Originally Posted by
Vodevil27
Hey everybody,
I am new to hunting, but I already know that I intend to get into multiple types of hunting. I'm also a dog lover, so I want to combine the two.
I know I want to squirrel hunt, rabbit hunt, and shed hunt. I am thinking I might want to branch out into coon or even small game birds at some point.
I'm having trouble picking a dog breed. Logically I know that I will probably have greater success if I pick beagles for rabbits and a feist for squirrels and a coonhound for coon and a spaniel for the game birds, but is there a breed that is versatile enough to do it all? Or at least more than one thing?
I have read that you can't train a single dog for rabbit and squirrel as it confuses them on the hunt, how true is that?
Thanks for any help
I have a German Wire Hair Pointer and he is a flat out, for real, paid pro at the bird preserve farms. Find, point, fetch, hold, no TV dog ever did it better. I got him because the professional guide who had him got out of it all, the dog got too old, and the zoning for keeping dogs in his neighborhood all seemed to converge on him at once. My house was suppose to be his retirement home.
We go back to the "bird farms" for fun and he can not see a bird for a year and step one foot on the place and it is like he just woke up from a dream and he is young again.
By the same token since he has come here, we hunt beavers, squirrels, rabbits, doves, what ever comes our way and he is as happy fetching a squirrel from across the hollar as he is a bird. Sit by me for hours watching and smelling for a beaver and go on full alert if anything shows up. I could probably take a nap and look up just by feeling him tense up beside me. He has fetched more than one dead beaver from 50 or 60 yards out in a big muddy beaver pond.
http://www.vommoorehaus.com/drahthaar.php