Which hunting dog?

[ZEKE/PA]

Oh Boy!!!!
Rabbits? Beagles. Ringnecks? Beagles, Grouse, Beagles.
Home Companion? Beagles
When I was growing up, we ALWAYS had a beagle as a house pet BUT, it was a pet one day and a rabbit machine the next.
Fed ONLY bagged dog food the "pet" was spoiled but not by food inducements.
We lived in an area where numerous upland game species thrived and the beagles produced.
I also trained English Pointers which I truly love for bird hunting.
Classic Bird Hunting over points?
A WELLTRAINED pointing breed.
If filling your game bag is of utmost importance, the beagle is your dog, BUT you must spend time afield with your dog in the off- season , both to toughen the rascal and to intune you of your dogs habits.
Beagles are the Greatest tho I really love English Pointers Too!!!!!
Zeke

[ena1512]

growing up, we always had brittany spaniels. i cannot tell you how many brids they would bring up to the house with them when it was time to come inside. this was just in our suburban backyard too, they would grab the low flying birds from the air sometimes too. it was pretty incredable. one thing with them though is they get separation anxiety fairly bad if you are gone alot, or at least ours did. course, they were house dogs, not outside dogs. We did some hunting with them, but not too much. i will say this though, our boy brittany actually jumped through a screen to get a squirrel that was on a tree. he forgot he was on the second floor though, and fell down and luckily landed on our hot tub hard cover. he was fine though, but as determined as ever to get that squirrel out of the tree. by the way, they are high energy dogs and need to be excercised quite a bit.

As i have gotten older though, my wife and i have chosen to work with beagles. they are great dogs, and have excellent dispositons IMHO. They can be a bit hyper though, so it is best to work with them as much as possible. i like the 15" beagles the best for running game like deer. the 13" is nice for rabbit.

Anyway, many dogs will work for you, and any 2 dogs are better than none, well most of the time. so try out a couple pups.

[backfromthefuture]

I have a beagle and I use him for all varmints and duck and dove.

BFF

[shureshot0471]

I have had 3 labs that I raised and trained and sold they would pick any thing up and were great companions they love their masters and will protect them to any cost I just got my fourth lab and he is here to stay you can never go worng with a lab as far as getting a all prourpse dog I just dont think there is one I have hunted many of diffrent breeds of dog and there are cretian types of dogs for cretian game I dont think you can make a pointer or setter out of a lab or you can not make a coon dog out of a pointer so with that a lab will do most but not all

[dgc940]

[backfromthefuture]

Thats just like my dog

[dgc940]

BFF it seams like he might act like yours too He's willing to hunt anything I'm after! He even retrieves my dove He will hunt quail but I have to stay close he wont point and wait! He loves to run hogs just sit and wait and he will soon run them by you! and squirrels whew! he wears me out. when coming up on a snake he goes wild and stays his distance he has found 3 rattlesnake dens so far. and as far as a friend he goes everywhere with me even to work I work at a Yamaha shop and he loves pwc's- seadoos but hates water!

[backfromthefuture]

See, mine will only go for squirrel, dove, duck and rabbits, he isn't to good at duck when it comes to deeper water but he can get the job done. I never tried using my dog for hogs or anything though, maybe i will have to one day, well im goin hog huntin on the 27.

BFF

[AirForceShooter]

whatever you pick remember that for 2 months a year it's a hunter.
The other 10 months it's your house dog.
I like Labs.

AFS

[Shorthair]

Most the GSP ive come across just lose the plot and run about clearing game from a 5 sq mile area, ( I know there are some good ones but not many).

Interesting statement, given your sig line. I do absolutely agree with the rest of your comments.

Warning: Shepherds make lousy hunters.

Depends on what you're hunting. If the quarry has two legs they'll just about track, kill, gut and retrieve for you.
United Schutzhund Clubs of America

[fisherman66]

Most the GSP ive come across just lose the plot and run about clearing game from a 5 sq mile area, ( I know there are some good ones but not many).

That says more about the trainer/hunter than the dog in most cases. The 2 GSP I know will out hunt every other dog in camp (15 in camp is not uncommon.) They are not my dogs, so I have no ego on the line here. I'll conceed that the hard work is front loaded, and the trainer/owner spent an obsene amount of time and patience preparing the dogs. I've seen some good English Setters (by the same trainer/owner), but they can't hold a candle to the GPS.