Gun Dog Forum

I was looking at the stats from my alpha and was wondering everyone else’s dogs hunting speeds are. Usually in the thicker woods my setter hunt around 7-8mph. Today he wasn’t only at like 5.5, but there was almost a foot of snow where we were. In North Dakota for pheasant he was around 8-9 until the last day when he was worn out he was at 7ish(was on every drive but one short one he posted with me then we walked a different part).

Typically between 7-9 mph, although I have seen my dog hit the 11-12 mph of occasions.

Totally dependent on cover. In grouse woods, about 7-8mph. Prairie, 10-11mph. Cattail 5mph.

Would it not depend on the density of Game ? The dog would hopefully be doing 0 mph often

Between 5-6mph in heavy or mixed cover, never hunted the prairie.

I am no longer using my Alpha and never paid alot of attention to those details when I did. I did take a look this past September while hunting Prairie Chickens and Sharptails on the open Prairie. Each day was around 10 mph average speed.

I have seen far more dogs that hunted too fast for the conditions than I have too slow as a related aside comment. Overrunning their nose and singles in the process. The best wild bird dogs adjust not only their ground pattern but their speed to differing terrains, birds and scenting conditions.

I like a dog whose nose is as fast as his legs. Swapping ends at full tilt...nothing cooler

No doubt Shags. Thrilling every time. But sticks like those happen far more on the internet than in the field. Wild birds subjected to hunting pressure move around a lot and dogs commonly will hit scent to work out before they can make a productive point. Depends a bunch on the birds terrain and weather.

8 to 10 on a 3 hr hunt. Try to keep them under 30 miles when possible.

12-13 on open desert. that includes stalking and points.

My pointer is somewhere between 6-8 mph in the MN grouse woods and in the open she's 10-13 mph (average of course). Really depends on the day and cover though. And birds. I'd take 4 mph if it meant she was pointing lots of birds.

So ,,,,Nobody does 14 .then ?

shags wrote:I like a dog whose nose is as fast as his legs. Swapping ends at full tilt...nothing cooler

Amen. I will put up with an occasional flush in trade of the beauty and excitement of that swapping ENDS.

Ezzy

My setter averages 12 mph when foot hunting. Considerably faster when on HB.

Thats over the past hunting season with the GPS.

Speed alone is not a measure of a dog's effectiveness. A dog that runs 30 minutes off of horseback might run at a frenetic pace (as Ryan alluded). If you run that same dog 3+ hours consistently on foot with intent to harvest birds, it will likely learn to pace itself. Hence, you get a wide variety of responses based on terrain, length of time run, elevation, etc. That said, a slow methodical dog is fine on game farms, synthetic tests, etc. but on wild birds, it isn't as productive as that fleet-footed long-nosed dog. You need a dog that has a reasonably fast pace, bottom end, WITH a nose that can keep up with said pace. Or...you end up with finds that you don't walk up.