catch her, then he took it from her with a bit too much force, in my opinion. It's just gonna make it MORE difficult next time, most likely.
As always, I would've been better off doing it myself... but other people always think they know best.


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## DougAndKate (Sep 16, 2011)

This is timely, as I got a call from my wife yesterday afternoon while I was at work. She had just gotten home and let Elroy out to do his business, and a groundhog tried to make it across our yard, but Elroy caught him and shook him silly. I always wondered what would happen if he ever did catch a squirrel or rabbit, I thought it would be impossible to ever get it away from him, I figured he would probably swallow it whole! Well, she called him and he came to the door with his prize ready to bring it in the house. Eventually he did drop it, smelled every inch of it for a few minutes, and went back to my wife to get his treat! And I got to clean a dead groundhog out of my yard when I got home from work!


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)

Haha, that's great! Clearly I need to work on getting her to trust me not to just grab it off her - we're already practising this with treats, I'll call her over while we're outside while she's holding the ball or something, and I'll hold her collar just for a few seconds then let her go... I'm hoping stuff like this will gradually help. Will practise taking everything off her from now on.


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## KB87 (Jan 30, 2012)

Our boy has 2 modes: his playing/you can't get this from me mode and his here it is/I'm in trouble mode.

For some reason he has quite an obsession with hangers and will race into the basement to steal them before I get down there. At first he starts to play while running around with it in his mouth playing keep away. As I get irritated I just have to raise my voice a bit, point in front of me and tell him to come here and he's at my feet with whatever he shouldn't have giving it to me. Typically if he finds something he shouldn't have he will actually bring it to us and almost tattle on himself. If we find him with something he shouldn't have he puts his tail down and brings it to us almost immediately.

Not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that our boy punishes himself by tattling or that he puts his tail down and stops when he's caught doing something bad, but it definitely does make it easier to get things away from him. Not sure what he would do with a live animal, however. I think he would try to play with it and give it up when he got in trouble. This whole thread makes me curious now...


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)

Yes I think part of the problem was that she'd never seen a rabbit before, alive or dead, so she was fascinated by the smell etc. She just wanted to lie down and chew it... something I was not too happy about!
I did find myself shouting at her, something I really try not to do in general, but it didn't change her 'you can't catch me!' mode in the slightest - in fact she didn't look remotely bothered. Some 'soft' dog I've got - nothing fazes her!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

It maybe time to put her on a check cord. You will have a lot more control when you need it.


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)

Yeah that thought occurred to me today when I could see her heading (as if in slow motion) towards the second dead rabbit... I don't have it with me in Shetland but maybe I can find a cheap one here and use that temporarily.


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## Claire (May 21, 2012)

That's massively helpful, thanks so much - this is the kind of thing I've always wanted to do with her, and we've done some basic obedience and she's quite good at 'wait' but this would definitely take it to the next level, and I'm sure she's capable of it.
Will start doing it straight away with her meal tonight, thanks!


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## Big Rick (Apr 14, 2009)

After 3+ years of trying to catch a squirrel that has come down out of the oak tree in our backyard, Dexter finally did it last week. I saw him go running out there, but he does that a dozen times a day (or more). Soon I saw a squirrel go flying up into the air then back down again. When I got outside Dex had the now dead squirrel and was chewing on it. I was proud of him for finally catching it, but I didn't want him to eat it so I grabbed it by the tail and tried to take it from him. He was NOT having any of that so I continued to pull on the tail and tell him to leave it. He finally relented and let go. I tossed the squirrel over the fence and into the field. I felt terrible about taking it from him after he worked so long to get it but was reluctant to allow him to eat it. I was so proud of him because during the whole time I was pulling on the squirrel and trying to pry his jaws open he didn't growl or raise his lip or show any signs of aggression. He's such a great dog. Oh, yeah, Scarlet stood by his side the whole time waiting for him to share. Sorry, Scarlet, not this time.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

I guess I'm to much of a hunter at heart. I would have taken the opportunity to use the squirrel as a training tool.
Pat and praised him, removed the squirrel from his mouth.
Then tossed it for him to retrieve. Let him do it a couple of times and then let the other dog do it.


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## dmak (Jul 25, 2012)

*Re: Re: The art of getting a dead rabbit from a Vizsla puppy*



TexasRed said:


> I guess I'm to much of a hunter at heart. I would have taken the opportunity to use the squirrel as a training tool.
> Pat and praised him, removed the squirrel from his mouth.
> Then tossed it for him to retrieve. Let him do it a couple of times and then let the other dog do it.


Funny you say that. One of the training tools I've used for a while is an old **** skin cap from my childhood, the body is made of rabbit fur and there is a **** tail attached. I'll drag, hang and hide it for Kauzy to sniff out


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## Big Rick (Apr 14, 2009)

I'm not a hunter. I know I'm not using these guys to their full potential, but they are still right up at the top of the list of best dogs we've ever had. We love them.


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