Thought this would be a fun thread.

I have a 6 month old Airedale. She is learning the ropes on retrieving ducks and doing really well. While I don't expect her to match a lab when it comes to water skills, or any bird dog when it comes to quail, I do think she will handle the gun fire and retrieval just fine.

I am also going to attempt to train her for tracking wounded game, and she will likely see a wounded coyote, rabbit, fox, or a raccoon in her life along with being a general companion with me in basically all things outdoors, minus turkey hunts and fishing on my 12' aluminum boat.

Always wanted to try an airedale. Have seen them on a number of mountain trails. Seem like a solid breed. Post a few pics of your's if you can.

I like my Drents. Hunt upland at a civilized pace, will retrieve waterfowl in decent weather, bay up a raccoon or feral cat, stretch a muskrat that’s not paying attention, great on the farm with the customers, and in a pinch, I could knit a sweater every time they shed!

My young lab is teaching me to yell, blow a whistle and pull my hair out. I think that’s pretty versatile.

The wirehaired breeds are easily the most versatile hunting dogs I have been around.

Range and point, swim and retrieve, hunt fur, track blood. There are breeds that do each better, none that do it all as well.

This coming from a shorthair guy, I lean more towards the upland than the water and fur. As do my dogs.

Lol, I don't prefer the wirehairs in the house though...

I love my goofy setters, but I grew up with a lot of Griffons, and I think there is no more versatile breed than the Grifs. The other wire haired breeds are on par, IMO.

Rosie agrees.



Always ready to keep hunting
[img]https://i.imgur.com/zAiVUSn.jpg?1[/img]

I have a Drathaar and he is good at water work, excels at tracking, decent on upland game, good on shed hunting, and great in the house and out in public. My GSP is an awesome upland dog and good shed hunter, but doesn't like swimming and could care less about trailing or tracking furred critters. He thinks he is a 70lb lap dog in the house but is a bit barky for me. My Braque is by far the best upland dog of my group and a great retriever having brought me ducks, geese, and even some fall turkeys I have shot. He doesn't have any interest in shed hunting but has a thing for rabbits and squirrels. He is what I call a velcro dog in the house but overall not bad. So for me the the Drathaar gets my vote as the most versatile out of my group.

When I am finally free of this god for saken alimony, I can see a professionally trained bird dog in my future. I have long been a fan of GSP's but I want something different. As an Airedale fan, I have long been a fan of the wire hair dogs. Also, my good friend Doug (redrabbbit) has always have GWPs and I liked his dogs. Something wirehair with pointing and retrieving abilities is likely in my future.

Laffin..... I get it!

Drathaar

A drathaar or Griffon has been on my radar for when the day comes!

Unless someone has a dog that does his taxes, this may be the winner! 😁

Drathaar, Groffon, German wire hair??? I got my GWP from a breeder who said he was GWP.????? He looks more like the other ones. What's the difference ??? All I know is he was the most amazing dog I've ever had & I miss him so much it hurts!!! I'm to old to get another, but I'm afraid if he had been my first dog i would have had nothing else. GWP, Dratthaar, Griff. I'm not sure about my avatar anymore. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

I love the photos! Thanks

Mbogo2106 yep he is versatile!

I have had GWPs for 35 yrs or so. With no training I have taken one to where I shot a coyote or in one case a coati. The dog knew exactly what to do! Blood trailed till it was found.

Ducks, all species of quail, doves or pigeons doesn't matter they will find it, point, if appropriate and retrieve it.

A friend had one that would point on rabbits and then look at him. Friend would say no rabbits today. The dog would then only look for quail!

Think staying with the Airedale your best bet

It will be several years before I even think of adding another to the pack. She will accompany me on many many hunts in the mean time. The only thing I don't expect her to do well is bird hunt, since she's not a pointer. However, she already has shown she will "hunt dead" and retrieve a bird she sees fall.
Similar to a flushing lab for pheasants.

Mutts have worked well for us a couple times.
I had a GSP crossed with an English Water Spaniel that was stupid smart and loved to hunt whatever you wanted. I mostly expected a bird dog, but as he got a little past puppy stuff he started in on all kinds of stuff, and would retrieve anything. Weirdest was a marmot, jumped out of the truck going slowly through a neighborhood to kill and bring back a cat, fetched muskrat out of ditches, and all kinds of birds, squirrels, and rabbit.

Have a what looks to be a McNabb crossed German shepherd. She's mostly got the mannerisms of a cow dog but protective like the GS.

Marmot you say???…..😁

A handsome dude..

If they were good enough for Zane Grey, they're good enough for me.

Tonight

How's he at moving cattle?

I’ve had and hunted with plenty of ‘versatile’ breeds. Loved every one of them. I’ve still come back around to a lab with some good, Brit hunting lineage for true ‘versatility’…..they’ve done about everything I could think of for a dog to try…..yeah, my last one even herded the heck out of cattle the first time he was ever asked to. I love most any sporting or even true working breed. I just like to own good labs….but they are like a 30-06….they’re so good at everything, they get hated on.

I will say that I had a liver roan Brittany that looked like a GWP, that was pretty dang good at most everything, too.

German Wachtelhund

A friend asked me to let his dogs out for a bit this afternoon as he was working late. A Cesky fousek and a GWP, both dogs I have hunted with a fair bit.
The 2yo Wirehair came out of his crate like a hummingbird on redbull, seriously levitating and making crazy noises. The 11yo Cesky was only slightly slower, yet incredibly louder with a high pitched whine.
They proceeded to destroy the water dish, garbage, and coffee table, along with knocking over two chairs. They jumped and scratched at the back door til I was able to shove them out of the way and let them out.

They ran laps around the back yard in the snow and jumped up to head level as they passed me every time. The GWP tried to jump on me, but I was waiting for it and dropped him with a yelp. The Cesky started howling at a car that had the audacity to drive by and the Wirehair barked at him just to add to the ambiance.
Versatile AF!

Most any dog can be pretty "versatile" if provided some training and given a chance. The afore mentioned Continental breeds are best known for such work hence their often being referenced as "Versatile breeds".

Other breeds can do a decent job of working outside of the boxes many place them. My English setters and one Pointer have all been expected to and have provided yeoman work retrieving from both land and water. This includes multiple marks though more than two gets to be challenging for many of the dogs I've had. 4 land marks has been the tops and that was not always a sure thing though it was more often than not. They have also been taught to run lines and take hand signals which is invaluable for blind retrieves and to control the dogs when around spooky birds. It also has come in handy in "herding" cattle though it is not herding in the traditional sense. They have been introduced to trailing since pups to not only run down crippled birds on land and water but also blood trail larger game such as deer and bear. Two years ago my current setter conducted a mile and a half trail of a buch that a neighbor shot in the jaw. We lost the deer when it crossed into a state sanctuary where we were not allowed to go.

Pointers can be pretty sharp on fur too, though I believe my setters learned such from the wirehairs. My first setter would bark at fur if it did not sit for a point but the others would be right in the mix when it came to fighting raccoons, fox, woodchucks, muskrats, skunks, and the like. A few times coyotes were bayed and bobcats and grey fox being treed with the latter two generally getting a pass if seasons were closed. I chased coyotes with greyhounds once and a coyote has its work cut out for it to lose hunting dogs as they are willing and able to use their noses when the coyote ducks out of sight.

That is not to mention various mutts that are out there too. I haven't had one that I couldn't teach to poke around in cover to flush whatever may be there though many appear to not realize their purpose. The current hunting mutt is a Pitbull/Aussie heeler or Shepard mix that has turned into a decent flushing dog. Despite its bloodlines it is not aggressive on fur at all though it doesn't mind sounding off if coyotes or vermin are around. I think it is more fear than protection as it runs for the protection of the other dogs if whatever is being barked at alters course towards it.

I've always had Labs and the reason why is their hunting versatility and disposition as a family dog but the best dog I've ever seen for hunting versatility done right was a big German Shorthair Pointer named Ace.

Upland or waterfowl, he not only excelled at both he did it right every time. Upland, he was, "steady to shot and wing", no covey busting, would honor another dogs point and soft mouth retrieved to hand all day. Waterfowl, he was as good as any retriever I've ever seen and cold water didn't bother him. Watching that dog made any hunt better.

I was thinking my next dog would be a German Shorthair but the old guy who owned Ace was a German Shorthair fan and had owned several. He said as much as he liked the breed Ace was an exception when it came to waterfowl and he'd never had another one like him.

I have a Drahthaar that I am very happy with. He is awesome in the house, will kill vermin when he comes across it, points birds and ranges about 100 yards while doing it. He is really good in the duck blind and is great at blood tracking.

I had an English pointer that would point birds, find the dead-wounded quail. You could take her dove hunting, as good as any lab at retrieving doves. She would hit the water after ducks too. She was the best hunting dog I ever owned. She would sit, stay, heel, roll over with hand signals. She was an all white daughter of Millers Chief, didn’t run big, was a foot dog. We all cried when she passed at 15 yrs old. Her name was Maggie. That Chris Stapleton “ Maggie’s Song” gets to me.

Where is your dog from out of curiosity?

GWPGUY,

Drathaars and German Wirehaired Pointers are one and the same with different registries one in Germany and one in North America. They have different testing standards but the basis is pretty similar with Drathaars tracking blood (mammalian) and killing small vermin (fox originally but coons and cats have been used - in NA PETA has altered this somewhat). I’ve have GWPs from the mid 80s until 2012. Lost our ruffed grouse population in PA and my knees are getting bad so I gave them up. They are awesome dogs when the breeding is good. I’ve had plenty of friends with Drathaars (which my GWPs came from). I used to train and judge in NAVHDA and have been exposed to “all” the versatile breeds and the GWP/Drathaar was my favorite but I have seen fantastic specimens from all the breeds. They all have their peculiarities and their own breed’s tendencies. If you want a versatile dog and have an idea of the breed I’d hunt with them and see if that’s what you’re after and if possible attend a NAVHDA/VDD (where Drathaars are tested) test and see multiple breeds working. As the photos of all the breeds shown here illustrate they can indeed be trained to do a bunch of different things. One thing about GWP/Drathaars is that they can be “sharp” (i.e. aggressive - of course not all are but they can be and I’ve seen more than a few that were) and if you do not understand animal behavior it can lead to issues.

Good luck!!

PennDog

MBogo2106 - beautiful dog - that’s what mine looked like and I always said my female was as close to a wolf as a dog could be - she was a stone cold hunter/killer and the only dog I ever met that caught multiple grouse in her lifetime!!

My buddy had an English Pointer, I shot many limits over him. He was a tremendous dog and would hunt until he couldn't any longer. That dog was incredible.

My drahts are 6 and 3 now. One goes 82 pounds and one 78 pounds. They listen well as I cut them no slack in regards to obeying commands. They are wonderful in the field, on the water, and mostly calm around the house. They are fiercely loyal and love members of the family. And my wife has no issues handling them when I am gone. I don't get lots of opportunities to have them around kids but when they are, they have been very gentle. As others have mentioned, a solid choice in this category.

I had better bird finders than Maggie, hunted her with a big pointer. He covered lots of ground, could work running birds, wasn’t a good retriever. Maggie and Buster were a perfect pair. I was done with quail hunting after they were gone. I probably had 50 dogs the 25 years I quail hunted, but became super attached to those two.

Penn,thanks. He’s the best dog I’ve had and I’ve had a bunch. I also have a female that I’m testing this year with the hopes of someday bringing about my own litters. My dog is actually a litter mate to 30338’s. The braunschimmel one in his pictures. Amazing sometimes at the variation of the coats and even colors. Mine is braunschimmel as well but he’s so dark he’s almost black. I just finished a Seminar today to become a judge in the JGHV and I tell you I’m sold on the German hunt test system. I’ll be taking my male through his VGP this fall and then I can start apprentice judging.
Here’s my female. She just turned eight months old






image hosting services

Damned few around but I'm impressed by West Siberian Laikas.