Dogs that make me reconsider labs

[AspenBud]

One tough SOB and some great dogs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydT7N_GiEW4

[jetjockey]

Hunting grouse in the UP or Wisconsin is on my bucket list.  I think I'd have to buy a new gun though before I exposed mine to the tortures of grouse hunting.  Something with some rust, lots of dents, and 26 in barrels would work pretty darn well.

[WSU]

That grouse hunting looks like a blast!

[ribka]

Grew up in N WI and spent many days chasing woodcock and grouse in the woods as a lad with a lab springer mix. The fall colors, smells are incredible up there.

Heading back home this October to hunt

[NW-GSP]

My dad lives in Michigan and hunts grouse and woodcock in the UP, He has two German shorhairs.
in the off season he uses them for locating woodcock chicks so he can band them,

[Blackjaw]

How could you want a lab like that? Those two don't point 

[RadSav]

Sure looks like a good time.  Though I'm not sure I could get myself to own a lab

[Happy Gilmore]

Hunt a Chessie that handles like a Ferrari at 300 + yards and will whistle sit and wait for a flush or sit to flush at your option. Just takes far more training but the pay off is magical

[RadSav]

Hunt a Chessie that handles like a Ferrari at 300 + yards and will whistle sit and wait for a flush or sit to flush at your option. Just takes far more training but the pay off is magical

A Chessie that minds and is trainable...I'm not buying it

[RadSav]

 

Do you have one of these?

[Happy Gilmore]

Ask Richard why all the pointer guys go bird less in the last 4 braces but no pointer guys will put money on the picnic table on their dog against mine for how many finds they can clock in 10 minutes. Lol four pointer guys declined putting their dog on the ground. Hahaa. Had 9 live and healthy birds in the crate in 10 minutes while I finished a beer. Hahaa

[RadSav]

Are you sure it's not another breed just dressed up as a chessie?

[AspenBud]

Running a flushing dog on birds is basically like taking a stick and beating on the bushes to see what flies. The training is more sophisticated for flushers but the bird finding is not. Even if they simply bump a bird and never smell it it's a find. If a pointing dog does that it's a problem.

It's not even worth it make a comparison for that reason.

The caveat here is with pointing labs. There was a friendly competition out in MI a few years ago, traditional pointers (shorthairs, setters, Pointers, Brittany, etc) versus pointing labs. The labs cleaned house. The twist on that however is the labs were the best the state had to offer and the traditional pointers were average and not the top dogs. But the result was still eye opening for some.

[AspenBud]

Or put another way, you can catch a lot of fish with bait. But some still prefer to fly fish. I'm comfortable with that.

[raydog]

You guys want to know whats better than a pointing lab or a flushing lab?

































A Lab Wearing a sombrero!