Choosing a Dog

[Tleek]

Hey all,
I am starting to do some research on bird dog breeds and training. hoping to get a dog in the next couple years.

I am wondering if anyone has recommendations on dog breeds that would work for me. I'd also like some advice on training and bird dog ownership in general.

I owned an English Setter for several years. I inherited him from a family member, who could no longer care for him. He was 8 when we got him and was never trained, so he wasn't much of a hunting companion, but he was a sweet and gentle guy that did very well with the two newborns we brought home to him as they grew into toddlers. We sadly had to put him down last year.



I'd like a dog that

1. Will do well hunting primarily quail and grouse in both open and thick terrain. I live in northern California where things tend to be thick, but will travel some to more open terrain. I guess versatility is important
2. Will do well with children.
3. Hypoallergenic if possible (My wife was pretty allergic to the English Setter, and that hair got everywhere)
4. Needs to be okay at home while wife and I are at work.

Considering wire-haired griffon, brittany, and some others, but still in the research stage for sure.

Any advice or resources to point me to?

 

[roosterdown]

#3 was a big one for us (wife and daughter are allergic), as was #2. However I also wanted a versatile dog for upland & waterfowl, both. We got a Small Munsterlander and have no regrets.

 

[chizelhead]

We went with a pudelpointer. Fits your criteria, and I had the additional requirement of waterfowl. She is awesome in every way. She has a medium course coat that can collect burrs. That's the only thing to consider. She also doesn't shed, which was a wife ask, and I supported. A smooth coat PP will shed and a wooly is one to avoid for hunting.

 

[beerbucksducks]

I am a lab guy, but if I had your criteria (specifically hypoallergenic) I’d get a pudelpointer. I have a new lab pup coming in a month, but I researched PP’s a fair amount. I was tempted to go that route, but labs have been perfect for our hunting and lifestyle. My grandpa has had a few WPG and they are great dogs as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Eagle]

Go to a NAVHDA training day for your local chapter. You'll likely get to see a few different breeds in action, and you'll make relationships that will help you out with getting ready to properly train the dog.

I've had a Small Munsterlander for just short of four years now. She's an incredible hunter with crazy prey drive, but not the best in the house for those same reasons. Some of the versatile breeds strongly bond to one member of the family (SM's being one of those) so keep that in mind as well.

 

[*zap*]

as far as training goes you may need someone to train you on how to train a dog....a coach.

 

[ndbuck09]

With whatever dog breed you decide to get, the breeding of the litter you get a dog from matters immensely. Can't stress it enough. You really need to know what the sire and dam are before you decide to pull trigger on a puppy, and beyond what the person that did the breeding says. I do pointing dog field trials and if I had a buck for every time someone thinks their breedings are the best there is, I'd be rich. What's worse is the amount of people who think this way yet the dogs they're using to breed have not really done anything noteworthy, have poor confirmation or are high strung. Furthermore, you'll do really well to get a dog from someone who actually has made calmness part of their selection process for choosing the dogs they choose to breed.

As you can tell hopefully, no matter what breed you choose, you really need to find the breeder with a longstanding breeding program of many years, not someone who got a dog, loves that dog and thinks it's the most amazing hunter so they want to breed it. There's no depth behind that decision; not saying it's not the best dog out there but the dogs that should truly be bred are a small minority.

 

[Tleek]

With whatever dog breed you decide to get, the breeding of the litter you get a dog from matters immensely. Can't stress it enough. You really need to know what the sire and dam are before you decide to pull trigger on a puppy, and beyond what the person that did the breeding says. I do pointing dog field trials and if I had a buck for every time someone thinks their breedings are the best there is, I'd be rich. What's worse is the amount of people who think this way yet the dogs they're using to breed have not really done anything noteworthy, have poor confirmation or are high strung. Furthermore, you'll do really well to get a dog from someone who actually has made calmness part of their selection process for choosing the dogs they choose to breed.

As you can tell hopefully, no matter what breed you choose, you really need to find the breeder with a longstanding breeding program of many years, not someone who got a dog, loves that dog and thinks it's the most amazing hunter so they want to breed it. There's no depth behind that decision; not saying it's not the best dog out there but the dogs that should truly be bred are a small minority.

How can I know what a litter’s genetics are like. I’m very ignorant on it about this.

Are there specific questions I should ask the breeders?

 

[chizelhead]

You can ask the breeder for the lineage and scores. You can also go back and look at previous litters from the sire/dame to see how they do. You can also look at a breeders performance. NAVDA has a registry. There's also a gun dog registry. It can be helpful, and a time suck if you're into reading data and building inferences. It also helps to talk to a breeder's clients.

 

[the rick snyder]

I was in your boat five years ago and ultimately ended up with a Pudelpointer. I couldn't be happier. She's a great upland hunter, she doesn't shed, she has a wonderful personality, plus she is fairly mellow in the house.

 

[rideold]

GSP. Barely know that they shed. Easy to train. Find a good bloodline that has parentage that you can meet and like. Find a trainer to work with either through a local sporting dog club or a dedicated trainer.

 

[GreyBeck]

I have 2 WPGs. Couldn’t be happier. One sheds a little. Love to hunt/swim. Had goldens and labs prior. Like all dogs they’ll be as good as the time you spend training them.

 

[yfarm]

Get a started dog, 12-18 months old. Will cost a little more but with young children your life will be easier. GSP or Vizsla. Hunted last weekend with a phenomenal english pointer that retrieved. Short haired dog in your environment and home is easier to deal with. Had black labs for 30 yrs, none in the house for 5 years and still find black hair.
There is a Tx GSP group on fb, there are posts every week from people looking to rehome dogs, some have been professionally trained. Stories are usually similar, no time, high energy, etc, is an option for a started dog at lower cost. California may have similar rescue organizations.

 

[chizelhead]

I was in your boat five years ago and ultimately ended up with a Pudelpointer. I couldn't be happier. She's a great upland hunter, she doesn't shed, she has a wonderful personality, plus she is fairly mellow in the house.

Mine is mellow in the house as well since she was a pup. That's a reputation of the breed that was a plus when I was choosing a breed.

 

[loganwayne]

We've got French Brittany's small compact dogs. That go everywhere we go and are small for an upland dog 22-28 lbs.
Like others have said Breed isn't as important as finding a good breeder. Ask for hip scores and health certificates of BOTH parents. Also most breeders are going to trail their dogs in some sort of fashion to show that their dogs have what they say they do.

Just foe reference the last dog we got we found a litter close to us pups where a grand and parents didn't have health certificates or titles so we passed. Ended up getting a dog from a small breeder for 1300 with both parents having multiple heath screening, DNA testing, hip certificates, and both parents have multiple titles in the US.

Once you decide on a breed if you do Facebook their will probably be groups the breed. I know French Brittany's have a page just for breeders and a general group as well

 

[jags]

11 month old female WPG here, probably getting close to 40lbs. Good size for the house and gets along with our indoors cat. On her first hunting season and has been doing great, I don't do shows, trials or any of that and have just taken her hunting. Her instinct has been great and she came from hunting breeder and dogs. MT grouse and SD pheasants so far. Be prepared to deal with stickers and burrs after every hunt though.

My wife doesn't have any allergy issues with her as she did with our previous choc. lab. She sheds way less than our lab did too but does leave some hair around.

Ours would not be a good left home alone during the day but she's been raised with one of us home most always and she comes to work with me most mornings. Crate training sucked from a being left alone stand point, people dogs.....always wants to be with you.....always....

 

[rbljack]

We got a lab and I tried to train him ourselves . We have had 3 labs over the years, but this was the first one I was trying to train for hunting. It went ok up until about 7 months old. Then things started going western. I decided to send the dog off for professional training. Dog entered basic obedience and then went thru basic gun dog training. We now have a "started" dog, but don't think you will have a full blown hunting dog after they come out of a short professional course. IT takes lots of time and repetition. Also, like someone above mentioned, you have to be trained to train your dog. There are now a handful of online courses available that can help. Regarding breed, im not much help their, but my decision making process may help.

I was looking at GSP's and Labs. For the upland the GSP would probably be a better choice, but I also wanted to ability to have our dog retrieve cranes, ducks and pheasant (larger upland bird) in addition to the quail and dove) and be a good house dog. I felt the lab was an all around better choice for THAT set of factors. Not to say the GSP would have been a poor choice, just not as large to handle to crane work. I also think they are even MORE high strung than labs and would require a lot of run time...even moreso than labs. With that said...id still love to have a GSP too. But labs have my heart as the #1 choice. The hair shedding is a whole other topic though....the struggle is real....LOL

Im no expert, but thats my 2 cents on it. Good luck with your choice and decision making process. "good" dogs with great "papers" arent cheap either. We really didnt go that route, but our dog is AKC. It was only a $750 dog. I could easily have spent 2500 to get a dog with good papers, medical history, etc from an established breeder. But with that said....here is the thing....the training was 800 bucks a month for 4 months......so costs quickly add up! And that was just for a started dog, not a finished dog.

The whole process is a "rabbit hole" and you can go as deep as you want/choose/ can afford. If your going to do the training yourself, you need to be honest with yourself and determine if you have the patience and time, and are willing to put in the effort. I had the best of intentions, but family time, work, etc take away from time to train. Sending them off ensures they get training time every day with some structure. The down side is you do loose some "puppy time" with your dog.

Oh...one more thing. Reseach clubs in your area, there may be one local where you can go and train with others on a regular basis. There are usually members with training experience, breeders, etc there, plus they pool resources to buy equipment like bird launchers, etc for their AKC/HRC events.

 

[rideold]

I'd like a dog that

1. Needs to be okay at home while wife and I are at work.

I'd encourage you to think hard on what you mean by this.....My GSP is great at home as long as she gets her exercise (both physical and mental). That said, I do walk her 2 miles when I get up in the morning and another 2 miles at lunch. When she was a pup I did a third 2 mile walk in the evening as well. My opinion is that if you want a bird dog in the house you have to exercise them consistently. The last thing I would want to do is take a couch potato dog on a day long hunt! Last October we hunted SD 4 days and walked 10 miles a day. The dog did at least 20 or 30 a day. She would have been injured if she wasn't used to lots of daily activity and as it was she was pretty tired by the time we loaded up to drive home. She hardly wanted to get out to pee when we stopped for gas .

 

[Irish Miner]

My opinion is that if you want a bird dog in the house you have to exercise them consistently.

This...

If your going to do the training yourself, you need to be honest with yourself and determine if you have the patience and time, and are willing to put in the effort. I had the best of intentions, but family time, work, etc take away from time to train.

... and this.

 

[Zak406]

I'm a gsp guy but the pudelpointer sounds like a fit for you.

My next dog may be a pp.