whitetailhunter10

Im getting a pup lab this spring and was wondering what to train it to hunt. I hunt any kind of small game but was wondering what a lab would be best at hunting. Please help

Jimmy S

Your lab, as in Labrador Retriver, was bred to retrieve. I understand there are some labs that are also pointing labs.
I have seen a lot of labs in the field when I take my Springer pheasant hunting, and they seem to do well.

But, they were bred to retrieve after the shot. Mostly ducks and geese.....

dtabor

Definitely training for retrieving downed birds and waterfowl. They are bred for it and love to do it!! My lab actually tried to retrieve a hare that I shot while bird hunting one time!

sproulman

best is they hunt close and they always look for you, at least mine do.

thats nice when you are in woods that you dont have to worry where you dog is, usually they cross back/forth in front of you about 25 yards out all time.

labs are great for ducks/pheasants.

mine hunts grouse ok but is FLUSHER, YOU HAVE TO BE READY ALL TIME.

make sure you get a AMERICAN LAB, ONES WITH THE LONG LEGS AND SMALL BUILD.try to get one from breeder that sire/dam hunt.



stay away from those heavy english boxy head labs.

here is my friends site, look at his black dogs, that male in picture is mines brother.

look at size and build.this is not for advertizing only for you too look at his dogs, look at black ones to get idea of what you should be looking for and weights.




www.wetland-retrievers.com

losthwy

Labs are bred to hunt and retrieve birds, esp waterfowl. They can be trained to do just about anything a dog can do. I differentiate a little from the previous post. Those blocky dogs are from SHOW LINES not necessarily from the UKand agree they are to be avoided. Anddogs from show linesare found on both sides of the Atlantic. I have seen field Labs from the UK (do a searchunder Eugene Mallory at the Refuge) and they look just like American field labs. I would look for pedigrees that have titles like MH, QAA, AFC, FC, NFC. Show dogs have titles like CH.

mnprohunter

I have a black lab and had one before him, and dad had labs/retrievers for years. There are some great books by Frank Woolner about dog training, Gun Dog, Water Dog, etc. These books or just one of them, offer great advice from picking a pup to training. Good luck

Bugflipper

I hunt mainly upland. So the dogs have no choice but to hunt what I hunt. The lab will not point but he will honor a point. The chesapeake does the pointing. Of coarse he will retrieve anything with fur or feathers that will fit in his mouth. He even brought me back a groundhog I shot last summer.
I trained him to follow hand signals instead of sound because I don't want to spook game as much. He was born with one bad eye so his range is only 300 yards or so. The Chessy follows signal commands out to 700 yards or so. When I point down that means follow the chessy, he stay 10 or 15 feet behind her. So he still gets to run and hunt out far, he just has to copy her. I mainly use his clumbsy butt as a brush buster to kick birds up.

I have him run a zig zag pattern to flush rabbits to me. He does not chase them, they just try to slip away from him. I can also send him to the opposite side of the field and bring him back with the command slow to have him walk through the thick and push game out. I use them squirrel hunting as well. When I spot a squirrel I send them out past the tree for distraction and have them roll over. That draws the squirrel's attention from me to get a shot off.
As long as you can make it understand what you want they will do a lot. Just be patient and provide a whole lot of praise. Personally I am a chessy fan since they have all the attributes of a lab and are smarter. On the other hand it takes a very strong willed person to train a chessy. My wife is able to train the lab, she is last in the pecking order in the house but he is eager to do what anybody says. The chessy will come to me when the wife is trying to train it and sit at my feat looking up. I will point to my wife sending the dog to her. The wife will issue a command and the dog looks at me. I snap my fingers and the dog obeys the command my wife gave. The sad part is it's her dog, as is the lab.

sproulman

labs are great all around dog IF they are small ones.

they will hunt anything you train them to hunt and can take weather better than any dog out there.

best is retrieving,thats what they do.

they do well at pheasants.

grouse /rabbits they do good but are a FLUSHER.

best dogs for pheasants are setters/gsp/lab/brittany

grouse, setter/gsp/brittany/pointers

rabbits, beagle

labs nose picks up scent different than a setter.


i had friend that tested labs vrs setters on pheasants.

he said in avg test,setter would point up 11 birds for 7 for lab.

he said the lab missed many birds that setter found.

i also see this hunting too.

setter hunters seem to get more pheasants than the lab hunters but they may be because the setters POINT and you are ready more than a lab that flushes a bird.

millagerobert

My lab is not the best at any one hunting task, but can get the job done on a wide range of them. Labs are best as a companion for your trips into the field. Mine will retrieve anything I shoot that he can get his mouth around, from birds to small game. He also finds sheds, packs 10 pounds of gear in his pack when backpacking, protects the kids in camp, keeps my feet warm on cold nights in the mountains, alerts me to things human senses would miss, and most important gives me company on trips when my friends can't make it. They love to please, so my advise to you is to just take you dog along on whatever you like to do most, and I am sure you will find a role yourfor your labto fill. Here is a picture of my knuckle headed lab with my cousin's kid from last weekends horn hunting hike.

sproulman

killing GAME is not fun part of being with your dog.

its all things you said and others like how easy it is to clean dog, health issues etc.

i know i could get 2 times more grouse with a lewellin setter but i just love my lab.

most important thing in a dog hunting the big mountains of northcentral pa is a dog that WILL STAY WITH YOU OUT AHEAD 20 YDS, NO SHOCK COLLAR OR LOST COLLAR THING,ALWAYS LOOKING FOR YOUR,NOT WORRYING ABOUT COVERING TERRITORY TO FIND MORE GROUSE.

DOG THAT CAN TAKE ON A TRAP, COUGAR,COYOTE,FOX,RACOON,RATTLESNAKE,BEAR.

thats dog that I WANT with me at 5 minutes before dark in a blizzard, wind blowing,coyotes howling,bear sneaking around,tree falling,cold nasty weather.