Getting a Bird Dog - Talk Me Out of It!

younggun308

younggun308

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Hunted a preserve last week over some English Setters. And now I'm sick…cannot stop thinking about the dog going from frenetic searching to being locked on point, at birds I wouldn't have had the faintest idea were there.

Extremely strongly considering getting a Brittany pup this summer from someone I know who has hunted over them for decades. Got an uncle who is going to South Dakota in the fall of 2026 for ducks and upland. Not worried if it cannot really retrieve ducks in potholes.

I'm about to take a plunge; the time to talk me out of it is now.
Help my wife before it's too late. 😂
 
Are you dedicated to training it daily to do what you saw a finished dog doing? Do you have the places to hunt where you can get it into birds? Those would be the questions I would ask.
 
Multi use dog is what I would go into it with the idea of upland bird, waterfowl, shed hunter, blood tracker for deer. I like to have something to do with a dog year round outside besides strictly hunting a certain thing once a year.

I say GO FOR IT
 
Hduke86 said:
Multi use dog is what I would go into it with the idea of upland bird, waterfowl, shed hunter, blood tracker for deer. I like to have something to do with a dog year round outside besides strictly hunting a certain thing once a year.

I say GO FOR IT
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Agreed on the multi-use. I have no say in the go for it or not 🤣. Having said that, we just got an Aussie pup 2 weeks ago. Best time of year to get a pup imo - months and months of good weather for training their brains
 
Hduke86 said:
Multi use dog is what I would go into it with the idea of upland bird, waterfowl, shed hunter, blood tracker for deer. I like to have something to do with a dog year round outside besides strictly hunting a certain thing once a year.

I say GO FOR IT
Click to expand...
I say go for it as well! I got a buddy that has a cur that will flush birds in command and retrieve them. He's also used as a tracking dog and currently finding sheds with him. Best multi use dog I've ever seen. I offered to buy him but he won't price him. I don't blame him either.
 
Hduke86 said:
Multi use dog is what I would go into it with the idea of upland bird, waterfowl, shed hunter, blood tracker for deer. I like to have something to do with a dog year round outside besides strictly hunting a certain thing once a year.

I say GO FOR IT
Click to expand...

A Boykin fits this bill (mostly). Not sure how to get a Boykin to point though
 
I had pointing dogs in the past and was completely obsessed with bird hunting when I was young, the end of wild birds in Tennessee kinda put an end to it with pointers( I couldn't afford game farms then) but now I've got a Springer for a more 50/50 bird hunting/ duck-dove hunting dog. We are gonna do the game farm pheasants and he's gonna be a retrieving sidekick. I went with a springer cause I can do both rather than a pointing breed, also I've learned that with a flushing breed, it has the same excitement of a pointing breed pointing but in a different way, my lil dog is going back and forth like a windshield wiper and when he smells a bird that little tail starts going a million miles an hour, then he rushes the bird and put it in the air!!! With both you know a ticking bomb of birds is fixing to go off but with the flusher it just ticks faster! That's the best I can think of to describe it.
I've always said I'd trade all the deer and turkeys in the world just to be able to bird hunt, there is no greater thrill in hunting than walking in on a pointing dog and no higher man/ dog partnership in hunting than bird hunting with a pointing breed imo.
I'd say if you're young and can afford it don't wait, do it while you can!!!
But understand, there are no wild birds to speak of in Tennessee anymore so it'll be a game farm thing unless you travel like your Uncle.
 
I ain't no help, get what you want, I would rabbit hunt forever if I had to pick 1 thing, beware just because you buy a pup from a good bloodline doesn't mean it will turn out to be a good bird dog, there are more bird dogs than good bird dogs. lots of training to get to a finished state and then lots of time keeping them sharp,
 
MickThompson said:
Mine started doing it on woodcock after he turned 2. Pointing can't be trained though.
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The way my Boykin bounces around the backyard here at the shop, he's the flushingest little bird flusher I've ever seen. As soon as we go into the shop, he starts running to the back in hopes of getting to go outside and chase birds
 
If you have figured out how to convince your wife you need a bird dog let me know I have been trying for years.

I think the only way I will get one is to get a puppy hide it in the woods and let the kids find it then we will have to keep it. That at least seems to be the only way we have collected dogs and cats in the past.
 
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A picture is worth a thousand words . Nothing like it imo.
 

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