What kind of dog?

[Jordyn Kaufer]

I'm getting a dog soon and was wondering what kind I should get for duck, pheasant, and grouse hunting?

I was thinkig of a AKC blak lab

[Fish&Fowl]

Good thinking

[Jordyn Kaufer]

do black labs make good pheasant dogs?

[fishnhooks]

I think that Yellow labs are better for pheasants, but you can get by with a Black one.

Seriously though, yes they are fine with Pheasant hunting.

"hooks"

[Jordyn Kaufer]

thanks guys.

What's the difference btwn a male and a female?

Like does it make a difference on which one I

Should get?

[JayinMN]

I got my first lab this spring. She has been the most people pleasing dog I have ever owned and a great hunter already. Her obedience has been going great and I can't say enough about her. She will work solely as a retriever and heel at my side till I ask her to retrieve a bird or I can tell her to find em and she will work as a flusher. I can see why, they are so popular, they are very trainable. The only thing I could live with out is the chewing. They are horrible chewers. I have always preferred females over male dogs, just a personal preference I guess.

Our first grouse.

[rundrave]

is that a pinch collar in your pic?

I hope I dont catch any flack for this, and Im not here to intentionally hi-jack a thread just want to help.

A pinch collar should only be used during training sessions only and should NEVER be left on unattended dogs.

If thats a pic of your first grouse then I am going to guess you were not training. This could be a really big concern as that collar could get caught or snagged on something in the field. If your dog fall or gets caught he could injure himself, or even worse when your dog comes across water or needs to make a retrieve in water the the collar could get caught there as well and the dog could drown.

I would suggest hunting your dog with a normal nylon collar etc. If I am jumping the gun here I apologize, just would rather give you the heads up before something bad happends.

Again Im just another dog lover trying to help another.

[Jordyn Kaufer]

should I get

A male or female?

Or is the only differnce size?

[Jordyn Kaufer]

does it matter if it's a female/male?

Is there a differnce in performance?

[LABS4ME]

male or female will make zero difference. Especially if they are fixed before they fully mature... usually at 7-9 months. Performance is the same, abilities are the same. You'll get a million opinions on which is better, but in the nd it makes no difference. If there was 'truley' one better sex, then it would be awefully hard to sell the other sex and there would be a lot of puppies culled. So in the end 50% of the gys will say male and 50% of the guys will say female... your decision... Just alter them and you will not know the difference.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Jordyn Kaufer]

k thanks!!

[JayinMN]

Rundrave, I appreciate the concern and it is a very valid one. I should have took the collar off for the picture because it can portray the wrong idea. I didn't think of that till after taking the picture and it was already dark so this is the only one I got. I was actually hesitant to post the picture because of the collar. We were training while on our evening walk and I took my .410 along just in case we saw a bird or two behind the house. Well, we saw one sitting on the trail and I figured it was as good of a time as any to try her first retrieve on a live bird. She was only allowed to leave my side to get the bird and came back which was maybe 25 yards at the most in a pretty open area. She was in my sight the whole time. The rest of the walk she was at a heel on a lead. She does listen real well off lead so I wasn't concerned about her taking off into the wood after something else.

[gspman]

Quote:

What's the difference btwn a male and a female?

The only difference is the male has an outie and the female has a innie. I believe Labs4Me has it right.

[springerspeed]

I was waiting for that

Seriously I have both male and female Springers and the differences in hunting ability is nill. Look at the parents of the puppy and you will see the range of hunting ability for the puppies generally.

[Jordyn Kaufer]

Quote:

What's the difference btwn a male and a female?

The only difference is the male has an outie and the female has a innie. I believe Labs4Me has it right.

Oh I already knew that... haha I was really aksing what the difference in hunting abilities are between the genders

[machohorn]

The only difference is if your Female comes in cycle during hunting season and you hunt with other dogs ,males, it screws up their brain pretty good.

[LABS4ME]

Fix them and you won't have either problem... breeding isn't as romantic as people think...

Good Luck!

Ken

[mrklean]

pointers are always an option

[Full Choke24]

i have a Yellow lab he is a great duck hunting dog but hes not real birdy yet ive been trying to get him pheasant hunting but hes kind of lazy. but a lab would be my choice for a duck dog.

[humen007]

For ducks, pheasants and grouse you cana't go wrong with a Lab, yellow or black. The main requirement is that its genetics is geared to hunting, otherwise you might just end up with a great pet.

[humen007]

Labs make great pheasant dogs. I have hunted with black labs and their ability to find cripples is hard to surpass. I have English Setters because I prefer a big ranging pointing breed but I can tell you that Setters are not great at locating running cripples. It seems with the Setters I've had, they are more interested in pointing them than locating dead or crippled birds, but they are fun to watch.

[hanso612]

I hunted over an French Brittany this weekend who was outstanding,but like many pointers was week in the retrieving department. We hunted over a lab who excelled at hunting dead but bumped or located way fewer birds than either the water spaniels on Brittanys we hunted over.

No water what you choose it's a compromise. We hunted many birds hunkered down in a steep drainage ditch because of the blizzard this past weekend. The pointers pointed birds that wouldn't flush and the lab wouldn't go down in the ditch to bump them so we took turns climbing down ourselves to bump the birds.

Remember every dog is entitled to one serious fault. Hans

[Walters]

On a pheasant hunting note only. I lived in South Dakota for 8 years and have hunted behind lots of dogs. I just recently got back from a trip out there now that I live in MN. IMO labs are not the answer for pheasant hunting. We lost right around 15 downed birds hunting behind 3 labs. They just couldn't seem to find the birds once they hit the ground. Granted there was a lot of scent in the field, dogs with better noses should have found these birds. If you are just looking to get a dog for hunting I would get a Wire Hair and train it well. Brittany's are also great dogs except our last Brittany didn't retrieve but she would find them and hold them down until we got there. With duck hunting labs are the only way to go.

[Iron Cowboy]

Put me down as another vote for the labs

[rmkod]

Shorthairs for me. Nothing wrong with a lab, I just prefer a pointing dog to hunt upland game. If the majority of your hunting is ducks I would go with the lab. I know there are circumstances where a flushing dog can be more productive than pointing dogs, but once you shoot a rooster over a point there is no going back in my opinion.