theHunter Classic Forums

Do they spook the flocks? if i send the dog to fetch and he is around collecting the fallen ducks and i am hiding near in my ground blind and a flock passes over, can i still lure the flock or the dog movement scares them away?

If a flock breaks while he is out collecting ducks, they will spook if they see him. Which is quite likely as they have a huge field of view up there.

I can confirm a retrieving dog will spook ducks and geese (but only after they "break" from the main flock, passing flocks are essentially animations until they break to land and can't be spooked).

This leads me to a related question, do the camo dog vests do anything to reduce this spooking effect? I don't own any of the dog vests myself, but if they help prevent spooking I would probably have to get one. Seems like my dog intentionally fetches the longest plink kills whenever I hear birds incoming only seconds after the fetch command. Since he can't be called off once sent, I'm prettymuch guaranteed to be taking longshots at spooked birds.

xOEDragonx wrote:I can confirm a retrieving dog will spook ducks and geese (but only after they "break" from the main flock, passing flocks aren't essentially animations until they break to land and can't be spooked).

This leads me to a related question, do the camo dog vests do anything to reduce this spooking effect? I don't own any of the dog vests myself, but if they help prevent spooking I would probably have to get one. Seems like my dog intentionally fetches the longest plink kills whenever I hear birds incoming only seconds after the fetch command. Since he can't be called off once sent, I'm prettymuch guaranteed to be taking longshots at spooked birds.

I assume you meant are. And as for the camo vest's I have the same question.

walt133 wrote:I assume you meant are. And as for the camo vest's I have the same question.

Indeed I did. I've corrected this now. Thank you!

Thanks for the answers, i started to do waterfowling with ducks since the Valentine sales, (you catch me EW xD) and the Retriever look like a very interesting next buy since sometimes i miss ducks fallen and Doc comes fast to shame me, by the way, about the related question about camo vest.

https://www.thehunter.com/#store/item/425
That says Visual Reduction: Excellent vs. all species. I will assume that includes ducks.

I don't own the camo vest but tested them with friend that does and can say they don't work just for looks

Opinions vary, but if you're expecting the vests to be a cloak of invisibility, they're not of course. I think they do work, meaning they give you a few more seconds to get the dog either down, or into the blind without spooking the birds after they've broken. And sometimes that few more seconds can make the difference between a spooked flock and one that continues to land.

I got the dog in the sales offer, and for anyone thinking about buy a retriever now its the time, they are wonderful, i had a lot of doubts because i have the scent dog and his training was a torture, but the retriever its like a dog from another dimension, its so simple and fast to train and so useful from the day one, so for other people like me that was disappointed for the scent dog, but like to hunt small game, pheasants or waterfowling a lot, then this dog really worth it, and its on discount at this moment.

You would think the camo dog backpack would offer some camo too but its the same price as the orange and says nothing about it so I guess not.