Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Starting search for a dog

Rip 8 months old at the time
An Apache Joe grandson

I have had dogs over the years of all kinds. Been around tons of them. At one point, we had 6 dogs. Now down to 4.

The 2 best I ever had was a rescue Doberman and an Aussie/Border cross. I am chomping at the bit to get another doberman.

Absolutely phenomenal family dogs. I rescued ours not knowing anything about them. But what I read after the fact matched out experience.

My dog definitely bonded to me as the alpha. But he didn't just put up with the kids and wife. He bonded strongly with them as well. This is something I have not seen in other breeds. Especially alpha-personality type breeds.

I would not go with a beagle or hounds as others stated.

I spent a ton of time looking for breeder, pedigree, lineage for my dog. Most worthless stupid dog ever. Next time I will get the first 2 or 3 I find at the shelter. If I have 3, the cost to board will be so high the wife wont make me go on vacation. Always thinking, I am.

Love my lab I have now and every one I’ve had before. Always been a lab guy and may end up having them again. But there’s just something about those Boykins. Every one I’ve ever been around has had the temperament of a lab, they’re no BS diehard retrievers (saw a Boykin make a 400 yard water retrieve on a honker), have a great off button in the house, great around kids, and half the size of a lab. Dated a girl in high school who had one and I spent about a year around that dog and he always amazed me. Hell of a bird dog and an incredible blood trailer.

I’ve always wanted to have one and after our Schnauzer died back in 2019, we kinda half-assedly started looking. Coincidentally we found a breeder who’s on the Boykin Spaniel Society’s preferred breeder list and lives only 7-8 miles from the house. I was kinda shocked to even find one in Alaska, let alone just down the road.

I started talking to him this time last year and he said he wasn’t planning to breed until this time this year. Loaded up the wife and kids back in July and went over to his place to see the parents working. He has two females and a male and they were all hell on wheels when he was throwing marks. Dummy launcher out into some waist tall thick stuff and those little brown dogs would bring it back every time. I think he hung an MH on the male and one of the females and maybe an SH on the other female, but I could be wrong on that. Tough to do up here with abbreviated trial/test seasons. I’m not too worried about it, anyways, just looking for genetic evidence of trainability and they have that in the pedigree. Plus, I watched them work and they were rock solid. Back to the front yard to BS a bit more and all three of them were curled up letting the kids pet them until we left.

The wife and I discussed it and didn’t want to deal with any more puppy madness than we had to. She decided she wanted to try to train her own dog (finally), and that since we didn’t want to have one dog again, it’d be nice for the pup to always have a companion. Since our current lab is 11, we opted for two pups. She was also a little concerned that every dog we get ends up being “my dog” since I’m the one doing the training, hunting, feeding, etc. She figures if we get two and I train one of them and teach her how to train the other, that it might end up being “her dog” that’ll want to be with her all the time.

Breeding took place in mid-December, pups expected to hit the ground in mid-February, chaos ensues early April. Even in July, there was already one deposit ahead of us. We’re picks 2 & 3 on males, but if there aren’t enough males, we’ll adjust fire and either get one male or two females.

Anyone who wants a good family pet that’s a capable hunter, mild-mannered, and half the size of a lab should really take a look at these dogs.

Airdale.

Yeah, I was referring to the average Lab at around 70 lbs. I want a 30-35 lb one.

That's my size dog. I want something that I can tuck under my arm and cross a fence with, or lift up onto my 4-wheeler to go for a ride with.

Nobody hated Labs more than Me, ...until I owned One

labs are ok for an average family dog. Or you can up your tastes

last Summer saw a guy runnin a Braque Francais, it's kind of a mini-GSP, great pup

And rare enough they don’t come with a mini-price tag.

true, some guys here don't seem to be too scared off by the price tag of 2-3K

I stubbed my finger on my computer trying to pet your damned dog.

I wondered what that whimper was a few minutes ago, you poked him in the eye you summbitch.

We are babysitting my son's exotic bully.

Interesting young puppy.

I had never heard of them.

I've had dogs since I was too young to remember. Back in the '70's and '80's my brother and I would have 15 or 20 any given time, mostly foxhounds but also a few coonhounds and beagles. Got older and got into retrievers. Now I'm down to 3, two housedogs, Papillons, and one working dog, Chesapeak, said retriever boarded with my son at the moment (who was a military dog handler for ten years and keeps him tuned up for me.) A couple of views I have on this business of dogs....stay away from high-energy bird-dog breeds and such if you want a house pet unless you have the time and energy work with them DAILY. Stay away from hounds . Hounds aren't bred to be pliable. They're bred to work largely independently and on instinct. To train a dog you have to be smarter than the dog. A lot of people can train labs, and goldens, not so many Chessies . . Stay away from popular breeds unless you're willing to really do your homework and learn a bit about the breed and the breeders. A breed gets popular and every quick buck artist with a backyard starts cranking out puppies and foolish people start buying them with the idea that one "purebred dog" is as good as another. I want a breeder who is active in the breed, be it hunt tests, obedience trials, whatever. I want to see a wall covered with ribbons. To me, somebody who can only talk about a litter's ancestry and nothing else is a backyard breeder, not a professional. Right now, I would estimate, not one "breeder" in twenty that is selling labs or golden retrievers is any good. I want to know how many times that bitch has been bred to that dog and what the results were of THAT PARTICULAR CROSS. You can take a bitch with a 4 generation pedigree showing nothing but champions of one kind or another and breed her to a dog with a similar pedigree and for reasons of genetics or whatever it might be the worse damn cross ever. Get a breed that has been developed to do what you want the dog to do. If you want a retriever, get a retriever. If you want to hunt coons, get a coonhound. If you want a housepet, get a housepet breed. Also, learn a little bit about the breed standard and get a puppy from a cross that produces dogs that conform to the breed standard. That's not some kind of hoity-toity thing for dog show people. There are reasons those standards were developed. Dogs that deviate too far from them are more likely to have orthopedic problems and other health issues that tag along with poor genetics. I cringe when I hear people talk about their "hundred-pound lab" or their "95 pound German Shepherd." Those are just disasters waiting to happen. A friend had just gotten a Golden Retriever puppy. He was telling me, "The breeder said he should hit 100 pounds." That should be eough to make someone turn around and run, when the so-called "breeder" is predicting his puppies will run a third heavier than they're supposed to. Enough of my rant...didn't mean to get so wound up, but it's late and I'm old and crotchety...and I get sick and tired of all the nonsense you hear about dogs...this is the United States of America. Everybody and their cousin Elrod is a dog expert. Good night.

You need a Lab!

A Lab mixed with a Golden, judging by that feathering on his tail.
Lab/Golden mixes are good dogs too - my parents have had 3 over the past 40 years.

Yup ..... I had a lab prior to my current PP. I've never own another lab.

Too much shedding, problems with weight and joints. Great dogs otherwise.