Versatile hunting dog?

[Fireman03]

Picking up our new addition this weekend

 

[Spindrift]

There is a LOT of misinformation in this thread and most of it is anecdotal in nature.

I’ve helped train every versatile dog under the sun. There are only a few generally consistently bad breeds. The rest are purely based on bloodline and training.

The wrong owner can take a fantastic dog and turn it into a turd in a week. I’ve seen it more times than I can count. Or I’ve seen people throw crazy amounts of money at training a dog with shitty genetics, to no avail. You cannot train prey drive or cooperation.

Find a breed that works for your use case, family needs and climate. Then spend hours and hours researching and interviewing breeders. Then spend months and months training that dog with discipline, fairness, patience and absolute consistency. That’s it. You’ll have a great dog, whether it’s a PP, GSP or SM.

I run Griffs because I live in a cold climate and do a lot of water fowling on top of Chukar, pheasant, quail and hubs. My griffs are fast, range far and will retrieve waterfowl as well as any lab I’ve owned. They honor in and out of the blind and handle. They also live kids and are fine with strangers.

It’s just careful breeding and a lot of training. That’s it!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hobbes]

There is a LOT of misinformation in this thread and most of it is anecdotal in nature.

I’ve helped train every versatile dog under the sun. There are only a few generally consistently bad breeds. The rest are purely based on bloodline and training.

The wrong owner can take a fantastic dog and turn it into a turd in a week. I’ve seen it more times than I can count. Or I’ve seen people throw crazy amounts of money at training a dog with shitty genetics, to no avail. You cannot train prey drive or cooperation.

Find a breed that works for your use case, family needs and climate. Then spend hours and hours researching and interviewing breeders. Then spend months and months training that dog with discipline, fairness, patience and absolute consistency. That’s it. You’ll have a great dog, whether it’s a PP, GSP or SM.

I run Griffs because I live in a cold climate and do a lot of water fowling on top of Chukar, pheasant, quail and hubs. My griffs are fast, range far and will retrieve waterfowl as well as any lab I’ve owned. They honor in and out of the blind and handle. They also live kids and are fine with strangers.

It’s just careful breeding and a lot of training. That’s it!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good looking dogs. I love my two.

Through the years I've had Labs, English setters, English pointer, pointing labs, German wirehair, and griffons, they were all good dogs in their own right and the only thing that held any one of them back was me.

 

[Grisha]

There is a LOT of misinformation in this thread and most of it is anecdotal in nature.

I’ve helped train every versatile dog under the sun. There are only a few generally consistently bad breeds. The rest are purely based on bloodline and training.

The wrong owner can take a fantastic dog and turn it into a turd in a week. I’ve seen it more times than I can count. Or I’ve seen people throw crazy amounts of money at training a dog with shitty genetics, to no avail. You cannot train prey drive or cooperation.

Find a breed that works for your use case, family needs and climate. Then spend hours and hours researching and interviewing breeders. Then spend months and months training that dog with discipline, fairness, patience and absolute consistency. That’s it. You’ll have a great dog, whether it’s a PP, GSP or SM.

I run Griffs because I live in a cold climate and do a lot of water fowling on top of Chukar, pheasant, quail and hubs. My griffs are fast, range far and will retrieve waterfowl as well as any lab I’ve owned. They honor in and out of the blind and handle. They also live kids and are fine with strangers.

It’s just careful breeding and a lot of training. That’s it!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great pictures

 

[AK_Skeeter]

 

[ianpadron]

View attachment 441455View attachment 441456View attachment 441457View attachment 441458

Damn good dog! The grouse pile pic is top tier stuff

 

[2ski]

There is a LOT of misinformation in this thread and most of it is anecdotal in nature.

I’ve helped train every versatile dog under the sun. There are only a few generally consistently bad breeds. The rest are purely based on bloodline and training.

The wrong owner can take a fantastic dog and turn it into a turd in a week. I’ve seen it more times than I can count. Or I’ve seen people throw crazy amounts of money at training a dog with shitty genetics, to no avail. You cannot train prey drive or cooperation.

Find a breed that works for your use case, family needs and climate. Then spend hours and hours researching and interviewing breeders. Then spend months and months training that dog with discipline, fairness, patience and absolute consistency. That’s it. You’ll have a great dog, whether it’s a PP, GSP or SM.

I run Griffs because I live in a cold climate and do a lot of water fowling on top of Chukar, pheasant, quail and hubs. My griffs are fast, range far and will retrieve waterfowl as well as any lab I’ve owned. They honor in and out of the blind and handle. They also live kids and are fine with strangers.

It’s just careful breeding and a lot of training. That’s it!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Spot-on. Every word you said was spot on.

 

[Banded_spooney]

I can’t figure out why this thread is so long.

It should be one reply: “always have two labs.”

God made them so perfect, sometimes I forget there are other breeds of dogs. I prefer the athletic black girls but they even come in all shapes and colors to give you options!

 

[Okhotnik]

There is a LOT of misinformation in this thread and most of it is anecdotal in nature.

I’ve helped train every versatile dog under the sun. There are only a few generally consistently bad breeds. The rest are purely based on bloodline and training.

The wrong owner can take a fantastic dog and turn it into a turd in a week. I’ve seen it more times than I can count. Or I’ve seen people throw crazy amounts of money at training a dog with shitty genetics, to no avail. You cannot train prey drive or cooperation.

Find a breed that works for your use case, family needs and climate. Then spend hours and hours researching and interviewing breeders. Then spend months and months training that dog with discipline, fairness, patience and absolute consistency. That’s it. You’ll have a great dog, whether it’s a PP, GSP or SM.

I run Griffs because I live in a cold climate and do a lot of water fowling on top of Chukar, pheasant, quail and hubs. My griffs are fast, range far and will retrieve waterfowl as well as any lab I’ve owned. They honor in and out of the blind and handle. They also live kids and are fine with strangers.

It’s just careful breeding and a lot of training. That’s it!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ive settled on Griffs too

 

[huntineveryday]

Ooh, I can play this game!

If you really want a versatile dog, get one with a beard!

 

[tjr]

I grew up with labs. They’re great.

I also love my GSP pup. He’s like a lab with three more gears. I’ll be concerned with letting him bust through ice to chase a late season crippled Canada, though.

So…my next dog will be a lab.

That’s my solution: get a hot rod pointer and a flusher/retriever. When my pointer runs his pads off chasing chukar to Hell and back, I can kennel him up and take the lab out to the duck blind.

 

[Fireman03]

Jasper v Makoshika at 12 weeks

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Labs will do pretty much anything if you let them. This one does all the obvious Lab things extremely well, I don't have pics of Grouse for some reason but she'll hunt them up and seems to naturally understand how to stay within shotgun range. She'll also bay pigs and hold them til we call her off, get me firewood at camp, and I even sent her after a fish once. She just flat out understands hunting and what her humans are trying to do.

 

[MT257]

Jasper v Makoshika at 12 weeks
View attachment 447148

Makoshika, cool name did you choose it from the eastern MT state park?

 

[Fireman03]

Makoshika, cool name did you choose it from the eastern MT state park?

The breeder is out of North Dakota

 

[ptarmiganchaser]

+1 for wirehairs, fantastic family dog and they just know how to flip the switch when it is time to hunt

 

[Chaseboost]

There is a LOT of misinformation in this thread and most of it is anecdotal in nature.

I’ve helped train every versatile dog under the sun. There are only a few generally consistently bad breeds. The rest are purely based on bloodline and training.

The wrong owner can take a fantastic dog and turn it into a turd in a week. I’ve seen it more times than I can count. Or I’ve seen people throw crazy amounts of money at training a dog with shitty genetics, to no avail. You cannot train prey drive or cooperation.

Find a breed that works for your use case, family needs and climate. Then spend hours and hours researching and interviewing breeders. Then spend months and months training that dog with discipline, fairness, patience and absolute consistency. That’s it. You’ll have a great dog, whether it’s a PP, GSP or SM.

I run Griffs because I live in a cold climate and do a lot of water fowling on top of Chukar, pheasant, quail and hubs. My griffs are fast, range far and will retrieve waterfowl as well as any lab I’ve owned. They honor in and out of the blind and handle. They also live kids and are fine with strangers.

It’s just careful breeding and a lot of training. That’s it!

Ditto this.
Coming in late on this thread. So adding my .02. I spent a few months researching gun dogs, since I was in SC and would mostly hunt doves, ducks, and quail. I settled on a Boykin Spaniel. Boykins are smaller 35-40lbs. A lot of power in such a small package if trained well. Great swimmers (some folks call them swamp poodles) and did well on hot dove fields in SC to snowing pheasant hunts in Ohio.

I think labs are great but they are too large for my situation at the time, GSP's required more space than I could give. I also looked at Weimaraner's and almost went with a Vizsla.

I trained my Boykin (first one) after deciding against sending it off. I learned more about being a dog owner and am applying that to my second Boykin pup now. I've seen folks get finished dogs back from breeders and the owners struggle to work them as if they are learning ISO controls on an excavator. Not that I wouldn't send a dog off in the future, but knowing what I know now the process requires training the owner. Almost like there should be two training curriculums, one for the dog and one for the owner.

Eventually I will have a duel threat pointer/flusher. After reading this thread I will certainly look into a Griff.

Again just my opinion. I have to represent the Boykin owners out there and enjoyed the input from the Griffon community.

 

[G_Tacoma]

Ditto this.
Coming in late on this thread. So adding my .02. I spent a few months researching gun dogs, since I was in SC and would mostly hunt doves, ducks, and quail. I settled on a Boykin Spaniel. Boykins are smaller 35-40lbs. A lot of power in such a small package if trained well. Great swimmers (some folks call them swamp poodles) and did well on hot dove fields in SC to snowing pheasant hunts in Ohio.

I think labs are great but they are too large for my situation at the time, GSP's required more space than I could give. I also looked at Weimaraner's and almost went with a Vizsla.

I trained my Boykin (first one) after deciding against sending it off. I learned more about being a dog owner and am applying that to my second Boykin pup now. I've seen folks get finished dogs back from breeders and the owners struggle to work them as if they are learning ISO controls on an excavator. Not that I wouldn't send a dog off in the future, but knowing what I know now the process requires training the owner. Almost like there should be two training curriculums, one for the dog and one for the owner.

Eventually I will have a duel threat pointer/flusher. After reading this thread I will certainly look into a Griff.

Again just my opinion. I have to represent the Boykin owners out there and enjoyed the input from the Griffon community.

I’ve had my Boykin now for 9 years, theyre a great little dog! He won’t quit hunting, he’s determined. He’s also great in the home, already looking at adding another one!

 

[2ski]

Ditto this.
Coming in late on this thread. So adding my .02. I spent a few months researching gun dogs, since I was in SC and would mostly hunt doves, ducks, and quail. I settled on a Boykin Spaniel. Boykins are smaller 35-40lbs. A lot of power in such a small package if trained well. Great swimmers (some folks call them swamp poodles) and did well on hot dove fields in SC to snowing pheasant hunts in Ohio.

I think labs are great but they are too large for my situation at the time, GSP's required more space than I could give. I also looked at Weimaraner's and almost went with a Vizsla.

I trained my Boykin (first one) after deciding against sending it off. I learned more about being a dog owner and am applying that to my second Boykin pup now. I've seen folks get finished dogs back from breeders and the owners struggle to work them as if they are learning ISO controls on an excavator. Not that I wouldn't send a dog off in the future, but knowing what I know now the process requires training the owner. Almost like there should be two training curriculums, one for the dog and one for the owner.

Eventually I will have a duel threat pointer/flusher. After reading this thread I will certainly look into a Griff.

Again just my opinion. I have to represent the Boykin owners out there and enjoyed the input from the Griffon community.

Boykins don't get enough love. Awesome little dogs!

 

[Banded_spooney]

Cold tolerance, drive, ice breaking ability, sheer determination. Field trials were created and are designed around labs. Create a dog game where you have a wounded goose scenario in sub freezing temps, replicate a winged bird, single mark 200+ yards, gotta break ice or fight tide and see what happens.
why do you think market hunters ran Chesapeak’s? They had labs, they improved them to meet harsh waterfowl needs.
Guides often pick dogs based on temperment and bidability rather than peak ability, which is understandable.

@KurtR I’m a lab guy through and through but I’ve only seen one chessie hunt and it was a stud plus a hell of a watch dog so I can’t speak to their abilities past that.

I do know a lot of some of the best killers in a part of the country loaded with them and they all run labs. As stated by Chuck there is general belief around here that Chessies have bad temperaments and less a knock on their prowess.

Anyway, the real reason for my post: I would propose someone creates a dog game like Chuck has suggested. That would be way more interesting to me than an obedience contest with a hunting theme. I’d probably travel to see it.

Don’t get me wrong, you trial guys do unbelievable work and I am always impressed when I see a dog trained and ran by a true pro, but the sport… not for me. I want to see a dog chase a 150 yard crippled mark coming back to getting sent past a dead bird on a blind in which I’m only kinda sure where the bird is. Get the dog in the area and let it hunt on its own for 10 minutes and come back proud. That shit is special.