Any Bird Dog owners / Upland Hunters on here ?

[Blanco]

Curious how many folks here have Bird Dogs / Pointers / Flushers / Labs / Duck Dogs.
One of my other obsessions is my Dogs, I have 3 English Springers that I hunt with and Field trial on a semi occasional basis.
I also have a side obsession tied to the Dogs and that is photography of the Dogs in action.
Its in fun and I can stop any time I want.... Really I can!

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[southpaw]

I have a beagle that chases pheasants and the occasional bunny (she really likes birds hence her nick name bird dog). Does that count? Got a heck of a nose on her if I can keep her off of the deer and turkey.

Jerry Jr.

[Johnch]

I use a Black Lab for upland hunting

Not a true pointing lab
But he slows way down and his whole back end shakes , because he is wagging his tail so hard

He finds more birds than a lot of the true bird dogs we have hunted with

John

[bdicki]

My wife's English springer.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t182/bdicki/080807-2.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t182/bdicki/DSCN0311.jpg

[quack1]

I've had yellow labs for the last 40 years. Mainly use them to hunt ducks and doves, and occasionally grouse and ringnecks.
Here is a picture of the current one from last season. He just had his 8th birthday in July.

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll300/1quack1/greaterscaupswimpoint_zps53495db9.jpg

[skeeter2]

Two English Springer Spaniels. I hunt pheasants in ND and ruffed grouse in MN. Mostly they are my buddies.

[runfiverun]

my idiot lab accidentally found a ptarmigan yesterday. [her mom was a heck of a hunter this one can find carrots but nothing that needs shot]
I have had bird dogs in the past and miss having them around, hence the avatar name run five run.
five was my last hunting dog and she was very, very good at it.

[MaryB]

Had a lab named Misty, great pheasant dog and there is nothing better than watching them work the birds. She was good and would always look back to make sure I was close enough to shoot. She was also a beer hound and I had to lock the cooler when we camped.

[Menner]

Grew up Quail hunting behind English setters and German short hairs my last bird dog was a English Pointer but no birds around here anymore sure miss it. little state lot of developments were we use to hunt and farmers killing all the bugs they eat and planting right up to the edges of the ditches ( no cover ) and total protection of birds of prey and $%&# House / feral cats don't help
Tony

[wlc]

Quail, ruffed grouse and woodcock hunted with English setters for close to 20 years now. Watching my dogs work in the woods for grouse was one of the highlights of my hunting year. Last setter is now retired to the status of "queen of the house" at the age of 12. Maybe one of these days the good Lord will bless me with another tri-colored setter pup that is grousey and the time to hunt with it.

[CGT80]

We had to put her down (Penny) in April due to lung cancer. She carried her yellow ball (her favorite toy) everywhere with her, or another toy such as a stuffed duck. The stuffed toys didn't usually last long, but the duck is still around and the new girls play with it. She was a German Wired Haired Pointer, AKC pure bred. She won shows and was supposedly trained as a hunting dog, but was not good for breeding, so we adopted her. She was part of the family but not a working dog. We don't hunt. She was also adopted to be a companion to our 130 pound pure bred Bouvier Des Flanders (Max), as he was aggressive and needed a play mate.

http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k484/CGT80/Pets%20and%20animals/2013-12-27124239.jpg

Max was a cattle dog, but we did not work him. They are very smart and used as police dogs, but not known as bird dogs. He passed away 3 months after Penny, due to congestive heart failure. He did not do well after she was put down and I think this had at least some effect on his sickness.
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k484/CGT80/Pets%20and%20animals/DSC01927.jpg
http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k484/CGT80/Pets%20and%20animals/AndroidPics044.jpg

These are the end of the bloodline that Penny came from, as the breeder will no longer be breeding. They are both AKC pure bred. Their brother went to a couple who does agility competitions and one other sister was kept by the breeder for show. These girls love the water and the first one (Maddey) is a natural at swimming. Her smaller sister (Halley) isn't quite as good at swimming yet. They are 10 weeks old. They are mostly house broken and they will sit, give a single paw, two paws, or lie down on command. Their brother is a third again bigger than Maddey, and the parents were pretty big for the breed. Penny, above, was only about 70 pounds when she was healthy, but she gave max a run for his money. The puppies will continue to get to swim on occasion and they might go into doing barn yard hunts (searching out prey as a game/competition, but not hunting/killing) and they might do some agility work. They are starting to point sometimes. They will point each other out, or point when they find the cats hiding in the yard.

http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k484/CGT80/Pets%20and%20animals/IMG_20140826_093842_463.jpghttp://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k484/CGT80/Pets%20and%20animals/IMG_20140901_181143_836.jpg

The girls will be companions and they will act as watch dogs around the house and shop. We have a business out of our home sharpening animal grooming/surgical, salon, and barber equipment, doing repairs, and selling dog shampoo, shears, blades and accessories to groomers and vets. They will sometimes be test subjects when we need to try out shears or clipper blades, or when trying out new shampoos, such as our own line. We are animal lovers to start with, and continuing to keep animals also helps us stay connected with the industry and like minded people.

I am a fan of the large working dogs. Little dogs seem to be yappers and less useful as watch dogs or working dogs. The bigger dogs seem to be more mellow. Our cats fill the role of a small animal without the drawbacks of small dogs. Bouviers are probably my favorite breed, but I really do like the pointers. We also had Golden retriever and lab mixes and they were great dogs. I think our smallest was a miniature collie but she had no problem keeping up with another large Bouvier we had. She used to bite his beard and swing in the air as he turned his head side to side. I think she only weighed around 40 pounds and the Bouvier (Bear) was also 120-130 pounds.

It is too bad I am not into hunting, because these dogs would be right at home with it, but it is just not something I wish to do.

Taking photos of the dogs is fun, but pointless with a cell camera. I finally got my DSLR out this week so I could get some decent photos rather than using the slow smart phone. I have an AS degree in photography and had a darkroom setup while I was in high school and college, but I didn't shoot professionally. I used to shoot with a Mamiya C3 twin lens 6x6 medium format camera as well, and I processes both color and black and white film and prints at home. It is kind of pointless with digital now, and I don't take pictures as often as I used to. My reloading and casting equipment takes up most of the space where I would setup a darkroom. I used to shoot pics and make prints, now I make boolits and shoot guns..............at least until the digital revolution tries to kill off my guns too. :mrgreen:

[Dhammer]

I live for upland hunting. I have two German Short Hairs. One Solid liver, and One mostly white with a Brown head and spot on her rear end. They are also family dogs. My ol timer the liver, as a puppy would not let my ex near her ever. It was the final wake up call for me that it was time to get out of a bad marriage. Literally for her first three years, it was the dog and I. If I was not working we were training or hunting. We hunted 5 days a week during the hunting season for years, plus pheasant hunting trips to North Dakota or Nebraska each year. She never cared for any of the GF's either. Then Mama came into the picture and I was chopped liver. That dog will not leave her side when she is home. When we were dating she had an exbf break into the house. The next day she moved the dog and a 40, into her house. I was living with a buddy working a ton of OT to undo the damage the ex did to my finances. GF had a big fenced in yard so it was a dogs paradise. He got one hell of a surprise the next time he tried to get in. 70lbs of pissed off muscle was hell bent on showing a side I had never seen of her before. He learned his lesson the hard way and that was the end of that. Those two have had a unique bond ever since. My old girl is getting up there in age, Mama is talking about another liver GSP in the spring, so the old girl can help train her before she cannot hunt at all.

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[chuckbuster]

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/CBMJake/BirdyBirdy.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/CBMJake/media/BirdyBirdy.jpg.html)

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l48/CBMJake/HappyBoy.jpg (http://s93.photobucket.com/user/CBMJake/media/HappyBoy.jpg.html)

[161]

IMG_20140905_184705_892 (1)
Great bird and rabbit dog. She puts up with being dressed up well also. She's about 12 or 13 now.
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=8476584024/a=3352068024_3352068024/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

[shootmore]

I have a German Shorthair hunt Chuckar and quail every chance we get. She is one of the best bird finders I have ever had. She is startung to slow down so our hunts are not as long as they use to be. The only bad thing about good bird dogs is they get old to fast.