To be honest Rips, NO Gundog should harm an animal, its not what they are about.

Somebody forgot to tell mine that then. Small furries = lunch.

Hmmm, I don't agree entirely with that. Although gundogs shouldn't harm an animal, it is in their nature to want to chase/flush them. With a prey animal in a confined space this could result in accidental harm as the dogs instinct takes over. Isla is obsessed with all things small and furry, as have all our Spaniels in the past.

But like I said, I'm not concerened about Isla harming the animal, just the quality of life she'll have having a small furry about.

Well take the Labrador then. "should display no signs of aggression, nor undue shyness" as a working breed (originally) do we take this just to mean humans? Yes a Gundog should flush, no a Gundog shouldnt chase. My opinion only of course.

Well I have high prey drive dogs, a lurcher and a longdog, who live with a house rabbit and two chinchillas in a flat!! And everything gets on well, the rabbit actually adores the dog that came from working stock, and the dog loves him back, so as long as you are responsible I think that you should be ok

That's great in theory, but unfortunately my Gundogs can't read, so for them, the breed standard kinda goes out of the window!

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. A gundogs drive to flush comes from the basic instinct to chase, catch and kill prey. A gundog wants to harm instinctively, initially, but it's the hours of endless training that mould the dog into a successful hunting companion for it's owner imo. A lot of a gundogs training revolves around steadying them up - to prevent them from chasing what they flush. Drizzle my mates Spin is obsessed with everything furry and feathery and will chase if given the chance, but that's why his owner is spending every week with a top field trialer. To train him and turn him into a steady working gundog.

Very interesting thanks for that. Do you work your dogs, just out of interest?

Agaisn't motorbikes lol, but no unfornatly I don't, I'm hoping to get them into Lure coursing, but we have had a few incidences where they have chased and caught animals on walks, including rabbits, and the female has managed to kill a animal on a walk (my mistake, farmer said to let her off, and neither of us saw the animal) and they are ok with the indoor animals

Its a great shame that Gundogs have turned into such chasers and killers, very sad indeed.

Id be mortified if I had a Labrador that wanted to kill anything, so against everything they were bred for and very sad.

I don't know a lot about labs, but my mate use to work and breed them, and she says this, she also said that her dogs have to have a 'mouth like butter' so they shouldn't even damage whatever they have should they? So I wouldn't class them as high drive either, just retrievers

I have a Malamute - a breed known for high prey drive and do hear lots of horror stories about them eating other family members for lunch , a Border Collie who is trained to work sheep and a Lab pup

I also have 6 free range chickens (who believe that free range extends to the kitchen and lounge!), a degu, a Beadred Dragon, 3 gerbils and 32 rats, we have no issues at all.
All 3 dogs are nervous of the hens as they are ASBO hens and will steal food from the dogs, Rocky Collie and Dex Lab have zero interest in the small furries, Noobie will lie by their cages and allow them to groom her through the bars and if I have rats out while watching TV she doesn't even bother standing up ...

I think it is a training issue as much as anything else - it would never have crossed my mind that my collie or Lab would be a problem but I think I have struck gold that Noobie is such a small pet angel.