Originally Posted by
Mite
Any dog can be trained to hunt but for the amateur trainer, there will be a lot of frustration for both the trainer/owner and the dog. A good bird dog naturally has 'birdiness' instilled into its gene through centuries of breeding. It takes the trainer very little effort to bring it out but will spend the majority of time teaching the dog how to hunt (one of the reason why gun shyness is so difficult to break; the dog is associating what it wants with what it is afraid of - most trainers will use the dogs natural birdiness to overcome it). A dog without the birdiness has to have it taught or encouraged above its wanting to play and want to chase other game.
Once that is done, they will have to train it to hunt for them and not for itself. It will take a strong trainer and an exceptional smart dog.
I agree...
My uncle used to breed Labs, at the time I had a German shepard, ( I bought it for the girl I was dating and when we split up I ended up with it, the dog didn't care for her at all.) I trained him to retrieve dove/ quail quite well, didnt point or anything. (I didn't need another dog, or i would have gotten a pup from my uncle and wasn't going to give up my German Shepard) He picked it up with minimal training, just being out hunting with my uncles labs. I believe this was a rare case.
My uncle also had a Dogo named cracker who was a damn good bird dog... another rare case.
Dogs are bred with certain attributes to aid them in their purpose.
Pits were bred for bull baiting and fighting....
Bird dogs were bred to hunt birds.
Some dogs can pick up hunting but I don't believe they will be great at it.
One of my good buddies hunts hogs and one his catch dog2 is a shar pei one is a boxer the other is a pit.
Right now my two dogs are a shar pei, and a boxer both trained guard dogs, and don't hunt. My father-in-law has a brittany pup that i'm going to start training when I get home from the desert.
YMMV...