Small hunting dogs

[jigginjim]

What is the smallest dog anybody has used for hunting? I have been kidding my wife, I'm going to train her little puppy into hunting. It's a croos between a Rat Terrier / Cavilear Terrier.

Cute little dog, 9 weeks old, Grown up it's to be around 20lbs. Could you see this little dog dragging a goose back?

[Caleb S]

Growing up the neighbors had a rat terrier (20-25lbs) and that little dog was not afraid of much. Not sure if they ever tried retrieving with it though. One time that dog started going crazy at the bank next to the river while out varmint hunting. It went into a hole and came back out dragging a very unhappy raccoon. It actually pulled 2 of them out of there.

[erikh45]

I have seen terriers used to track wounded deer. I guess they have a pretty good game drive and nose. You could train it to retrieve squirrels that you shoot, or to track your children. That is a fun game to play with dogs, and it helps when your kid wanders out of the yard and you need to find the kid before your wife comes outside.

[Big Dave2]

We had Rat Terriers all the while I was growing up. These dogs are high strung but smart as a whip. The ones we had were natural hunters. At least for hunting critters like mice, rats, chipmunks, snakes and anything else they could get their paws on! We had one particular dog named Spike who was a hunting fool. Every day Spike would bring his latest prey up and deposit it on our front step of the farm house to show off what he had done.

I had a Rat Terrier myself at one time that had a nose that was almost unbelievable. You could hide its rubber ball anywhere in the house when he wasn't looking and say "find the ball" and in no time this dog would find the ball. Even if I hid it inside cupboard doors and such.

As far as size goes, I don't think my Brittany is very much bigger than your dog. She is kind of small for her breed.

If you decide to work with this dog please post the results. I would be personally very interested in the outcome.

[caseymcq]

Seeing as how the goose will probably weigh as much as the dog that might be a bit of a challenge for the little shaver. I would be interesting to see if it works out though.

[Powerstroke]

I know some have used field bred cocker spaniels and they usually range from 20-30lbs.

[caseymcq]

Those must be some little brutes! Maybe that is where they got that old saying, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

[jigginjim]

If i can just her bring a grouse or pheasant back would great.

[SDbowhunter]

A co-worker of mine takes his Yorky out with him pheasant hunting. She wont retrieve a bird but will point, chase, and round up wounded birds until one of the big dogs get it.

[DuckDog]

When I was in Texas hunting pigs/boars I found a group that used a Yorky/terrier mix to track wounded hogs. They were small enough not to get caught by the pig; but would bark to let the hunter know where it was at.

Once the hog was put down those lil' dogs would go crazy (kinda like "how tough are you now you ugly pig:

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I have an aussie terrier, don't wanna brag but she is smart. She has figured out where this den (I don't know if they den or what, but seems like a mother and 2 babies) of rabbits are and will go and check them out each time I bring her out. I think the rabbits tried to move around to the other side of the house she would never go to, but the other night she went to their den, then a minute later, nose to the ground to the other side, next thing here comes 2 rabbits. I really think she is looking to play with them, I've never seen her try to injure them at all. But it did make me think that with time she could be trained.

[DP]

After much research, I bought a english cocker from a breeder this spring. I wanted a the smallest decent hunting dog I could find. He's pretty much full grown now at 9 months/35lbs. He loves the water, was doing water retrieves as a pup, and gun trained him on upland birds this fall. He's been a good house dog and minds very well, great with kids and other pets. The only negative is his coat is fairly high maintenance, (took an hour after one trip grouse hunting to brush all the burrs out of him).

[JayinMN]

Take a look at what jack russel terriers, patterdale terriers or jagd terriers hunt. They are used on coon, badger, opossum, fox, ground hogs and even wild boar. They are some tough little dogs weighing in at only 10-15 pounds.

[quijibo]

I have taken my Basenji out hunting a few times. Once she figured out that there were birds she did a good job of flushing.It didn't bother her at all that they were almost as big as she was. She also loves to kill things, she would pick up a wounded bird, break it's neck and throw it 10' in the air. The only problem I had was that she would take off with the birds.

One of the guys at Thorne bros taught his wifes pit bull to hunt Pheasants, it did pretty good too.

[JConrad]

We had several field bred cocker spaniels at our traing facility this past summer. The are very similiar to field bred springers with the desire and ability to hunt. They are just a smaller breed. I was very impressed with their ability in the field. The key is they must be field cockers and not show cockers. Really a big big difference! Check them out!