To our knowledge, only two breeds of dog in the world, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever and the Dutch Kooikerhondje, are “tollers,” or dogs used for “decoy” purposes.  The word “toll” comes from the Middle English word, “tollen,” meaning to entice, but that’s only part of a tolling dog’s job because one the bird is shot, these dogs also retrieve them.

Hunting with a Toller involves a simple game of deception that mimics how a fox does it. A pair of fox will split up, one hiding in a bush, the other cavorting at the water’s edge, luring and distracting swimming ducks, drawing them ever closer, until fox number one can pounce and nab dinner. Similarly, a hunter (human) hides himself in a duck blind, then throws out a ball or stick for his dog to retrieve. As the Toller cavorts near the blind, ducks on the water are attracted to the dog’s crazy-like-a-fox antics. A well-trained Toller knows to ignore the birds on the water and to focus on the task of playing and retrieving. Occasionally, the dog will splash in the water or disappear into the blind, then suddenly reappear and start all over again. The dog draws in the curious birds, and once they are close enough, the hunter stands up sending the birds scattering into flight, and fires. The dog, all business now, retrieves the ducks.

Image from Wikicommons

The Kooikerhondje‘s method is a bit different. Sixteenth century Dutch hunters called “Kooikers” lured the ducks into traps called “kooien” by having their dog appear between a gap in the screens. Curious ducks approached. The dog would then appears at the next gap further along the pipe, and so on until the ducks were trapped at the end of the pipe.  The dogs used by the Kooiker for this kind of hunting technique were referred to as the ‘Kooiker’s hondjes’ (literally: Kooiker’s dogs), and over time, the dogs were simply called Kooikerhondje.