hadnt thought of it like that ryan
and ted he did show us a new trait last night he is a good mouser to,, the daughter and her family is here and they spotted a mouse in there room so we brought out the cat and the dog and the dog beat the cat to it.. didnt eat it just killed it and dropped in frnt of me.. good doggie
Warning, tails of mice smeared in peanut butter being consumed entire ahead. If such a thing bothers you skip this one and make a PB&J instead.
Our current dogs have never been mousers and I suspect they never will be. Great at hunting rabbits, quail, and what have you but for some reason mice are just off limits.
Quite a few years back when they were still young and spry I was cleaning out the garage and came upon a next of juvenile mice, just past the crawling stage and a bit before the running stage. Aha I think to myself here is a training exercise waiting to be had. So I collect the mice in a 5 gallon bucket, call the dogs and head out to the wide area in the drive way.
First dog up comes over, picks up the mouse verrrrry carefully and takes him over to the lawn where he sets him down then bumps him with his nose with a "get along there little buddy" sort of look. The other one wouldn't even get close but sort of just stared at them with big eyes.
So I think to myself "what do dogs love"? Well the solution immediately was obvious "peanut butter"; dogs love peanut butter. So I head into the house and grab a saucer with a bit of peanut butter on it and back out to the yard.
Back to the first dog, we have one mouse that having been liberally smeared with peanut butter is pinned down and oh so gently and carefully licked clean. Followed by a repeat of the trip to the lawn and the gently send off. This isn't working out at all.
The second dog "took the bate" as it were (he's the wood chip eater, no surprise here) and gulp gulp gulp down went the mouse with the peanut butter topping. There was a long pause.. realization.. the "how could you!" stare. He wouldn't take anything with peanut butter on it for the next six months without carefully checking to see if there was a mouse hidden underneath it.
I don't think these dogs will ever be mousers.