Switching Dog Breeds

[wyoelkfan15]

current) Wenier dog (wifes) - he sucks.....BUT if he was like normal dog sized would be a bad ass hunting dog. Hates everything thats not human. List of things this little sucker has killed - Rabbits (countless), chicken, Turkey(small one), Squirrel, rat, woodchuck(holy shit), Killed a bunch of baby robins that fell out of the tree, Snakes. Keep in mind he is 12 years old and has no teeth. I've never had a dog with more pray drive.

One of the best pheasant dogs I've seen was a Weiner dog my buddy in high school had. That thing would dive into the nastiest cat tail patch in the state going after a rooster. If only he didn't get worn out so quick he would have been awesome. Inevitably he'd end up in one of our vest bird pockets taking a nap while we kept hunting

 

[Whitetay]

Love my black labs but they r work dogs in my eyes and I hate to have one when I don’t have time to work him or her

 

[OntarioHunter]

Love my black labs but they r work dogs in my eyes and I hate to have one when I don’t have time to work him or her

They are even better pets.

 

[Don Fischer]

WOW! Let's see, had three black and one yellow labs, several Springer Spaniels, bunch of gsp's, two E. Setters and now three Red Setter's. Oop's forgot had five pointer's! Not sure what breed I'd say is best but strongly in favor of GSP's and Red Setter's. My two E. Setter's I loved dearly but were rotton bird dog's, ran way to much! On the other hand I've watched a lot of E. Setters that were terrific bird dog's, go figure! have worked with a decent number of Britt's and if I needed a dog and some one wanted to give me one, I wouldn't turn it down. Some really really good GWP's I've watched over the years come out of Terreboinne Oregon. Very nice lady who's name escapes me right now owns the kennel and trials the dogs, Meg something? I've seen a coupke pudle pointer's but I'm a bird hunter and don't chase mixed breed dogs. Oh. remember now, Meg Eaton I think the GWP breeder is.

Switching breeds isn't really a big deal and I almost suspect the breed you have has let you down somewhere, not a clue where! I got down to one dog one time and lost him. Skipper was 11 yrs old when he died and I spent 6 months looking a litter's of Springer Spaniels till it dawned on me I was looking for Skipper so I went and looked at a litter of GSP's and got my old Hannah, she was an absolutely great dog. But thing I found is when a dog hit's about six yrs, get a puppy, breed won't matter as your old dog it there to take care of you. And you never know, a new breed just might grow on you! Whatever the breed might be is no where near as important as how you except the pup.

 

[Birdbander]

I started my upland bird hunting with an English Pointer a little over 20 years ago. Followed that up with 3 more. The first two had good long lives and have passed on.

I'm switching to Llewellin Setters, with my first at now 2.5 years old. Absolutely perfect match for my style of hunting. Very affectionate and a joy in the house too.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

I started with a Visla, then English Setters,
the 8 labs over the past 30 years.
I like training labs in the spring/summer, hunting in the fall/winter.

 

[gouch]

When I was a kid, I had a little black mut. Turned out to be a great little bird dog. Then my dad got a GSP that I really liked so when I got out of the army, I got my own GSP. Since I did a lot of upland bird hunting and a little waterfowl hunting it made sense. After two more GSPs, one super dog and one worthless dog, I started doing more waterfowl hunting and less upland hunting, so my wife got me a black Lab for my birthday. (Which is today by the way) Great retriever not so good on upland birds. As that dog was getting older, my wife who volunteered at an animal shelter, said there was a lab there we needed to get. I didn't even look at it because I knew we were going to get that dog no matter what I said anyway. She came home with a black puppy that had no lab in it whatsoever. She told me she didn't like the way the lab acted around kids, so she got the puppy instead. Whatcha gunna do? That dog was gun shy and had no interest in birds, but she was sure good with the kids. Then my sister got a 6-month-old chocolate lab but it played too rough with her little old foo-foo dog and hurt it. Imagine that, a big puppy getting rough with a living dust mop. So, she wanted to get rid of the lab. So now I have an old chocolate lab who is a pretty good upland hunter and a good duck retriever but won't for the life of her, touch a goose. That there is my dog history.

 

[sureshotshane]

I have a dog problem. I hunt such a variety of game that it’s hard to decide what companion I need most. Instead of switching I just have a little bit of everything. 2 Leopard Curs, 1 Patterdale Terrier, 1 French Brittany and I’ll be getting a a Drahthaar soon.

 

[Trap]

I have a dog problem. I hunt such a variety of game that it’s hard to decide what companion I need most. Instead of switching I just have a little bit of everything. 2 Leopard Curs, 1 Patterdale Terrier, 1 French Brittany and I’ll be getting a a Drahthaar soon.

I would like to know what you think about the drahtaar. I also have a dog problem hounds, black lab for ducks and an assortment of rat dogs my wife likes. I want the drahtaar for blood tracking but my freind found one ( long story ) it was never claimed and he said he used for duck hunting?

 

[JLS]

I would like to know what you think about the drahtaar. I also have a dog problem hounds, black lab for ducks and an assortment of rat dogs my wife likes. I want the drahtaar for blood tracking but my freind found one ( long story ) it was never claimed and he said he used for duck hunting?

They are excellent water dogs.

 

[sureshotshane]

I would like to know what you think about the drahtaar. I also have a dog problem hounds, black lab for ducks and an assortment of rat dogs my wife likes. I want the drahtaar for blood tracking but my freind found one ( long story ) it was never claimed and he said he used for duck hunting?

I have not personally had a Drahthaar but I’ve trained with them and I’ve watched them work and I’ve seen enough to know it’s what I want… Need. It’s the dog I’m looking most forward to. I also have been to the VDD Hunt Test and I’ve never seen a dog work the water like this one particular DD. He got a standing ovation at the end of his duck search.

If all you need is a blood tracking dog for personal use. No doubt a DD would do it. But it would be a waste of potential honestly. Unless you are going to be blood tracking all the time for friends or business. If you want it for duck hunting too, they surely don’t dissapoint. I will be using mine for upland, blood tracking, and waterfowl. I also plan to enter him into the hunt tests.

 

[mxracer317]

Any thoughts on an overall family dog, German Sheprador’s? German Shepard + Lab.

Looking for a new family dog for companionship and first line of defense protection.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Any thoughts on an overall family dog, German Sheprador’s? German Shepard + Lab.

Looking for a new family dog for companionship and first line of defense protection.

Labs have been the top selling breed in the American Kennel Club for like thirty years running. They are also the preferred breed for seeing eye dogs. There's a reason. I've owned seven. All have been great in the home and the field. You can't go wrong with a Lab. German shepherds have been wrecked by poor breeding. A ton of genetic issues. As loving as they are, no one messes with a Lab's family! A drunk neighbor walked into my house once in the middle of the night when I was out of town. Our Lab tore a piece out of him. The back porch was a bloody mess. He was gone before my wife could get out of bed.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

I like labs because I can silently hunt them way out of gun range in open country and let them find birds.
Once the lab starts getting birdy, I whistle sit the lab and move in like I would with a pointer.
For example, early season huns and sharptails.

I also like them for conditions where a pointer would be problematic like in a sea of cattails,
roosters in thick riparian brush, mixed bag hunts of doves, ducks, and roosters, etc.
It is also nice to hunt silently solo and have the ability to move silently to a blocking position, then cast the sitting lab into cover.

 

[Trap]

I have not personally had a Drahthaar but I’ve trained with them and I’ve watched them work and I’ve seen enough to know it’s what I want… Need. It’s the dog I’m looking most forward to. I also have been to the VDD Hunt Test and I’ve never seen a dog work the water like this one particular DD. He got a standing ovation at the end of his duck search.

If all you need is a blood tracking dog for personal use. No doubt a DD would do it. But it would be a waste of potential honestly. Unless you are going to be blood tracking all the time for friends or business. If you want it for duck hunting too, they surely don’t dissapoint. I will be using mine for upland, blood tracking, and waterfowl. I also plan to enter him into the hunt tests.

I was thinking multi purpose . Hopefully even helping friends we wouldn’t need to use a blood tracker very often. My son has a young black lab that’s doing great on waterfowl but I was thinking waterfowl also for the dog. Just starting to learn about the breed. Just was really impressed with my friends dog but mostly it was based on him telling me what the dog has done. Have fun with the dog hopefully you can report back

 

[sureshotshane]

I was thinking multi purpose . Hopefully even helping friends we wouldn’t need to use a blood tracker very often. My son has a young black lab that’s doing great on waterfowl but I was thinking waterfowl also for the dog. Just starting to learn about the breed. Just was really impressed with my friends dog but mostly it was based on him telling me what the dog has done. Have fun with the dog hopefully you can report back

I'm actually starting to video document the training of my pups from nearly start and through to finish, so it will be a couple year process. Maybe I can post some of the content on Hunttalk as I go along and find the time to go through it.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I was thinking multi purpose . Hopefully even helping friends we wouldn’t need to use a blood tracker very often. My son has a young black lab that’s doing great on waterfowl but I was thinking waterfowl also for the dog. Just starting to learn about the breed. Just was really impressed with my friends dog but mostly it was based on him telling me what the dog has done. Have fun with the dog hopefully you can report back

My Lab did a good job of blood tracking a whitetail buck a guy wounded the last day of season while I was hunting pheasants on the adjacent property ... until it swam across the Milk River. I could see where it left a trail of mud up the opposite cutbank after climbing out of the water but I wasn't sending the dogs over there. It was almost dark. The shooter had to drive all the way back to a bridge in town. I wonder if they found it.

 

[MS 9x56]

I have had 2 black and 1 yellow labs that I used hunting waterfowl and upland birds a Boykin spaniel that hunted turkeys and upland birds 2 beagles and one mixed breed (beagle and Doberman believe it or not) that all hunted rabbits and squirrels. That mixed breed was a huntin fool. He sometimes would catch the rabbit and bring it to me still alive. To me it is more about the dog temperament and attitude than it is breed. Had a golden retriever for about a month before I had to get rid of her as I had bad allergies to pet dander from long haired dogs and cats.

 

[tim629]

Any thoughts on an overall family dog, German Sheprador’s? German Shepard + Lab.

Looking for a new family dog for companionship and first line of defense protection.

if going shepherd, you want to look into the breeder closely a lot of them have physical and mental health problems

when it comes to a defense dog, go to your local trainer that does bite work spend some time with them picking their brain to see what breeds they have loved and from which breeders. obviously not the soft mouth of a standard hunting dog but need something with the brains and willingness to work

 

[chilidog61]

Really just depends on what you want to do and what your future hunting goals are. Had a buddy who loved labs do to the versatility and ability to hunt waterfowl late in the year. He then moved to a location that favored upland hunting with limited waterfowl. His next two dogs have been griffons since upland hunting is what he does the most now. All dogs are great but some breeds fit better in specific situations. Evaluate your future and what you like to hunt and start narrowing it down. Treat the dog right and no matter the breed they will repay you.