Hunting Dog Breeds

[robmcleod82]

lol! Oh Man- I feel for your friend but that’s pretty funny.

He did not find it funny i can assure you. I on the other hand laughed my ass off.

 

[gelhaargerald]

You bring up a good point. I’ve never trained any kind of pointer and fully realize I would need some help. Being relatively new to the area I live in, I don’t have a lot of contacts. Finding someone to help should probably be step 1.

I really hadn’t considered a springer or cocker. Maybe I should. One of my buddies has an awesome springer. Thanks for the comments.

Where in iowa are you?

are you going to hunt a lot of public?

Grew up around pointers but when I moved to Iowa I got a pointing lab because I wanted a waterfowl dog and a pointer. She ended up being an awesome waterfowl dog. No kids so I had time and ran hunt test. She never failed a test and got a SH title. She wasn’t much of a pointer and ended up being a flusher.

I didn’t know much about flushing dogs but I am not sure I would want to go back to a pointer hunting wild birds in Iowa. Most time the cover is really thick. A lot of times I can’t even see the dog.

Pointers are awesome and have their place. In my opinion flushers on wild birds put way more birds in the bag. While a different experience it’s still a shit ton of fun to hunt over them.

 

[paul.anders.j]

Where in iowa are you?

are you going to hunt a lot of public?

Grew up around pointers but when I moved to Iowa I got a pointing lab because I wanted a waterfowl dog and a pointer. She ended up being an awesome waterfowl dog. No kids so I had time and ran hunt test. She never failed a test and got a SH title. She wasn’t much of a pointer and ended up being a flusher.

I didn’t know much about flushing dogs but I am not sure I would want to go back to a pointer hunting wild birds in Iowa. Most time the cover is really thick. A lot of times I can’t even see the dog.

Pointers are awesome and have their place. In my opinion flushers on wild birds put way more birds in the bag. While a different experience it’s still a shit ton of fun to hunt over them.

Gah! That’s exactly what makes me reluctant to get a pointer. My chessies would run through a wall to flush. Runners, cripples - no problem. Years ago I hunted over a pair of English Setters. We spent all day with those dogs on point just to find out that the pheasants were running. My other reservation is that, IMO, you can always make a serviceable upland dog out of a water dog, but not every upland dog will make a water dog - even if the breed is known as good swimmers. While I’ll most likely hunt mostly upland, I’ll still do a fare amount of duck hunting. To answer your question, I live in the Des Moines area and hunt throughout central Iowa. Thanks for your comments.

 

[gelhaargerald]

Gah! That’s exactly what makes me reluctant to get a pointer. My chessies would run through a wall to flush. Runners, cripples - no problem. Years ago I hunted over a pair of English Setters. We spent all day with those dogs on point just to find out that the pheasants were running. My other reservation is that, IMO, you can always make a serviceable upland dog out of a water dog, but not every upland dog will make a water dog - even if the breed is known as good swimmers. While I’ll most likely hunt mostly upland, I’ll still do a fare amount of duck hunting. To answer your question, I live in the Des Moines area and hunt throughout central Iowa. Thanks for your comments.

When did you move here?

I am in Adel moved here in 2001. I bird hunted my ass off into 2014 ish time frame. Kids got older and they liked deer more so I gravitated towards it. My one son really likes ducks so I have gotten back into it a little but I don’t have a great dog right now. We have a golden that does well on pheasant is awful on ducks.

Shoot me a PM if this site has it. I know trainers, training areas and some pretty decent public spots.

 

[snow_knight]

So I almost pulled the trigger on a drath puppy 6 years ago. Hunted behind a few of them upland birds and in a goose pit. Amazing dogs and a great choice in the versatile gundog world.
After countless hours of research I ended up going pudelpointer. Mainly because they tend to be as good as drath in hunting situations but much better when it comes to a family dog. Been super happy with the decision. Amazing hunting dogs and great with family. We just added another this summer.
As stated before, see if you have a local NAVDA chapter and reach out. They tend to hold training days quite often, may be an opportunity to go see some of the dogs in person.

Always remember though you can spend all the $ in the world on the best bloodlines anybody has ever heard of. These dogs still need training and more importantly, time in the field!

Ive seen mutts out hunt high end gun dogs quite a bit.

 

[paul.anders.j]

When did you move here?

I am in Adel moved here in 2001. I bird hunted my ass off into 2014 ish time frame. Kids got older and they liked deer more so I gravitated towards it. My one son really likes ducks so I have gotten back into it a little but I don’t have a great dog right now. We have a golden that does well on pheasant is awful on ducks.

Shoot me a PM if this site has it. I know trainers, training areas and some pretty decent public

Where in iowa are you?

are you going to hunt a lot of public?

Grew up around pointers but when I moved to Iowa I got a pointing lab because I wanted a waterfowl dog and a pointer. She ended up being an awesome waterfowl dog. No kids so I had time and ran hunt test. She never failed a test and got a SH title. She wasn’t much of a pointer and ended up being a flusher.

I didn’t know much about flushing dogs but I am not sure I would want to go back to a pointer hunting wild birds in Iowa. Most time the cover is really thick. A lot of times I can’t even see the dog.

Pointers are awesome and have their place. In my opinion flushers on wild birds put way more birds in the bag. While a different experience it’s still a shit ton of fun to hunt over them.

Oh cool - I’m at Norwalk. Moved here in 2021. Between getting settled into a new job and getting married I haven’t had a lot of time to get connected to ppl in the hunting world. I’ve been leasing a place to deer hunt down by Osceola. Next step is to start doing more bird hunting. My wife’s family is from around Webster City. It looks like there’s some great options for public land around there and I’m looking forward to exploring that area. I’ll shoot you a dm. Thanks!