Hi, what are your opinions on the pluses and minuses of dogs that point versus dogs that flush on birds that run.

Thanks
Bill

good question Bill. in MY opinion it's a double edged sword if you have flushers and they get on a hot trail and won't come off do they flush the bird out of range or at the veryedge of range so you have a fleeting shot if your quick enough on the draw.
if you have pointers as i do running birds do also present a problem the dog points where the birds were and you walk in and no bird they you start all over while the bird keeps running.
My dogs have become some what used to these running birds (we hunt mostly pheasants) and will go on a false point but after a few seconds will start to move there head around trying to get wind of the missing bird at which time i tell em to go on or they will start to go on there own we try to drive the birds to a place where they either have to sit or fly like to the edge of an open field etc. and by not pushing them to hard we get them to sit when they run out of cover sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt, blockers help
i can't speak for how a flushing dog owner would handle this i don't have enough experience with them to make a fair opinion of them

Edited by - HOSS on 01/02/2002 09:27:01

I own flushing dogs so I have encountered this circumstance before. In fact I encountered it the last few days on some Chuckars that have been hunted quite a bit and were very wild. How I handled it was giving them the sit command when they were getting close to the bird. By sitting them down it gives me time to catch up to them and even start around them to head the bird off. I can tell when the dogs are getting close to the birds when my Springer starts to squeel and yip. My Lab does better at sitting down on command at larger distances. I did have a few wild flushes from my Springer who was incredibly birdy and was having a hard time slowing down on the runners. We ended up getting 17 Valley quail and 10 Chuckars so for late season birds this was a pretty good hunt.

Big Lead can I play too
sounds like you've got quite abit of action. my shorthairs have a hard time coming off a hot trail like that probably the trainer not the dogs fault me being the trainer. I'll call them back to me and hold them for abit at times and they will stay at heel as long as i'm touching them on the head but as soon as i'm not thats there normal command to hunt em up

Edited by - HOSS on 01/03/2002 12:50:57

I think either can learn to handle running birds although few dogs of any type handle them perfectly all the time. My shorthair has become pretty adept on ringnecks and scaled quail. I think flushers are a little better on the birds that have hunkered down while the rest ran. I think competent pointers can sometimes pin runners that the hunter with a flusher would never have caught up with. I think decently trained pointer is easier to whoa on a hot trail, although certainly a flusher can be trained to stop also. Many learn to point, relocate, point in such a manner that you can catch up to a running bird without spooking it into flushing out of range.