Kansas City Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
*closapio*
I forgot that your dogs are hunting dogs. What does DH hunt with them? Did you get them trained somewhere, or did you guys do it?
Andy wants to get a bird dog sometime in the not so distant future. Any breeds you can recommend? I like GSPs, DH likes Brittanies...
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Re: *closapio*
Hey not to butt into your conversation, but I was being nosey. Without saying to much personal information on the net, let's just say that I have a "professional" knowledge about hunting, Brittanys are wonderful hunting dogs, easily trained, but labradors, are great hunters and tend to be on the cheaper side when going with a dog. Some of my colleagues like beagles, and claim that they do very well, when out in the marsh but I am not a big fan because of their constant howling.
Hope that helps ;0)
DH hunts primarily upland game atm - quail and pheasant with the dogs.
He does a little bit of dove hunting, although the dogs aren't trained specifically for that.
He really wants to train one of them to be a duck dog, but Trixie (our GSP) wouldn't be able to because her coat is too thin and duck hunting is a winter activity. Max (our English Cocker) would be fine if he could stay still, so I think H is going to work with him on that.
As far as breeds go - I love Trixie (our GSP). She's very biddable and easy to train (although a little hard headed). We also have an English setter living with us, which I would recommend against for the first time sporting dog owner.
Brittanies are a great dog for hunting, and I love English cockers, but they are much more difficult to find hunting lines. Vizslas are along the same lines as an English setter - great dogs, but a lot of dog with a lots of energy and easy to ruin as a hunting dog.
Labs are great for retrieving, but it's hard again to find a pointing lab or one that will do much besides retrieving.
I guess it really kind of depends on what kind of hunting Andy wants to do.
We had both of our dogs trained by someone other than ourselves, because we just didn't have the birds necessary to train bird dogs. (Well, we had three homing pigeons at one time, but they were eaten by the Manhattan Hawks before a week had passed).
If you do get a hunting dog, depending on the breed and what you want to hunt, we know of trainers around. It is A LOT of money and Trixie's trainer kept her for three months, but she is sharp and steady to wing and to shot.
Are there any hunt clubs around Topeka where Andy can hunt? (Or MH for that matter - we are looking for hunt clubs now...)
I think he is going back and forth between upland game and ducks. Or maybe we just need to get two dogs and have one for each
)?
He has gone to this place in Baldwin, KS a few times-Eckman Hunting Preserve. I'm going with him on Saturday with another couple and their brittany.?
http://www.eckmanhuntingpreserve.com/
Can you rescue a dog from the shelter and train them to be a decent hunting dog? I am willing to buy a dog from a breeder if we need to, but I would love to rescue one. I know it would be hard to detect decent hunting blood lines and what not...just curious. I volunteer at the humane society here occaionally, and I always see a ton of GSPs, brittanies, etc.?
?
Thanks for the link to the hunting preserve! H was been taking the dogs to the WIHAs around and just hasn't had a whole lot of luck.
Of course you can rescue a dog and train them to become a good hunting dog. You might have a much more difficult time, though. Unfortunately, much of the breeding of sporting dogs has been done by BYBs who try to make the dogs into companion animals and the hunt has been bred out of them. However, many sporting dogs in shelters are birdy - you would just really need to find a good one.
That's why we went with breeders for both of our dogs - we KNOW that they come from hunting lines, we have seen their parents work and know how biddable they are, and we know that the dogs are built for days in the field.
That being said, there are many times that we have gone to the shelter in Manhattan and seen a GSP pointing a bird - many hunting dogs are seen as disposable and THAT'S how they end up in shelters, unfortunately. However, it is usually the dogs with more problems that will end up in a shelter than one that has already been trained (i.e - H's boss's dog who is gun shy is a French Brittany that they think was abandoned due to her gun-shyness).
And if you need the names of good trainers - we have them!
Oh, and H wanted me to say that it's a pain in the bootie to comb out burrs from long hair.
He recommends a lab if Andy is thinking of doing both upland and duck work- but most labs are flushing dogs unless you get one from pointing lines.
He also suggested a Springer, but then you have the hair problem again.