Cat killing

[Saul]

A bad afternoon. Get the dogs out of the boot in my front garden, my 4 yr old breaks the boot "wait til released" hares across the lawn grabs a cat by the small of the back and does its thing. Ignores "leave it", had to pry the poor cat out her mouth but her back was broken so had to put it out of its misery. It was a fairly scruffy coated cat with some baldy bits and with no collar, and I'm sorry to say I felt relieved at not having to face someone whos beloved pet had been killed by my dog. Dog has no previous exposure to cats, needless to say we've not trained "they are not on the menu". There have been a few squirrel kills, and they are shaken til dead then retrieved. I don't know what I am asking really, never really occurred to me I might have to train "don't view cats as quarry", but now have to. This time was in my garden, next time unless I make the rules clear might be elsewhere. 4 year old GSP , father German import largely Birkenwald lines, bone headed hunter. Earlier this afternoon gave me a sharp stop to flush on a hen pheasant, but then we trained that (with great difficulty)

[allan450]

My gsp is a cat killer with massive drive he wont stop it.well to be honest its very seldom he comes incontact with one.on an other note he got the jump on a fox one day killed him to.The best when he had a red hind pinned.had to talk to him about that lol.

[Judy]

My gsp is a cat killer with massive drive he wont stop it.well to be honest its very seldom he comes in contact with one.

Is that because there aren't any left near you?

I've known a couple of GSP cat killers, they seem to be quite good at it. One of my Flatcoats tried to retrieve a large fluffy while Persian cat to me but, luckily released on command, I didn't fancy taking that off her.

[countrryboy]

A lot of GWP tend to be hard wired into hating cats too.
Not sure if still the case but in the past a GWP had to kill a cat as 1 of the working tests before breeding with them in Germany as a test for 'hardness''
With the GWP's the more german orientated lines do tend to be harder than more UK/danish bred lines

[allan450]

The harder the better a friend of mine got GWP a novice at the time.He got some land when he had a donkey by the neck.A massive dog.

[trekmoor]

GSP's and GWHP's are quite often keen cat killers. They were bred to tackle vermin originally and the last I heard the Germans are still conducting tests in which GWHP's are required to kill a cat in front of judges. If they fail to tackle the cat enthusiastically then they do not pass the test to become D.D.'s (Draathars ?) The contestants are, I'm told, required to supply their own cats for the test .
A D.D is always a GWHP but a GWHP is not a D.D. unless it has passed a few fairly tough tests.

I know a few keepers who highly value the cat killing, fox killing abilities of these breeds plus they are often very good dogs with which to hunt deer.

Personally, I have always avoided these "lines" of dogs and none of the four GSP's I owned ever killed or even chased a cat . I was always a bit worried that a dog that would kill cats might also kill birds although I know this is not always the case .

Wullie

[Naj]

The downside of owning a breed originally bred and tested for sharpness. As I understand it the sharpness tests were banned in the 50s but you can still get a certificate if your dog kills a fox/cat when out working and it is witnessed. I've had problems with a dog who has an imported Birkenwald grand sire, and it came out of the blue at two years of age and after the dog had been brought up with a cat for the first 6 months. Doesn't show up in all GSPs and as Wullie says, breeding probably has a lot to do with that, but a difficult thing to manage when it does.

Naj

[Cambusvale]

My take on the GSP I have owned that were partial to Cats or chasing them in my case as I never had one kill one due to training the stop. What I did notice the ones that were partial to Cat chasing were good on Roe as well. I have not had any Birkenwald breeding in any of my past dogs, I prefer to give them a miss for other reasons watching them as they never floated my boat along with lots of other imports I have seen. We got plenty of shite bred here without importing it.

[Springfield Pointers]

GSP's are bred to kill vermin. They will kill cats if they aren't conditioned to them.

[westcountry]

A cat killer is no different to a sheep chaser,it is chasing domestic stock. Wouldnt want to eat any bird retrieved by a cat killer.