Best upland bird dog?

[Dirtdart]

Roger's dog's are of the same quality as his rifles I have been told. I have no first hand experience hunting with his dogs. I can say that Roger is a true craftsman, all around great guy that only has one standard, best quality.
http://www.rogermgreen.com/vom_elderbach/homepage.html

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

I didn't read the whole thread but if ducks in NS is your thing I dont think you can go wrong with a Lab. Setters are my dogs I live for them . I have had Gordons and English setters all my life , their job is to find birds. Ptarmigan on the open barrens and grouse in the woods in my case. Many here use a local breed called a Cape shore water dog here (Newfoundland) for Eiders. I wouldn't use a versatile dog other than a Lab in ice cold waters but thats just my opinion.
My setters job is to find the birds and mine to shoot em and probably pick em up, they are not great retrievers. They will pick up in a fashion but after the shot they mostly want to find more birds and they generally do

Ducks arn't the main objective I've got some large mowing fields that hold pheasant and woodland for partridge I would like a dog that also would retrieve a duck if shot , but not a dedicated gunning dog.

 

[Buckdog]

I may have to look into importing a lab from out of province, Im friends with several of the lab breeders in ns that are serious sea duckers but the bloodlines are starting to run pretty close and it's lead to a lot of hip displasia in the area in young dogs. I'm not looking for a dog to sea duck just one to flush in our mowing fields in the fall and retrieve the odd puddle duck early in the fall.

The original reason I shyed away from another lab was I'm not interested in one with fairly high odds of health issues. And don't want to offend some friends buy doing buisness else where.

The majority of the time I invest into bird hunting is before deer season so pheasant and partridge would be the priority. Ducking overlaps with deer season and bear season. And late season is already claimed by my beagle.

My friends that duck hunt are fanatical about it, some take the entire month of October off work.

Skinners blade look at huntinglabpedigree.com look for classifieds litters and pedigrees. with hunting dogs its all about the blood line and all of those dogs will have eyes, hips, elbows everything certified and they will ship them. I used to breed and train many moons ago. Going this week end to pick out my new hunting buddy his sire is a 8 time grand nationals champ and his mommy 5x grand nationals, etc. and I personally know both dogs and owners so I guarantee that pup will eat a springer for lunch figuratively and literally. a good pup with a excellent pedigree is 1500-200 USD right now and you will be on a waiting list for a fall pup and better get on a list soon.
All BS aside I have had and trained many dogs hunted with many dogs lots of breeds. I suggest you hunt behind a spinger before you get one it isn't suited to your climate, the ears get full of burs they are hyper active balls of fire will hunt like hell but not great in water or heavy cover. I am prejudice against them because 2 out of the 3 I have know were nasty little biters! Pointers excel when its open cover and forget about them in water. I prefer labs they excel at water and pheasants. they excel when the cover is heavy as they can bust thru all day long and when it comes to retrieving anything a lab wins all day. relatively easy to train a lab also.
what ever you decide be careful you have to train and live with it for a long time!!!

 

[Dirtdart]

I was fortunate enough to have been invited to hunt pheasant several years ago in South Dakota. I am a B list guy that got the invite because of a cancellation. I jumped at the chance to take a crack at some wild birds.
Ten hunters with eight labs and one springer.
I do not think that money was an issue with this group of fellas. Amongst them were urologist, dentist, pilots, oil men, and a florida cracker hog hunter (me).
It was funny to me when I heard "Who brought the exotic?" One of the guys said that when he saw that little springer.
It will be hard to forget watching five of us in line with three pointing labs flushing pheasant. I did not realize that the dog judged distance and was supposed to decide when the birds took flight.
We kept moving along as that little springer locked on point and never moved. I was close to the owner of the dog as he tried to get her to move forward. That dog was locked on point like a statue. A hen pheasant busted out of that tiny thicket not three feet from us. IMPRESSIVE!
I was assured by the owners of the labs that their dogs had already determined that bird was a hen and moved forward. I can appreciate that BUT, let a novice like me get a crack at a bird eye level inside of 25 yards.
You know you are in a good area in a good year on pheasant when all hunters limit every morning regardless of how hard the pointing retrievers try to f**K it up.

 

[TokkieM]

I have great respect for the Labs, but they are no pointing dog and they are not what I consider all round dogs. I hunt my GSP's with them often and I have yet to see a Lab with the energy or endurance of a GSP. Labs don't quarter or cover half as much ground as a well trained GSP, neither at the speed a GSP does. If you hunt in well stocked areas with lethargic birds then a Lab will get the job done, but if you need to cover ground and hammer birds into place, like a good pointing dog should, you need a hard running dog. As for retrieving I can only give examples of what I have seen and done with my dogs. We get to shoot around a 100 ducks per day on certain hunts and often we are the only GSP's among 8 or 9 Labs. When they count the birds my dog has retrieved around 35 to 40 of the 100 birds. When a duck drops 150 meters out in the reeds in the middle of a big pond, they don't send Labs, they ask for my dog. Last year in one day I had 3 occasions where wounded game could not be recovered by Labs or the Braco, after 40 minutes we let my GSP go and she recovered a Hare first, then a duck in long grass and then a Pheasant lying almost under a shooters feet. All three occasions Labs searched the area for between 30 and 45 minutes. Labs can run lines and take directions well, but they are not the end all and do all dogs some make them out to be. I run trails one day, drive a 1000kms to hunt Ptarmigan the next day and then take the same dogs and do exhibition work in obedience and retrieving at large hunting shows. Currently I have a water retrieve record on one of my dogs at around 450 meters, blind retrieve. I say again, if you want one dog to do it all, hard to find one better than a GSP.

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[Major Khan]

I shall take a proper photograph later on ... But I use pure breed long coat German Shepherd dogs , for flushing out quails in the hay fields .

I also use them for hunting kakar deer over dogs . They are dastardly loyal .