Owning a bird dog in the big city

Ecw21 · Post by **Ecw21** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:57 pm

As a new GDF member, I would like to congratulate everyone for providing a thoroughly informative website; to a person, you all provide very valuable knowledge and experience that someone like myself really appreciates.

I am finishing my 2nd full season of bird hunting. It has become a passion of mine and I realize now that I will probably be pursuing for life. I was born and raised on the Ohio River in S. Indiana, where people have pursued quail and grouse for years and bird dogs were commonplace. 8 years ago, my professional life brought me to Chicago. I was lucky enough to find a group of friends that embraced bird hunting at the same time. The 4 of us have had some good success (re: walked forever and bagged some hard-won birds) on wild and preserve birds despite our obvious handicap: dogless to a man!

As I ponder another season without a dog, I would like to ask your humble opinions on a debate that I am facing: Are there any personal experiences you can share about friends who have owned bird dogs in the city? Specifically, breeds that are better than others? Training routines? Puppy vs. started dog? Of course, the pointer vs flusher debate is coursing through my brain, but of secondary importance. To be sure, I see every hunting breed living in my neighborhood. I am a typical city dweller (gone for 8-9 hours during the day) with plenty of time to kill in the evenings. I hunt wild pheasants, as well as some grouse in the fall. I would really like your advice/opinions about these topics as well as any other subjects you would like to point out. I respect thoughtful opinions and any help would be much appreciated.

Sorry for such a long-winded intro, but I want everyone to get a feel that I am not a fly-by-night prospective dog owner. I am dedicated to bird hunting and have even started the Windy City chapter of Pheasants Forever with a friend of mine. I will be a hunter for life, but would love to add a canine companion that enjoys the field like I do. Thanks for everyone's time.

Eric Wilcher

Post by **ezzy333** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:12 pm

Contact the LaSalle Brittany Club and they could help you get an idea of what you might do. Many of the members live all arounf the city and they hold their meetings in the SW burbs I believe and hold their trials at Desplaines. And even if you decide on some other breed they could get you started.

Ezzy

jwenorthpark · Post by **jwenorthpark** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:46 am

my partner and i raised our current pup, a GSP, in salt lake city (not exactly chi-town) and moved to wisconsin (madison, also not exactly the big city) when the pup was almost 3. we have never had a large yard into which we could release the pup to roam or just let off some steam.

i think i can say confidently that the single most important piece of the puzzle is exercise for her (physical or in rare cases, mental). if you want a trainable, companionable, happy mutt, find a way to wear him/her out at least 3 to 5 times a week, the more the better. this is just our way of approaching dog ownership, but we have a well-behaved dog at home who also completely lets loose in the field. i should mention that we hunt 30 or so days a year.

Meat · Post by **Meat** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:11 pm

We have French Britts I think they would fit what your looking for. We live in Eastern Iowa so if you want to see them hunt or if we can help with anything let me know. Meester@commspeed.net

Good luck
Randy

Debf · Post by **Debf** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:38 am

We own three wirehairs and live in a suburb of Minneapolis. We both work long hours too. There are a few perks to living in the city with dogs - doggie daycare and dog walking services. I had the youngest dog in doggie daycare when she was a puppy and it was great - she got to socialize with a lot of dogs and she was exhausted when I picked her up. The dog walking service is terrific too. Mark's job can have him out of the house for 20+ hours and if I'm out of town the service comes over to take care of the dogs. We couldn't afford it on a daily basis but, the couple of times we have needed it the cost was $25 for the person to come over twice during the course of the day, let the dogs out, feed them & give meds to the oldest, and walk two of them.

We are lucky that there are a number of great gun dog training groups right around the Twin Cities so the dogs do get the opportunity to run & work on birds and it's only about an hour's drive. We are also lucky that none of our dogs are barkers and all are good natured so the neighbors have no complaints about them.

I readily agree that it would be nicer to live in a rural area with the dogs but, it isn't too bad to live in the city with gun dogs either.

Deb

bobman · Post by **bobman** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:24 pm

Most bird dog breeds need at least 30 minutes minimum of running, not walking, running everyday, until about 3-1/2 yrs of age. If they dont get it they will chew stuff up and burn energy in destructive ways.

Thats doable but you have to be committed, I run mine with abicycle every morning and every night, I just look at it as a exercise program for both of us.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 10:04 pm

Eric,

I'm about 7 miles west of chicago and have 3 shorthairs. There are a ton of places you can run the dog within a 45 minute drive of the city. Also although i'm not a huge fan a bunch of friends of mine that live in the city go to the montrose dog beach I was there once about 4 years ago and it was huge and tons of room to get away from the crowd and let your dog swim and run. It probably wont be easy to have a sporting dog in the city but you seem dedicated to it so i think you should be fine

gwgdog66 · Post by **gwgdog66** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:37 am

I have two GSP's, in OKC, OK. I had the same concerns about a year ago. It's a challenge sometimes to get them the daily exercise they need. Then the weekend comes and they get to go to the country and work on birds on the cousin's property. So it can be done, it just takes some planning.

nj gsp · Post by **nj gsp** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:28 pm

bobman wrote:Most bird dog breeds need at least 30 minutes minimum of running, not walking, running everyday, until about 3-1/2 yrs of age. If they dont get it they will chew stuff up and burn energy in destructive ways.

Thats doable but you have to be committed, I run mine with abicycle every morning and every night, I just look at it as a exercise program for both of us.

Like the saying goes - if your dog is overweight, then you're not getting enough exercise!

SFK · Post by **SFK** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:37 am

I lived in the city for while training my one of my shorthairs (Cleveland – although not as large as Chicago). Look at it this way - you have almost unlimited access to pigeons! Get a trap and that should offset some of your costs of driving to training grounds since you won't have to buy them. Road your dog off your bike, but be carful on hard surfaces as pads can get torn up. Train them to run in the grass when roading from a bike and hold on to the rope - don't tie it to the bike in case you need to let go. You'll need pretty good control over the dog before you can road that way.

markj · Post by **markj** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 12:03 pm

you can share about friends who have owned bird dogs in the city?

When I lived in Blue Island I had bird dogs. Took em out to the local park and run em around a bit. A good dog will lay down at yer feet in the house and tear up a field while hunting. Be careful of the vise versa there

I say go for it and enjoy mans best friend and all that has to offer you.

knukles907 · Post by **knukles907** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:23 pm

I live near joliet halfan hour from the city and have tons of places to run and train if you want contact me and I can show you a few

bullseyebill · Post by **bullseyebill** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:45 pm

Eric,

We recently were talking to a GSP owner (at a Vizsla Club of Illinois Hunt Test) who lives in Chicago and trains his GSP in the city parks. He was telling us that many of the parks are fenced in and he would go either early in the morning or early evening when there were little or no people in the park. He even set up dog silouhettes to teach backing. There are a couple of suppliers of quail in the chicagoland area and he was even doing live bird training with quail. So it is possible.

Hope this helps.
Bill

Trekmoor · Post by **Trekmoor** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:05 pm

It is certainly possible to keep a hunting breed while living in a city. I lived for most of my life in Edinburgh , Scotland. My house was on the very top of a block of flats. I had a britt and a G.S.P. , I didn't have any real .problems. I think it is important that the dogs are clean, non- aggressive and definetly not noisy. The dogs got plenty of exercise and I made careful use of the info on the side of dog food bags. If the dogs weren't being worked hard and often then I did not feed a high protein diet. That made them calmer during the close season.

I would say, go for it, I did and never had cause to regret it.
Good luck and happy hunting!

Bill

--- "One toot and yer oot !!!" ---

Gordon Guy · Post by **Gordon Guy** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:04 am

Eric,
I now live in the suburbs of Boise, which is a town of approx. 200K. I have had hunting dogs for the last 30 years. I hear many people say that they aren't going to get a bird dog until they can live in the country and let that dog roam free. I think that letting a hunting dog roam free is a bad thing. How many farm dogs get hit by cars, chase deer, chickens and just get into things, LOTS! To keep a hunting dog from learning bad habits, like self hunting, dogs should be controlled, whether in a 10 X 10, 5 X 10, or 6 X 12, 12 X 12 kennel in tha back yard or in a fenced yard. That could be in the city or the country. Living in the city should have no bearing on owning a dog if you have enough space in the back yard for a place for the dog to call home. If barking is a roblem a Anti-Bark collar can help. Another thing to keep in mind is that there are breeds of dogs that require more exercise to be good citizens, (I'm going to go out on a limb here) Griffons, maybe French Brits, English Cockers, Gordon Setters... to name a few. Though walking your dog on a daily basis could be good for you both., i.e. bonding, exercise and training time. Invest in a good quality kennel setup with a concrete base (I use concrete patio blocks, easy to put down and pickup if you need to and you can always add on when the money becomes available) to include a good quality dog house (like a Dog Den 2 from Lion Country Supply) shade and a supply of clean water.

As for training routines, getting involved with a dog club in your area is the best advice. They will have knowledge of training grounds that may be fairly close to you. With a dog that's in formal training I train once or twice a week but once that dog has reached a level of training you're comfortable with most dogs don't require continued sessions to maintain what they've already learned they just want to go hunting in th fall and be with you.

Good luck with making your decision.

Tom

Post by **ezzy333** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:27 am

Keeping dogs and raising them is identical to having and raising children. They are a lot of work, they learn from repitition, and they all need exercise to be happy and healthy. I have not found any hunting breed that requires more than the others. When the pup gets a little older it should be able to stay in the kennel for 8 hours or so but I would put that off as long as you can. And the big thing to remember if the dog is crated all day and then again at night you need to do some serious exercise at least once per day or the pup will drive you nuts.

Ezzy

IANative · Post by **IANative** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:56 am

Bob, how did your Boykin attain royalty?

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Owning a bird dog in the big city

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