AlaskaMagnum

All breeds have their positive/negatives -- it's why we have different breeds. Find the one that matches your style of hunting, has the temperment you like, maybe even the looks you like, and get a pup.

Well, I guess I can't make up my mind because I have a DD and a GSP, and have had labs, springer spaniels, and even an English cocker. Here are my observations about the breeds I have owned.

DD - so far very nice. Nice search, good point, medium drive, intelligent, great temperment (a friendly dog, but you would not want to come into my house without me opening the door for you), matures mentally at a medium rate. Likes to retreive but is certianly not retrieve crazy. Not as tough as a lab as far as pressure, but not as stuborn either. We will see, but so far, they are do-it-all dogs. Quiet dogs, not big barkers, chewers, or diggers.

GSP- high drive, super intelligence, friendly. That super high prey drive makes up for lots of stuff, will run huge, will hit the water, is an all day dog. They are sensitive which makes advanced retriever training kind of difficult, they will also hold a grudge if you screw up in training, mature very quickly, and are mentally adult at just a little over a year. They will retrieve readily, but would rather be out making stuff happen. Fur, feathers, blood, it doesn't matter. If your GSP barks, there is something out there. They are not destructive at all.

Labs - high drive, intelligent, some have been pretty hyper. They mature mentally SLOWLY, which means years of puppyhood, which some people do not realize when they get a lab. Awesome retrievers, good upland dogs. Most lack any aggression and are poor guard dogs. Easy to train, especially for beginners. Screw up, wait a day or two, and all is forgiven. It takes a special kind of idiot to mess up a lab -- they are that forgiving. They get bored and can be destructive as hell, some are especially bad chewers.

Spaniels -- I love spaniels, too bad they don't point. They will hunt anything and everything with that spaniel gusto. They are good natured, easily handled, great with kids, they can be nervous. Cold water, heavy brush, or a day at the beach, a spaniel is just glad to be there with you. Probably the best heavy cover pheasant and rabbit dogs you are going to find.


I like them ALL. Dogs are cool! I hate cats though

daleh

I guess it is the way i grew up. we hunted quail with a pointer and a setter. we had a place in south dakota we hunted pheasants but did not use dogs. we hunted ducks never had a retreiver. we hunted doves no dog. we never hunted anything with furr except after the hunt in the local bars. i still think that dogs serve a specific purpose. that is why we have pointers, setters, britts, [gsps], (mostly pointer blood as of now) and retrievers. No one will ever convince me that a pointer can retrieve as well as a lab. likewise no one will ever convince me that a lab is a good bird dog. not in theremakeup
most drops make good pets some make good bird dogs

Doc E

Pointing Labs recently took 1st and 3rd Place in the Colorado State Pheasant Championships....And they were running in the Pointing Division.



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Truth be told....

Well daleh, you are very misinformed as to what many breeds of dog are capable of. Doc E I don't believe that there is such a thing as state championship for dogs in anything. Those events are the bush league bird shoots. They hold no merit as to which or what dog is better than the other.

Doc E

The name of the event was the "Colorado State Pheasant Championship". Quite a few states have these events. There is a National Pheasant Championship as well.Do a Google Search using the words "Pheasant Championship" and you will gain some new knowledge.
True, they are 'run and gun' events, thusit's a team effort betweeen dog and human, against the clock. It's set up similar to the National Bird Dog Challenge Association events.



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Truth be told....

That makes the point very well Doc E. Thank you....

AlaskaMagnum

That's not really fair. True, the run and gun stuff is probably not the best evaluation of a bird dog, but being successful enough to beat other pointing breeds certianly shows that the dogs can find birds, point them, and then retrieve them....that is all a lot of guys want.

Now, if you are trying to say that winning a couple run and guns makes you ready for the All Age Class at the Ames Plantation or a contender in NAVHDA Invitational....I would say you are smokin some good stuff.

Truth be told....

Well just the fact that labs are in a divison that is a pointing divison, shows a lack of credibility of those things. They want the guys money so they(the people who put these events on) have lowered the bar so low that basically any breed of dog can enter in the pointing divison, or can be called a pointer, if the owner has enough money to get the standards changed. It is hunting dog blasphemy!![:-]

Doc E

Er - Uh - not quite correct. The only dogs allowed in the pointing division are the various pointing breeds - the various setter breeds and pointing labs. If you're going to 'dis' something, you need to learn a little more about it first.
You probably have run in some good Pointer events (congrats if you have), buthave you ever run in a "run and gun" event? It really doesn't sound like you have.
What do you think of the National Bird Dog Challenge?
It's organizations like NAVHDA, NSTRA and some other pointing dog organizations that won't allow PLs to compete that is blasphemy. PLs took 1st, 2nd and 4th places in the first NAVHDA trial in which they were allowed (the Pres. of NAVHDA ran PLs in that event! ! ) It only took a year or two for PLs to be 'disallowed''................Hmmmmm. Ever wonder why? It's because the elitist pointer dog folks couldn't stand being whipped by a Labrador, that's why.
You need to do some study in NAVHDA history.



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Doc E