Puppy to Bird introduction help

[bookum1]

I have two questions.

I introduced my sweet little Chocolate (13 weeks) to her first bird today and I am still trying to figure out how to evaluate it. She retreives very nice and back to me with not a lot of problems with dummies, but I threw the bird out a few feet with her lead and she turned into a completely different dog. She would not let go of it and we struggled and I piched her bottom jaw until it finally came out, but she was putting everything into it. I am not sure she was trying to tear it up, but we ended up ripping the thing in half trying to get it out of her mouth.

Question 1: Is this a bad thing and what should I do if it is?

Question 2: Since she will do just about anything to get at the bird would it be ok to use it to help introduce it to water since we haven't done that yet?

[mharville]

At least she's not feather shy!!!
Since no one else has offered anything....

1.)Most of the young pups I've been around acted that way the first time they were introduced. IMO, I like that. We ask our dogs to do a lot and that prey drive is huge. Of course you don't want her to get in the habit of tearing birds up. At 13 weeks u're prolly a ways away from Force Fetch, but that will help with alot of that.

2.) I'd be wary of introducing a pup to water this time of year, i know when i went for a swim putting out dekes this weekend the water is cold. You don't want the pup to associate water with anything bad. Water needs to be a good place to be.

Sounds to me like ya got a nice active 13 week old pup, keep up the work.

[bookum1]

Thanks for the reply. I was really looking for a response since I was concerned. She is a really good pup, just teething and being a fiend right now. She came from one of the breedings from Blaze Chocolate Thunder and Mississippi Shadow and is part of the Roux heritage so she hopefully has a lot going for her there.

[Dux Be Us]

I let mine chew up wings when he was puppy...mine lost interest in chewing after losing his puppy teeth. Still give him a single layer chew hide sometimes. " Drop it" came along about 9 months...the first year labs are idiots. After a year the breeding starts to show...just keep momma from ringing its neck