# My puppy killed a pigeon!!!



## Kindell (Feb 7, 2006)

My husband and I just had the worst scare ever. We live in a duplex, on the top floor so we have a small balcony off the back of our house, with a long set of stairs to our fenced yard. My husband opened the backdoor to let Maple out and noticed a pigeon fly off our balcony. We have never had pigeons on our landing... so we were both kind of shocked and laughing at the crazy pigeon. He watched it fly around the corner of the house so Maple went about her business, down the stairs, and onto the grass. Then she looked out to the driveway, and apparantely the pigeon had landed. Miss Maple barreled into the gate, pushed it open, and grabbed the pigeon... by the neck! I heard my husband yell, so I went racing out the door... and I honestly blacked out as I ran along the side of the house frantically chasing my puppy. I'm assuming this is when my adrenaline kicked in, because my husband said I was running like a madwoman, and yelling for Maple to stop. She kept looking back at me with this pigeon in her mouth... with this wild look in her eyes like there's no way you're taking this bird from me lady! I finally cornered her in someone's yard and when I yelled leave it! she dropped the bird... the bird was still alive, well sort of. It didn't appear she broke the skin... but the bird was missing alot of feathers. I've now bungee corded the gate closed, as we had obviously underestimated the strength of our very docile, calm puppy. I went back a few minutes later to check on the bird, and it's quite obviously dead. I guess you can say I'm in such shock! She's definitely a golden... but i'm not so sure about the retriever part yet! I am just so thankful that she didn't go racing out to the road, although we do live in a quiet low traffic area. And then she did eventually stop, after 4 houses. And I partially feel like a bad pet owner... even though it was out of my control. I guess we just learned the hard way. I think she knows she did something wrong because she's cuddled up in the corner and acting quite broken. Poor little girl... she was only doing what her instincts told her.


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## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

I imagine, I would probably freaked a bit too...
Not that long ago Kia (our dog) caught a squirrel. She got to her right in the middle of the park field and this squirrel tried to get away, but eventually figured that there is nowhere to run, so it stopped, waiting to see what Kia would do. 
Kia got like inch from her face and they were looking at each other for like 15 seconds, I swear, then Kia licked her face and that was it. She came back to me, and at that point I was really stunned.
I imagine our second Golden Lila, would not act like that at all... Kia is just way too good...


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## heidi_pooh (Feb 9, 2006)

Hey, don't worry about it. The last thing our country needs is more pigeons. I personally hate pigeons so if it were my dog, I would be rewarding him right now. I know that sounds so evil, but I have had many bad experiences with those stupid birds. Congrats on the kill Maple.


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

many would have done the same.. anyhow the good ones.. i love seeing birdiness like that in em... all she did was hold it.. hard, yes.. but held it.. its in her genes... go get the bird..


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## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

Well you may be right about pigeons... even word "pigeon" - English slang referring to an uneducated, naive, or unsophisticated stupid person would sudgest that... but not all pigeons are stupid... Doves and pigeons can be trained and often are utilized in tricks and animal acts by magicians and showmen, who price these birds very high...
So imagine your dog would get to one of these birds and you now owe someone couple thousand dollars 
Anyhow... haha


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## Baileysmom (Aug 5, 2006)

I would have freaked too! How old is your puppy? I can already see out interested my 11 week old puppy is in birds!


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## Kindell (Feb 7, 2006)

Well we are starting to feel better about Maple's kill. I agree with you Greg... She absolutely did what her instincts told her to do. I suppose she was rather gentle with the bird... other than shocking it to death. We went to pick it up and put it in a box to dispose of it... and my husband said that she was holding it by it's back, not the neck. He said it's neck didn't look broken. Perhaps it was a lame pigeon... and Maple just gave it a quick heart attack to help ends it's journey!!! I agree... pigeon's are dirty birds! The lady a couple houses down feeds the stupid things every morning... that's why they hang around the neighborhood. We've joked many times about getting a BBgun and putting an end to the pigeon population - I suppose Maple read our minds!


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## MILLIESMOM (Aug 13, 2006)

Those birds are very fragile and practically will drop dead from fright she was just chasing the funny flying toy.


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## goldencrazy (Dec 15, 2005)

I have no problem with Maple killing a pigeon. GO MAPLE! I have histoplasmosis from pigeon droppings that were in an old horse barn I helped clean out. Lucky for me it has calcified, but for a while the doctors thought I had lung cancer, which scared the heck out of me until an MRI proved that it wasn't cancer after all. I'm with Heidi - give the dog a bone!


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

heidi_pooh said:


> Hey, don't worry about it. The last thing our country needs is more pigeons. I personally hate pigeons so if it were my dog, I would be rewarding him right now. I know that sounds so evil, but I have had many bad experiences with those stupid birds. Congrats on the kill Maple.


I've always liked pigeons. I've raised them two different times....once when I was around 12 years old, my dad and I raised them for fun......even messed around a little with racing them.

Then, probably about 15 years ago, I raised about 50 of them out on my in-laws' farm....

I know a lot of people don't like them, and wild pigeons have a reputation for being dirty, diseased birds.


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

Kindell said:


> ......She kept looking back at me with this pigeon in her mouth... with this wild look in her eyes like there's no way you're taking this bird from me lady! I finally cornered her in someone's yard and when I yelled leave it! she dropped the bird... the bird was still alive, well sort of. .....



No way Lucky would have dropped that bird. Anything alive or dead and rotten is pried out of steel clampped jaws. Good dog Maple. Good Dog..


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## Goldndust (Jul 30, 2005)

She very much done what her instincts told her, but those very instincts can kill if a pup isn't trained and such. She did follow her calling, but watch her closely since she did not obey commands, or too young to know them yet. (Not sure how old she is). 

If it moves, it's fair game to many of them. I'm glad she's ok, and nothing bad happened, I'm sure it scared you all too no end.


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