How do you handle your dog's hunting interests? [View All]

[undeterred]

I'm not a hunter but I've got a year old Aussie mix who is interested in chasing or swimming after every living thing. He's quite friendly and gets along well with dogs and humans.

He caught a mouse in an open field and played with it- then it got away after a few minutes. He had actually picked it up in his mouth a couple of times and tossed it while he was 'playing' with it.

This morning he caught a bird at the dog park- and a rather large one. I was surprised and had no idea what to do- but he set it down after about 10 seconds and it flew away, apparently unharmed.

There are mama ducks with babies on the lake and he swam out after them yesterday... they got away from him but of course mama wasn't too happy about it. I called him back when I saw what he was doing but he kept going until he was tired. He's an amazing swimmer.

Other than that he is constantly looking for rabbits, and squirrels. Usually he is on the leash when he sees them and doesn't have the opportunity, but I am pretty sure he could catch the babies without too much effort. I don't know what he would do if he caught one.

I've never had a dog that actually had the speed and skill to actually catch anything. I don't want him to get hurt and I would prefer that he didn't hurt other animals. BUT, he is an animal so I just am not sure what to do when he is so prey-focused.



What do I do if he brings me something? So far he's only brought me 3-4 carp that were already dead but and he was quite proud of it. I didn't really show gratitude!