Hunting Dog Characteristics?

[lizziedog1]

I want to hear from hunters that use different breeds for hunting. I want to know which dogs are close-in workers and which ones range out farther.

I know that shorthairs generally work away form the owner. Which breeds are designed to hunt closer? Which do you prefer, dogs that work near or ones that work far?

 

[Armored farmer]

I have had 3 Brittany's, they are close dogs in general. They also make good pets, and are very smart.

 

[birddog]

If you want close, labs, springers. I would have to disagree with kbb. My opinion of Brittanys is that -- being pointers -- they're naturally going to hunt farther out than flushers (labs, springers). Not saying that Kbb doesn't know his dogs. In general, though, pointers work out farther than flushers. That's a good place to start.

 

[Armored farmer]

There is a difference between "working far" and being driven to find birds. The best dog I ever had ran wide....but he loved to find birds. He knew what he was doing, and where to look.He would keep looking 'til he found birds or covered all the likely spots.

Females generally stay closer than males, IMHO.

 

[lizziedog1]

There is a difference between "working far" and being driven to find birds.

By far, how many yards are you talking about? Is there such thing as a dog working too far?

 

[Armored farmer]

When I said " I have had 3 Brittany's"...I meant , I had 2 for their lifetimes...and currently on the 3rd. That's about 25 years of hunting behind Brittany's. I hunted quail to obsession for several years.
I'm doing a little better now.

 

[Armored farmer]

Is there such thing as a dog working too far?

That depends on the cover...and the dog.
As long as the dog was in sight, and in my control, and hunting birds, and willing to hold a point until I could get there.....ok.

One of the main concerns of running too wide is the dog's safety. Crossing roads, or property lines, getting lost, etc.

Don't get me wrong .. I like a med to close ranging dog for our cover and type of hunting here in Illinois.

 

[huntershooter]

Brittany fan here.

 

[Armored farmer]

That's a fine lookin' dog and sxs.

 

[Armored farmer]

I will say that birdog in post #3 may be right.....
The proper distance for a dog to hunt varies according to the cover. We hunt fencerows here and a dog within 1/4 mile is sometimes called close. A dog that will run 1/2 mile is perfectly acceptable, as long as the dog "checks in" often.

On the other hand....a dog that runs 1/2 mi in the grouse woods of NY or Canada probably goes too wide.

I will shut up now, as I feel I am hijacking the thread, but one of my favorite subjects.

 

[d2wing]

Some flushing dogs chase birds well out of range as well. My buddy has a Brittany that's great. Irish Setter bred for hunting aka "Red Setter" like I have is really good. He ranges far and sometimes crowds birds, but he finds any birds around and fast, holds points well and is the best retreiver I've ever seen.
The trouble with dogs that hunt close is that you do the hunting instead of the dog. I try to keep up with the dog as he has a must better nose than I do
and he's really good at it. It's all he lives for.
Another buddy hunts with a Cocker Spaniel. That dog hunts real close and finds birds but takes a long time to cover ground.
A good hunter that hunts close isn't easy, and it takes work and time to train a dog. If I'm wrong I'd sure like to know an easy way.

 

[Daniel Boone]

Its all in how you train them.

We had a dog - Katie, that was a darn good pheasant dog when you had her in high grass and corn - but was terrible in a open field or in the woods hunting grouse.
She was so intent on chasing birds that she would wander and roam.
But she was a good dog in the fact that she would listen to what you said and stop when you told her to stop and go up or down a hill when you pointed.

Her bad points was that she liked to howl at the moon on full moon nights.
Was scared of most everything, including embers in the fireplace at camp.
Didn't like the UPS guy or the garbage guy and would bark and make a fuss when someone came to the house - to the point of where she would tear the curtains and blinds off the windows to get at them.
She would howl and cry when no one was home - so you had to leave a radio or a television set on for her if you were not home.
She stunk like a dog and slept on a bed with my sister and she had her periods..

The sad part was that it was my brother in laws dog and it spent most of it's time up at my mom's house and my sister who lived at moms house paid for it's maintenance and upkeep and when it got old - my brother in law stopped coming up to get her and my sister - who didn't even had a job - had to pay to put the dog to sleep.

My opinion is - do not get a Springer Spaniel especially a male and do not get a male beagle - they are a royal pain in the butt.

 

[Liberty1776]

Gotta give a +1 for the Brittany. Mine hunts as close as I like, 'cause I trained him that way, but he'll range out to find birds. Great house dogs, but they shed like monsters...

 

[islandphish]

IMO a close working dog is one that is within shotgun range at all times. A close working pheasant dog means I can shoot at a bird if it gets up.

A dog that works quail that hold tight can range forever, sometimes the hard thing is finding them after they go on point.

GSP's, Brittany's and the like are typically dogs that run more. Still that's an advantage if the dog is working side to side and not running straight out of range.

It matters a lot if you are hunting solo or in a group. Why? A single German shorthair with a solo hunter will most likely range too far. With two guys and good spacing that same "rangey" (sp?) shorthair will often zigzag between the hunters and work much closer generally.

As to what I prefer...depends on species. But generally I will take a well-mannered versatile dog like a GSP, and still run an e-collar to bring him in if I have to.

BTW, I've owned one Brittany (lasted 15 years) and have had 4-5 shorthairs all told.

side note: Brittany makes an AWESOME family dog.

 

[birddog]

My favorite hunting dog -- about whom I wrote the two books in my signature -- was half brittany and half springer. She was by far the rangiest dog I ever owned. She was also by far the best hunting dog I've ever owned. She would ALWAYS find pheasants and woodcock when others would fail (and rabbits and squirrels, too). Unfortunately, when she was younger, she tended to flush many of them just a bit too far out of range. Her enthusiasm was just uncontrollable. When she turned about 6, she was the perfect hunting dog -- because time slowed her down a bit. If I could turn back the clock and have Maggie back from those years between age 6 and age 11, I would give away everything I have. Damn. It's been 4 years since she died. Those days in the field seem like yesterday.

 

[Armored farmer]

If I were a wordsmith instead of a farmer I could fill a book with stories of my Brittanys. My best bird finder was Jake, an ill-tempered, bullheaded, hard running, knothead. He flushed everything he could find until one day...well into his second season....when it finally all clicked with him. From that day on, he was magic.

 

[jbkebert]

I have always had labs and beagles both great dogs. Smart, good with the kids, they hunt hard what else could you ask for.

 

[islandphish]

I swear this is true.

We used to always bring the Brittany dove hunting. We all knew that if the dog started getting excited there were doves in the air.

Not birds.

Doves.

He could tell the species and would only react when there were doves. Many times the dog would start to whine a bit and we'd start looking and sure enough they'd be coming in behind us or off our shoulders.

Regarding upland and dogs "getting it". I have only had the pleasure of seeing one dog's moment of epiphany. I hauled my GSP out East to hunt, we were in all new types of cover. Somehow the new landscape made it click and from then on he is far better at trapping, stopping and/or pointing pheasants than ever before, in fact I don't think he intentionally did it before, but he does now.

He has always been awesome on quail. He's 11 now and like birddog was saying some of these later years have been his best hunting.

 

[wgp]

My experience is not vast but I consider my GSP and my buddy's Brittanys to be fairly close-working dogs, at least the way we handle them. They work beyond gun range but within a distance we can see them and get to them should they go on point. I have avoided English Pointers because the ones I have been behind have ranged so far out front we lose track of where they are (I have friends who want exactly that in a dog, though, so to each his own). Having had pointing dogs, I no longer want a flushing dog (of course, having hunted for a long time without a dog I no longer hunt at all unless I've got a dog).