spadluigi

Overall, what's the "best" dog for waterfowling and upland bird hunting? I would want something medium to small.

seattlesetters

If waterfowl is your main goal, you better get a retriever. If you happen to know where some upland birds live and can put yourself within 40 yards of them, the retriever can be trained to flush them for you and retrieve what you shoot.

Not too many retrievers that are "medium to small," however.

If you reverse the order of your preferences, then an English Springer Spaniel would be perfect.

spadluigi

Seattlesetters, you mean if I reverse the order in the sense that I make upland birds my primary reason for the dog? Because actually, I'll probably do more upland bird hunting than waterfowling. I'm going to check out the English Springer Spaniel.

spadluigi

Seattlesetters, they're nice looking dogs. There are a lot of English Springer Spaniel Dog rescue organizations. Would you recommend male or female, or does it matter?

seattlesetters

Male or female shouldn't matter. What does, however, is that the dog is bred for the field rather than the bench.

birddogs4u

I don't think there is any one Breed that is ultimately better than any of the others, We have French Brittany's and yes they water retrieve and hunt birds..

But not all do. Ours were trained to be versatile. Almost any dog can be trained to do both if their breeds have those natural abilities in them. Look at Labs if you get the pointing lines they will also do both.

Jon and Crystal Alloway

www.birddogs4u.com

whtelk

I have hunted Geese,ducks,pheasants,quail,and chuckars with labs for the last 30 years you really cant find alot better breed for all round. Labradors are extremely good water dogs and have no problem with burrs like longer haired dogs. just my favorite.

birddogs4u

I know that Labs can be excellent all around gundogs, I was jsut stating that other breeds are out there, too. But just like our french brits there are some labs and other versatile breeds that will not do all. It takes the combination of the dogs natural abilities and the people who can bring those abilities to their potential.

JW

I had labs - now I use a German Wire-haired pointers.

I hunt anything that flies.

JW!

DrakeDawgs

Labs...Labs.....Labs