Thinking about a golden retriever for Grouse/Family Dog
I know a Golden is not the typical Ruffed Grouse dog. But my famimly picked out some family dogs they would want and the only one suited for hunting is a golden.
Anyone else ever use a golden for grouse? How did it work?
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Goldens make great family dogs and tend to love kids (Goldens act like kids themselves).
To use a Golden as a grouse dog, training will need to be top notch -- particularly OBedience and especially the ability to keep the dog within gun range.
Grooming all the seeds and burrs out of all that hair can be a chore.
Get on a good training program and go have fun.
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Doc E &
HR UH MHR WR SR Black Forest Casey &
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I have a golden retriever, and it is a CHORE to clean him up once he's been through burrs or dirty water. Loves birds though, soft mouth. Hard to keep him close enough for flushing though. They are incredibly smart and fast learners though.
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One of my hunting buddies has a golden. He's a great retriever, gets ducks like the dickens and works along fine with my black lab. We've taken the dogs out grouse hunting a number of times. His dog in particular, isn't trained as well as mine to hold tight and tends to wander. As a result, he flushes far more birds than my lab, BUT, the birds my lab flushes are closer in.
He works fine, I'd say a golden in general would work fine. Not an ideal grouse dog, but a fine hunting dog with a fantastic disposition. And if you train him right, you should have no problem.
Get the golden, love him and enjoy him. And treasure the moments when he's your hunting dog and not just the family's bundle of love.
If you do decide on a Golden - which I highly recommend - and you decide to hunt the dog in country where there are lots of burrs and sticktites - it would be a good idea to get what is called a "field cut" at your groomers. They darn near shave the dog and it aint pretty but it sure saves a lot of grief picking burrs and cleaning mud after a hunt or even a walk in the woods. If there is any mud or water around - a Golden will find it and wallow - that is a given. But, they are so worth the trouble. Wonderful dogs and scary smart. I had a female Golden that was a close in worker by nature - I got her as a pup and we had a great bond and she just stayed close to me always, and she was a grouse addict. If there was a bird anywhere in the area - she was gonna find it and put it up within range. I still miss that lady!!! and she's been gone since 1997.
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Warren
If you argue for your limitations - sure enough - they are yours.
all of above seem about right.NO, i would not use golden for grouse or pheasants for that matter.i use SMALL BLACK LAB for grouse and i am only one,i mean only one....
but TOBY is better than golden for all reasons above mentioned.
every golden i ever saw does not listen,they just dont listen.that could be training BUT I DOUBT IT.
english setter is dog for grouse .but i like LAB for hunting and home.
see if you can talk family into getting a AMERICAN HUNTING LAB.
all of above seem about right.NO, i would not use golden for grouse or pheasants for that matter.i use SMALL BLACK LAB for grouse and i am only one,i mean only one....
but TOBY is better than golden for all reasons above mentioned.
every golden i ever saw does not listen,they just dont listen.that could be training BUT I DOUBT IT.
english setter is dog for grouse .but i like LAB for hunting and home.
see if you can talk family into getting a AMERICAN HUNTING LAB.
good at home and they listen.
Part of this I agree with - The English Setter is the one,if you are just Grouse hunting, and the Lab is a good second choice - after the Golden. If you have seen Goldens that don't listen - believe me for the most part, it is training plus - more than likely, they were males, I too, have seen a few male Goldens that were total boneheads. I have owned and trained several Labs and one Golden, and that one Golden was more intelligent than all of the Labs combined. I know - it's a real touchy area and I will probably get bombed for this, but it is from my own experience that I say these things. They have to be handled and trained differently and a lot of people never understand that. In my experience - if you try to obedience train a Golden with the same methods you would use on a Lab, you will ruin the dog. In my experience - The Goldens have a totally different, more sensitive temperament than the Labs and they will do more thinking for themselves,so you need to be aware of that and train accordingly.
If it was me buying a Golden for a Grouse hunting family dog, I would find a breeder who has good hunting stock in the background and also a laid back disposition - then I would pick a female and have her spayed.
This is strictly one mans opinion. I hope it helps.
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Warren
If you argue for your limitations - sure enough - they are yours.
[quote=Doc E;3849148]High level Hunt Test titles certainly don't bear that out.
You are confusing trainabillity with intelligence - they are two different things.
My Labs were much easier to train, for obedience and to hunt. They are more tractable and don't think for themselves like a golden will.
Have you ever owned a Golden? As a breed - they will never equal the Labs in the field for pure hunting enthusiasm - and energy and ease of training, but - if you are not too harsh in your training of a Golden and give it time to figure things out - you will have an amazing partner at home and in the field.
I am just a hunter - not a High Level Hunt tester or field trialer - I have no interest in those things. My only interest is in a dogs nose and ability to find birds close enough for me to shoot. My female Golden did that to perfection - (my standards - not High level hunt test standards) plus she was a perfect, well behaved companion. For all the time I owned her - I worked 12 hour shifts. And from the time she was 6 months old, she had the run of the house - alone - for those 12 hours and she never once chewed up anything that wasn't hers or made a mess in the house unless she was sick.
As I said - this is just one mans opinion from my own experience with a few dogs I owned.
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Warren
If you argue for your limitations - sure enough - they are yours.
I would go with what you feel you want.. That is exactly what I had done and do not have any regrets. There was a lot of folks tell me the Irish setters were no good and only had those stupid show dogs left in them. I did do some research and found what I had wanted. They hunt great for me and soon I will be running them on birds again. I wanted to trial mine but couldn't get the time to do it. I had even went out with those guys and walked a few braces when I could get the chance to. But, with my work schedule being what it is I couldn't make any plans on getting them to trial. So i enjoy them just the way they are. Good luck on what you decide Warren..
Thinking about a golden retriever for Grouse/Family Dog
I know - it's a real touchy area and I will probably get bombed for this, but it is from my own experience that I say these things. They have to be handled and trained differently and a lot of people never understand that. In my experience - if you try to obedience train a Golden with the same methods you would use on a Lab, you will ruin the dog. In my experience - The Goldens have a totally different, more sensitive temperament than the Labs and they will do more thinking for themselves,so you need to be aware of that and train accordingly.
