Gun Dog Forum

I’m hoping to be in a position by the end of summer to get my first true hunting dog. My girlfriend and I have talked it over for more than a year about what dog(s) we will have. In the past I had a mutt/rescue that was a decent untrained upland dog. She never did great but we always had fun. At this point in life I believe I’m ready to tackle formal training. As far as the work, 1st priority will be shed hunting, 2nd will be pheasant. I’ve quit waterfowl hunting over the years so the only other adventure would be mountain walks for grouse.

I’ve been split between a Britt or springer. Everyone I hunt with has flushers which points me towards a springer. Just looking for some feedback as I’ve heard hunting pointers with flushers ruins dogs (unless specifically trained to work in tandem).

Thanks for any guidance. I know this topic has been beaten to death, I’ve read countless boards and articles. Just hoping I stir up something to help settle my decision.


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Hopefully a little more info will help get the ball rolling:
Most of my hunting partners have English Springer Spaniels or Labs. As I would like to continue hunting with them I feel that it dismissed a Brittany from my choice at this time.
I’ve looked at the ESS clubs near me, I think the Mid-Penn is the closest (found on the ESSFT site). But I can’t seem to find an informational site for them, even the Facebook site lacks any real help.

I would most likely go through the breeder my hunting buddies go through but want to know all my options. Online I see most FT/FC springers are black and white or liver and white. Is brown and white uncommon or less desired?


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Most folks here run pointing dogs. But if pheasant hunting is the task at hand, you would be hard pressed to do any better than a well bred Springer. The first dog I ever hunted over as a kid was a Springer named Pepper, I can remember it like it was yesterday, eye opening. What a ball of single minded bird busting energy. They can put them to wing and collect them up as well as anything with four legs. Sounds like it will be a good fit for the group you hunt with. Good luck with the search.

Garrison

Polmaise is the springer expert on here. Suggest you PM him for help too.

I'm with Garrison. A springer sounds like a good fit for you. And as already mentioned, they are specialists when it comes to ditch chickens!
They are very versatile so they can hunt just about anything too.
Finally, I think the training process from start to finish is much less work (typically) than any pointing breed.

Thank you for the responses. I’m excited to start that next chapter of life even if it isn’t for a little while. Some day I hope to find myself in the pointing crowd, but not just yet I suppose.

Thanks again. If anyone has other recommendations for breeds to consider please let me know.


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Where are you located? Know where you are will help in recommending a breeder.

Central Pennsylvania:
40 minutes north of Harrisburg
2.5 hrs from Philadelphia
3.5-4 hrs from Pittsburgh

We’ve already discussed the possibility of traveling up to 8-9 hr hours for the right dog and just making it a mini vacation as well.


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Make sure you get a true "field bred" Springer. Over the years the field and bench Springers have almost evolved into separate breeds. Sorry I can't help you with any breeders in your area but I could give you a couple of excellent references in Minnesota. PM me if you would like that info.

Go to a springer field trial, volunteer to be a shagger. You will see some excellent dogs and probably know which know which line of springers you want your pup from by the end of the trial. Hopefully trials will start back up by this fall.

So we ended up getting a golden retriever because I couldn't make my mind up and my fiance decided on a golden from a friend's litter. Fast forward a couple months, we decided he needed a friend to learn, play, and adventure with. I ended up finding a pup ready to come home on memorial day. We brought home Rico, our English Springer Spaniel.

Rico has a nose for days. Constantly to the ground moving at mach 1 across the yard. He loves the water, he's beginning to enjoy fetch more and more. And is inseparable from Gritty (our golden). He flushes song birds daily from our yard, so that's a plus for pheasants in October. He doesn't seem to have much interest in sheds yet.

Gritty the golden loves sheds, loves fetching them, loves finding them. He doesn't seem to care much about birds.

So at this rate I think the golden will be the shed dog, the ESS the bird dog. I'll take both for both activities and see what happens.

Then more I look into grouse hunting trips the more I think I should have gotten a Brittany, but we'll see what happens since grouse would be maybe a once a year or so thing.

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