Versatile hunting dog?

[ChuckIII]

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]

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.

Maybe that one scenario in that one place but seen plenty of labs break ice to get multiple marks on geese. Ive seen way more low drive chessies than i have labs the breeders have done a disservice to the breed. If they had the peak ability they should be able to perform in any field trial or hunt test a lab can but the numbers just dont back that up. For a dog that can hunt the dry land prairie from canada to the flooded timber in Arkansas to sea ducks on the coast and run a quad in the 10th series of the nrc labs still are #1 with a bullet.

 

[ChuckIII]

Maybe you’ve just been around sub par chessies ?

I acknowledge that labs are better overall. And if this gentleman is looking for a versatile dog I would get a lab over a chessie, I commented about and started the conversation because you said “I’ve never seen a dog that performs as well as a lab when it comes to duck hunting.” Which is ridiculous.

Labs do everything okay, they’re the 30-06 of flushing dogs, okay at everything master of none. Chessies are masters at waterfowl and kinda piss poor at everything else. They’re a specialty breed.
A great dog is a great dog and can excel in multiple scenarios. But if you’re a hard core waterfowler and that’s 99% of your hunting a chessie is the dog for you.

 

[AK_Skeeter]

Love my Vizsla but they aren't great in cold weather, thin skinned.

My first hunting dog was a Visla in the 1980s. She was great at pointing pheasants and huns in Utah. For duck hunting, I had to wrap her in a blanket after each retrieve and that definitely was not her game. My second
hunting dog was an English Setter which was also a fantastic pointer when I lived in Idaho.

I prefer labs as I hunt solo and can silently use hand signals to direct the lab after I get into good blocking position. I use the vibrate function on an e-collar to silently "whistle sit" the lab and then I move to the head of a cattail draw for example, one silent over cast into the cattails and the lab tracks the roosters towards my blocking position. With labs, a few bumpers and easy to solo train all summer long.

 

[KurtR]

Maybe you’ve just been around sub par chessies ?

I acknowledge that labs are better overall. And if this gentleman is looking for a versatile dog I would get a lab over a chessie, I commented about and started the conversation because you said “I’ve never seen a dog that performs as well as a lab when it comes to duck hunting.” Which is ridiculous.

Labs do everything okay, they’re the 30-06 of flushing dogs, okay at everything master of none. Chessies are masters at waterfowl and kinda piss poor at everything else. They’re a specialty breed.
A great dog is a great dog and can excel in multiple scenarios. But if you’re a hard core waterfowler and that’s 99% of your hunting a chessie is the dog for you.

thats all i do is shoot waterfowl. Sorry but as a breed it takes a special chessie to be able to do what a lab does day in and day out in the field and in the slough. Been around some mnh hunter and seen one of the 16 chessie that has a grand title run. But just on average the labs are better in the field and at the trials. How many days a year do you spend hunting waterfowl with your chessie? Our season starts in 18 days and will go hard through april with snow geese and then right into hunt test season. I dont know what hardcore is to you but i know guys who hunt 200 plus days a year and not one has a chessie

 

[ChuckIII]

thats all i do is shoot waterfowl. Sorry but as a breed it takes a special chessie to be able to do what a lab does day in and day out in the field and in the slough. Been around some mnh hunter and seen one of the 16 chessie that has a grand title run. But just on average the labs are better in the field and at the trials. How many days a year do you spend hunting waterfowl with your chessie? Our season starts in 18 days and will go hard through april with snow geese and then right into hunt test season. I dont know what hardcore is to you but i know guys who hunt 200 plus days a year and not one has a chessie

Your anecdotal evidence is overwhelming,

 

[KurtR]

Your anecdotal evidence is overwhelming,

So you have no facts. Lots of people talk but have little experience to back it up other than what they read on the interwebs.

 

[ChuckIII]

So you have no facts. Lots of people talk but have little experience to back it up other than what they read on the interwebs.

I got lots of experience, but when guys start going down the “let’s compare” rabbit hole it’s no longer a conversation and it’s a waste of time.
I don’t give a rats ass about your anecdotal evidence, any dog man worth his salt knows Chesapeake’s are the best waterfowl dogs. To argue otherwise is just for the sake of arguing.

 

[AK_Skeeter]

thats all i do is shoot waterfowl. Sorry but as a breed it takes a special chessie to be able to do what a lab does day in and day out in the field and in the slough. Been around some mnh hunter and seen one of the 16 chessie that has a grand title run. But just on average the labs are better in the field and at the trials. How many days a year do you spend hunting waterfowl with your chessie? Our season starts in 18 days and will go hard through april with snow geese and then right into hunt test season. I dont know what hardcore is to you but i know guys who hunt 200 plus days a year and not one has a chessie

When I lived in Moscow, Idaho all I did was hunt upland with my labs. Chuckars, huns, quail, pheasants, grouse.

One thing I like about labs is the ability to hunt day after day in the uplands and the versatility. I hunt silently in open country with my lab out 100-200 yards searching for birds. When the lab gets birdy, I then silently stop the dog and move into position.

There are other situations where a flushing dog excels, for example uphill on super steep country like avalanche chutes for blue grouse, steep slopes for chuckars, etc. . In those situations, I let the lab go upslope and they are flushed over 100 yards away but because of the steepness fly down-slope over me for some fun wing shooting.

Another example is a sea of cattails where I let the lab do his thing while I've silently moved into blocking position.

Living in Alaska and Montana, now I do both upland and waterfowl. In Alaska, duck camp is 14 straight days of waterfowl hunting with a daily bag limit of 10 ducks. Then off to MT for the winter, primarily pheasants until the end of December, with an occasional waterfowl hunt, then late season waterfowl until Jan. 16.

 

[andrew_q]

Maybe you’ve just been around sub par chessies ?

I acknowledge that labs are better overall. And if this gentleman is looking for a versatile dog I would get a lab over a chessie, I commented about and started the conversation because you said “I’ve never seen a dog that performs as well as a lab when it comes to duck hunting.” Which is ridiculous.

Labs do everything okay, they’re the 30-06 of flushing dogs, okay at everything master of none. Chessies are masters at waterfowl and kinda piss poor at everything else. They’re a specialty breed.
A great dog is a great dog and can excel in multiple scenarios. But if you’re a hard core waterfowler and that’s 99% of your hunting a chessie is the dog for you.

I’ve been around some of the best chessies in the country at the international grand, and I’m sorry they just don’t perform like a lab. When it comes to Chessies the breed is just not well established. They’re like Boykins, when it comes to pedigrees being well bred across the country Goldens and Labs are the cream of the crop.

And to say field trials or hunt tests were designed for Labradors is the most ignorant statement I’ve heard. I’ve dealt with some of the best chessie trainers in the country and the only thing they have on labs is that they’re unique. But I’d put my labs drive up against any chessie any day of the week.

 

[ChuckIII]

I’ve been around some of the best chessies in the country at the international grand, and I’m sorry they just don’t perform like a lab. When it comes to Chessies the breed is just not well established. They’re like Boykins, when it comes to pedigrees being well bred across the country Goldens and Labs are the cream of the crop.

And to say field trials or hunt tests were designed for Labradors is the most ignorant statement I’ve heard. I’ve dealt with some of the best chessie trainers in the country and the only thing they have on labs is that they’re unique. But I’d put my labs drive up against any chessie any day of the week.

Chessies do have a smaller pool. Based on sheer numbers labs should unquestionably dominate trials.

It’s not that the dog games were designed for labs, it’s more that the rule-making bodies are all Labrador folks, so it’s natural that they create rules that highlight Labradors strengths. I believed in the early days of field trials chessies did better in the rankings than today for this reason.
Let’s face it, field trials are designed around unquestioned obedience and chessies are too independent thinking to perform well. But, I’m n a hunting situation I’ll take the free thinking dog. Robots need not apply.

 

[30338]

Try Vom Wiredhaus Kennel in SD for a drahthaar. My oldest male takes after his daddy from there a lot. My next will be one of their's.

 

[andrew_q]

Chessies do have a smaller pool. Based on sheer numbers labs should unquestionably dominate trials.

It’s not that the dog games were designed for labs, it’s more that the rule-making bodies are all Labrador folks, so it’s natural that they create rules that highlight Labradors strengths. I believed in the early days of field trials chessies did better in the rankings than today for this reason.
Let’s face it, field trials are designed around unquestioned obedience and chessies are too independent thinking to perform well. But, I’m n a hunting situation I’ll take the free thinking dog. Robots need not apply.

Rather than make claims like “”it’s natural that they create rules that highlight Labradors” why don’t you be more specific with your claim. Otherwise you’re just making stuff up.

Also hunt tests like the International Grand are about obedience. Field trials are about natural abilities. And Im fairly certain that the chessies never did well in retriever FT. But I’ll go check the records to be sure.

 

[johnnycake]

I am skeptical of pudelpointers as well though I want to be wrong.

How many pudelpointers have you hunted behind? If you find yourself in south central Alaska this fall or winter Ava and I will take you out for ptarmigan and try to remove some of that skepticism for ya!

 

[2ski]

Well this turned into a shit show.

Can't everybody be pretty?

 

[jmez]

Best dog and breed EVER is the one that you own. Now we have that out of the way.

Sent from my moto g power (2021) using Tapatalk

 

[THRASH]

I’d recommend a Weimaraner. Great upland and waterfowl dog breed.

 

[WRO]

I’d recommend a Weimaraner. Great upland and waterfowl dog breed.

You must have a unicorn..

 

[Grisha]

How many pudelpointers have you hunted behind? If you find yourself in south central Alaska this fall or winter Ava and I will take you out for ptarmigan and try to remove some of that skepticism for ya!

I am in Cordova in early October.... would love to see any dog work.

 

[johnnycake]

I am in Cordova in early October.... would love to see any dog work.

Cordova is SE, I'm up in Wasilla so if you make it to the road system let me know and I'll try to find a time to take you out. Ava loves it when she gets to work for multiple limits