Hunters or Not?

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bwjohn
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Hunters or Not?

Post by bwjohn » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:33 am

I have recently joined the gun dog forum and I am new to the whole gun/bird dog experience. I joined a couple of clubs to meet people who are around bird dogs and training. Some people that I have been around have really pushed the AKC test, NAVDHA and even NSTRA trials.

My question is: do more people on this website hunt or do most of you train your dogs for the trials of some kind? The more that I have been around the field trials in particular, the more I just want to hunt my dog and not get involved in all of the testing. Just wanted to see what other people on the forum are doing with their dogs.

Brandon

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WiskeyJaR
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Post by WiskeyJaR » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:43 am

Im just a hunter, just training for the hunt here.

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ohiohuntinweim
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Post by ohiohuntinweim » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:56 am

Started as just a hunter, but am becoming more and more interested in trials (UFTA and NSTRA) b/c it is a great way to keep your dog on birds when hunting season ends.
Jeremy

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Maverick
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Post by Maverick » Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:21 pm

I got my first brittany for hunting and for a family pet and companion.
I was invited out to a hunt test and then a few trials and it has snowballed from there.
My first true love with my dogs is hunting but a real close second is trialing for sure!!! I am addicted to the AKC/ AF stuff now for sure!!
Tons of fun and lots to keep you busy when the hunting season is over.


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Post by Birdhunter1 » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:23 pm

I hunt only. Some field trial and don't hunt, some do both, whatever floats your boat I guess.

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ezzy333
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Post by ezzy333 » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:25 pm

A very large percentage of dogs are hunting dogs/pets. You will find more people who like to compete on boards like this one. The only requirement you should worry about is doing what you enjoy. I think you will find most people who compete started just like Mav said he did. Competions are good ways to spend time with your dog during the off season and gives you a chance to meet a lot of nice people and some not so nice. My only advice is try as much as you find interesting and if you enjoy it do it.

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Post by cancrkkennels » Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:12 pm

just a hunter but train dogs for people would like to field trial done a couple fun trials

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Post by my 3 sons gsp » Sun Dec 16, 2007 5:08 pm

Love to hunt :lol: I have done some akc hunt test with my shorthairs , mainly just hunt with the 3 boys .
owner of 4 gsp and love it

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Stoneface
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Post by Stoneface » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:22 pm

I'm not a hunter by any means, even to the point of not believing in hunting. However I am very passionate about pointing dogs. What gets me is the creating and developing of great pointing dogs. I really enjoy what pointing dog competition has to offer.

If you're thinking to get into bird hunting then it will progably be more of a very prominant, seasonal hobby. But if you get into the sport aspect of it, it will be as one of three things...a hobby, a passion, or an occupation. People involved in it as a hobby tend to go to trials when they can and this is where they stick their extra money. The people who are passionate about it really tend to sink a lot of money into their dogs and it becomes a labor of love. Many "passionates" put some of their dogs with professional trainers/handlers and pay between 300 and 600+ per month plus expenses for the trainers services in campeigning their dogs. This is a really expensive way to go. Then there are people who get into it as a profession. These people can make a decent living after they become established and if you decide on handling/training you can make an extremely comfortable living. I mean there is a well known tainer I know who keeps 16 dogs year round at $600 ($9600/mos before expenses) then during the summer has 50+ dogs for 3 months ($30,000/month for three months). On top of this he gets a percentage of purses won at trials and stud fees.

I kinda got side tracked :o , but if you're not looking to breed or get into a new hobby then I'd just hunt the dog.

Rowdy

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Post by kygrousehunter » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:23 pm

Hunting, I have gone to a few local informal trials.

schultz's honor

Post by schultz's honor » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:38 pm

avid NAVHDA guy, but also love hunting.
Not much point in training a versatile dog if ya don't hunt. IMO

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Post by gar-dog » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:41 pm

Just a newbie dog owner trying to learn. I am an avid hunter - just never had my own dog. I get obsessive.... I could see trialing one day when the kids are out of the house. It just sounds too fun!

mikeyair

Post by mikeyair » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:45 pm

hunting has always been #1 for me then i got into dock jumping my lab in between hunting seesons and i just got a second gsp that i have intentions of doing some feild trial stuff with to fill the gap between seesons as well

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Post by gonehuntin' » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:21 pm

Just a hunter now. I had enough of the trial life.
LIFE WITHOUT BIRD DOGS AND FLY RODS REALLY ISN'T LIFE AT ALL.

RRuark86

Post by RRuark86 » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:42 pm

Hunter for now. Just started training my pup, so we'll see what the future holds as far as competitions.

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The Zephyr
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My 2 cents

Post by The Zephyr » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:54 am

I purchased my first dog as a companion / pet. A partner to chase ducks and pheasant, and walks on the beach.

Boy, it snowballed from there.

I initially used her for my own ducking and retrieving on driven pheasant shoots on a preserve. Back then I also had access to private land with wild pheasants and we'd hunt up the cock birds.

I was introduced to the world of AKC testing & trialing, beacame a Hunt Test judge and campaigned my dog(s). I maintain my priorities. I trial/test, train and judge from the late winter until late summer. Then I hit the woods and water and unravel my year's worth of work.

Your involvnent with clubs can be very beneficial. Some clubs will have substantial training programs. I've found this true with NAVHDA chapters more so than with AKC clubs.
The premise of testing should be the pursuit of a broke dog. A companion that will make you proud and an animal others want to hunt behind. This isn't a lofty aspiration. Time spent in the spring and summer will reward you well once the season arrives. Your membership with a club will give you the opportunity for this venue.

Trialing, and I'll reference the AKC/AF, takes a special kind of dog and to some extent handler/owner. The dog has to be competitve, run with style and point with class. This is perhaps more than the average hunter wants or actually needs. These dogs are the cream of the crop, as far as athleticism is concerned, and need full time attention and exercise.
I've had some trialers tell me they would never ruin their dogs by hunting them, but if you read through the forum you'll find there are a good number of posters that hunt their national caliber dogs during the season.

Most of all your experience with a club should be fun. A place to meet others who enjoy the outdoors and the world of dogs.

In the end I am a hunter first and I trial/test to spend as much time as I can with my dogs.

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Post by TrueBlu Shorthairs » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:02 am

I am a hunter who also trials. Family has had shorthairs for 45 years. Owned brits, weims, pointers, but GSPs are my breed and always will be. I have trialed for the last 10 years, but still hunt at least as many days as I trial, each year. In good years we hunt 25 to 35 days a season.

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Post by CherrystoneWeims » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:43 am

I joined a couple of clubs to meet people who are around bird dogs and training. Some people that I have been around have really pushed the AKC test, NAVDHA and even NSTRA trials.
I try to do a little bit of everything with my dogs. I've done some trialing (and actually have two pups that I am thinking of sending to a handler to run in their field futurities. They are showing great promise.) myself, and do a lot of hunt testing. I like the tests because I don't have a horse right now. I also show my dogs :o (which I consider a "necessary evil") to prove they are within the standard. I am also getting more into hunting.

I'm a breeder so I feel as though I MUST get those titles on my dogs to prove the line.

I notice that you are in Virginia. Do you know Don B. who is at Cedar Creek Plantation? He has some really nice Viszlas. I've run in many a HT with his dogs and watched them run. Got my 2nd MH leg on my bitch last weekend under him as a judge.
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Post by High Voltage » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:58 am

My husband and I are hunters first. We belong to NAVHDA and have tested our dogs. We have a lot of members in our chapter that do not test their dogs and that is OK. What is nice about NAVHDA is you have people to help you train and it gives you access to birds. I believe our membership fee is $30.00 a year plus the cost of the birds you use.

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Post by WildRose » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:05 am

I guide/outfit for wild bird hunts as my primary source of income. I also raise and train GSP's for family gun dogs as well. I've been doing both for a very long time.

I do some field trialing mostly as a hobby. I've handled/trained 4 client dogs with some success, but mostly they are my own. Three of my friends who'd been long time trialers goaded me to give it a try for many years. I've done pretty well at it and have really enjoyed the experience.

Rowdy don't get too confused about all that money and he comfortable living standard of pro's. Doing it yourself is far more expensive than paying a pro to run your dogs for you. Let's not even count the pickups and trailers or the ten plus thousand I spent buying horses, or the three years training those horses. Leave out the saddles, tack, horse feed and vet bills too.

Just think about the fact that where I could put three or four dogs out with FT pro's and spend about 3,000.00 per month during the season all expenses included.

Weigh that against the fact that my entry fees and diesel alone for any given trial will average around 1000-1,500.00 per trial. Then figure my time in training, expenses for training grounds, birds etc, etc, etc. A good pro is pretty darn cheap! They certainly have an impressive cash flow but when you put the pencil to the paper and figure out their expenses 95% of them could take more money home with a $12-15.00 per hour job in town. Then figure out how much "fun it is" to HAVE to be on the road 20-25 weeks a year going to trials, plus two to three months of summer camp on top of that.

There are a very few trainers out there that are "all about the money", it has to be a real labor of love and/or hunger for the competition that keeps them going because nobody gets wealthy doing it. CR
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Post by Ayres » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:30 pm

ohiohuntinweim wrote:Started as just a hunter, but am becoming more and more interested in trials (UFTA and NSTRA) b/c it is a great way to keep your dog on birds when hunting season ends.
I'd say that about sums it up for me too, except I'm more into AKC Hunt Tests. I'd like to eventually get into NSTRA and NAVHDA as time permits, but I'm afraid time just won't really permit. I had a hard enough time making it to a hunt test this year.

Hunting is all the time though. It can be spontaneous, not having to be scheduled. And, really, hunting is what all the "games" are supposed to prove anyway. That's why it remains #1.
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Post by midwestfisherman » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:51 pm

I hunt and trial my dogs. I consider myself more of a hunter than a trialer. For my trial dogs I generally have one or two running at any one time. They're usually with a pro, although I do handle them myself on occasion. My dogs run in the Cover Dog trials and some U.S. Complete.
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Post by Wagonmaster » Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:59 pm

I have hunted for 53 years both waterfowl and upland. I trialed for about 10 years in the 80's and early 90's, GWP's and pointers. My dogs always hunted, what else was I going to hunt with? I hunted ruffed grouse, woodcock and pheasant in Minnesota, quail in IA, sharptail and Huns in Alberta. The GWP was an AFC that I finished myself.

I have been trialing again for the last 6 years. I bred and own the NGSPA National Champion GSP and I own his sister. Before them I owned their mother. All of them, including the All Age dog, have hunted for me. The mother was bar none the best grouse dog I have ever had. The NC hunts for me from foot, for pheasant and shartail in ND, as does his sister. They both retrieve. The sister, last year and this year, has made two quarter mile tracked retrieves on running pheasants wing tipped when she was not present. The distance in both cases was measured by odometer.

Meeting and spending time with trialers and professional handlers is the best way there is to learn how to train a dog, and that would be true whether you want to hunt it, or just trial it, or do both with it as I do. You will find, if you got to know them, that all the major professional GSP trainers believe that a dog should get some wild bird hunting in. Because they are on the circuit for a good part of the year, and many (but not all) of the trials are planted bird, many people think these dogs are not hunted. That would just be incorrect.

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Post by Coveyrise64 » Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:58 pm

Started out bird hunting and been at it for 40 years. As a hunter all I needed were dogs that would point, back and retreive. Have owned mostly pointers and one Britt (he was a good one too) but have gone to GSP's. I still enjoy the opportunity to hunt but the last two years I have started participating in hunt test, NAVHDA, and some walking field trials. This was a chance to broaden my training skills as well as spend more time with the dogs. As a side benefit you meet some really nice people at the events.

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Post by birddog1220 » Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:17 pm

i was a hunter first,then after gettin different dogs i wanted more out of them. the best thing i ever did was to get involved in different dog clubs like akc, navhda, and nadkc. now sometimes i cant wait for huntin season to end to get back to some good training.

jim ritze

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