Hunting Dog Suggestions..(see inside).

[Ray Esboldt]

Thanks guys for this discussion. I am in the market for my first hunting dog and these are good things to know. These types of discussions are what make FM.com such a valuable resource.

LABS4ME,

If possible, could you send me an email? I have some dog questions for you.

[email protected]

[This message has been edited by Ray Esboldt (edited 11-13-2003).]

[Long Gray Line]

I took mine pheasant hunting at 5 1/2 months just to get her some experience around other hunters/dogs, to let her just run and run, and to learn that gun fire means fun. I only took her out though AFTER she was solid on obedience training and after she had been exposed to gun noise. It needed to be a fun/learning experience, not one where she was cowering back at the truck or running off through the field with me chasing her. She didn't know at first what she was looking for but after the first pheasant jumped she quickly figured it out. Made her first retrieve that day!! It was a blast!

[CornPirateKiller]

Yeti,
Male or Female choice is much like the golden ret. vs lab option. Boils down to personal choice. The first question you'd probably want to consider is are you planning to breed the dog. If it's your first dog, you'd probably be better deciding to stay away from that arena. A spayed/neutered pet will usually be a healthier, happier pet so that would be the suggestion if you're not breeding.

Back to Male vs Female... I've owned both sexes and they both have their pros and cons. Females come into heat twice a year and attract every dog for miles. Can put a real damper on your hunting trip. Males will chase a nearby female in heat, ignoring all commands when he has breeding on the brain. Females will leave your lawn covered with dead spots. Males will [PoorWordUsage] on every bush, post, flower, tire, or tree in their territory.

My personal preference runs towards the males. Females tend to be a little more high strung and flighty. Of course males have there moments too. If I had my pick of a litter, though, I'd pick the biggest, fattest, laziest male pup of the bunch. They seem to grow up to be even tempered, happy, strong hunters. Don't go for the one that runs to you and jumps all over. They are the fun puppies that turn into the uncontrollable, energy-overloaded nightmares.

My two cents. Good Luck!

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Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati

[BLACKJACK]

Labs4me, good response to my earlier post. From the sounds of all the other posts, with 'vet references', the the hip and eye problems are more pevalent than I thought, I guess I have been lucky to not see it.

As to the original post, goldens vrs labs, someone posted that the labs can't handle long trips. I just got back from 5 days of hunting in SoDak, we hunted from 10 til 5 every day and our labs lasted just fine. My brother alternated his 1 and 12 year old males and I hunted my 7 year old female lab every day, all the time. She was tired toward the end, but every morning she was turning circles, ready to go. The key is having a dog that loves to hunt, good conditioning, and good nutrition. Since they're usually too tired to eat in the evening, we mix up a canned dog food mixed with dry food and water supper and they'd eat that. We also did a smaller batch at noon when we had our lunch. They had energy til the end. My brother [PoorWordUsage]ed out first, saying he'd had enough So it all depends on how your dog has been conditioned and how you feed them, whether its a golden, lab, or ??