Gun Dog Forum

When upland hunting (pheasant, quail, chukar, huns) how many dogs do you put on the ground at the same time?

I have two GSP's and a flushing retriever. All wear a GPS (Alpha 100 TT 10)

I mostly hunt mine in pairs. If iam hunting big open farm country ill put 4 out. Just depends on the terrain.

Unless the pointing dogs and the flusher are all very well trained and at very least broke to the shot and will honor, I would hunt the pointing dogs as a pair and the flusher by its self. More than one pointing dog on the ground can be a headache on its own without adding the flusher to the mix.

That said I will usually put down 2 dogs at a time and rotate in the third dog as it becomes necesary.

I hunt my lab on her own now, Though I had alot of success hunting her and my older GSP together It took me 2 full seasons to get the 2 to work together as a team.

Jim

I cannot watch more than two dogs at a time and I usually only put down one. I rotate dogs out through the day and I am usually tweaking with something in their training whether my intention was that to begin with or not and if you have to make a correction on dog 1for something around a bird its likely you have created a situation where dog 2 will need a correction forthwith. When hunting with other people I really prefer there is only a dog down per handler and I like no more than two dogs in total, it has been my experience that things get loud and out of hand otherwise. Hunting in a crowd of dogs or people is a little like the cultural experience of New York or San Francisco for me..I enjoy a nice dinner and good wine followed by a cab ride to the hotel as much as anybody, for one day in a row and about once every six months or a year, then I remember that its a mess. A pile of dogs and especially flushers with pointers has a tendency to get out of hand.

I'm with chukar12 on this one. To many chukar dogs on the ground can be a wreck and sometimes two is to many. San Fran is still my favorite city especially the great food and wine.

I usually only like to run one of my own dogs. If I am hunting with someone else they run one of their dogs. I hate having more than 2 dogs on the ground at a time.

Chukar12 wrote:I cannot watch more than two dogs at a time and I usually only put down one. I rotate dogs out through the day and I am usually tweaking with something in their training whether my intention was that to begin with or not and if you have to make a correction on dog 1for something around a bird its likely you have created a situation where dog 2 will need a correction forthwith. When hunting with other people I really prefer there is only a dog down per handler and I like no more than two dogs in total, it has been my experience that things get loud and out of hand otherwise. Hunting in a crowd of dogs or people is a little like the cultural experience of New York or San Francisco for me..I enjoy a nice dinner and good wine followed by a cab ride to the hotel as much as anybody, for one day in a row and about once every six months or a year, then I remember that its a mess. A pile of dogs and especially flushers with pointers has a tendency to get out of hand.

I cannot add anything of value. Well said.

Neil wrote:

Chukar12 wrote:I cannot watch more than two dogs at a time and I usually only put down one. I rotate dogs out through the day and I am usually tweaking with something in their training whether my intention was that to begin with or not and if you have to make a correction on dog 1for something around a bird its likely you have created a situation where dog 2 will need a correction forthwith. When hunting with other people I really prefer there is only a dog down per handler and I like no more than two dogs in total, it has been my experience that things get loud and out of hand otherwise. Hunting in a crowd of dogs or people is a little like the cultural experience of New York or San Francisco for me..I enjoy a nice dinner and good wine followed by a cab ride to the hotel as much as anybody, for one day in a row and about once every six months or a year, then I remember that its a mess. A pile of dogs and especially flushers with pointers has a tendency to get out of hand.

I cannot add anything of value. Well said.

Ditto...I cannot add anything of value as well but I gotta add:

I enjoy a nice dinner and good wine followed by a cab ride to the hotel as much as anybody

Learn something every day. Freak.

DGFavor wrote:Ditto...I cannot add anything of value as well but I gotta add:


I enjoy a nice dinner and good wine followed by a cab ride to the hotel as much as anybody

Learn something every day. Freak.

Yeah, 2 dogs at a time. Pointers and flushers is playing with dice that are rigged to the house for most folks.

2 broke pointers at a time or 1 dog per handler if in a group, 3 tops if they honor/ back in BIG open country of Eastern WA, OR, MT

We generally have at least 2 dogs down, when we are hunting in a group.
When it is just me, I run both my dogs at the same time ..... most of the time.

Twos company threes a crowd.

Just easier keeping tabs on two.

One if I am alone, sometime two when I feel guilty.
When with another one or two hunters, I put two down.

Two is a good number for both hunters and dogs. I'll boost the number of hunters to four if they are all well trained, but the number of dogs stops at two.

Anywhere from 3 to 5 on the ground at one time.

Two or more at a time? I can't lift as many as you guys do. Mine have to jump down by themselves, even the eleven y.o.

Young dogs hunt alone...its not about hunting...its about repeating the behavior I want. If there are other young "hooligans" on the ground, I may put down older dogs. Beyond 3 years of age, could be anywhere from 1 to 3. For me, with younger dogs hunting is just a continuation of training.

I have a lab and english setter and have hunted they both together almost from day one. They are a great team and with that combination I've always got something to do. I think it will get a little tricky this fall though. My lab will be 9 and she doesn't have "pep in her step" like she did even a couple years ago. I may have to put my lab away earlier than I'm used to and that thought is killing me.