pointing labs

jsdriggs said:
My dog Grace is from Trieven Sungold Kennels out of Lovell, Wyoming. She is a 53 pound black lab from their pointing lab line. I have at least five friends who have dogs from the same kennel. They are wonderful dogs. Pleasant, calm around the house, good looking, travel extemely well, and just generally great family pets. But when they get out hunting, they are all business, with great hunting instinct and an intelligence level that is quite impressive. And I mean it when I say they can cover ground like any dog alive, and do it all day. I can't say enough about them.

My girl doesn't really point, heck I didn't train her for it and I couldn't care less if she does. But some of the other dogs my friends hunt point exceptionally well. My buddy Steve has a bitch named Katie who will hold point for minutes at a time.

I am definately getting another black lab female from that Kennel when Grace turns 7 or 8.

They have a good website. Check it out.
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Went to wesslpointers 8yrs ago they point! Quite versatile. the website is www.wesslpointer.com
 
I went to the wesslepointer sight, my question is what are the labradors crossed with. There own site says there is no Griffon, Wirehaired, Drathaar or Pudel in a wessle pointer. So my question is what is in them that will give them there good pointing and excellent noses??

They look like there good dogs, but there website is vague and dosent have much information on the breed.
 
Mordis look agin it says that the only 2 gundogs you need is a lab and a shorthair so therefor its a lab shorthair cross
 
Mordis said:
I went to the wesslepointer sight, my question is what are the labradors crossed with. There own site says there is no Griffon, Wirehaired, Drathaar or Pudel in a wessle pointer. So my question is what is in them that will give them there good pointing and excellent noses??

They look like there good dogs, but there website is vague and dosent have much information on the breed.
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I'd say Lab, Shorthair & English Pointer. The narrative talks about "three american lines of traditional european gun dogs". Another part of the site mentions a Labs coat with an Elhew's tail.

I like the idea of a labs disposition & retreiving drive coupled with the endurance and "radiator" of a pointing dog. Just wander what health issues might linger in the background.

DB
 
Thank you downtown! I guess the question is, is this cross really a valid addition to the hunting dog line of canines, or is it just another backyard breeder breeding designer dogs.

I guess the best way to put this, is What does this new dog breed do that a current versitile hunting breed cant do? According to the A.v.h.d.a The versitile breeds already will point, flush,track and retrieve game?
 
they sure are alot of fun! my pup is 8 months old and seeing him locked up was a pleasant surprise! I bought him knowing there was pointing in his lines but I wasnt expecting him to really do it, how does one refine this ability? or is this just natural?
 
Both of my labs are from pointing lab stock, but bought before the certification process. On wild birds, only hens or very young roosters have ever held long enough for them to point, and even then has been rare. Later-season birds tend to run till flushed.

Pen-raised birds will likely hold for a point, though.
 
peterpointinglab said:
they sure are alot of fun! my pup is 8 months old and seeing him locked up was a pleasant surprise! I bought him knowing there was pointing in his lines but I wasnt expecting him to really do it, how does one refine this ability? or is this just natural?
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I wasn't expecting Ruby to point, but it came natural to her. When we retrieve in the backyard, I'll either tell her to "Go Get it" or "Find it" Go get it means she's after the dummy and returning it right away. Find it means she slowly walks up to the dummy and points at it until I tell her to get it.

I can also tell her to go get it and then yell slow. She will slow and point at instead of retrieve the dummy until commanded to get it.

Same commands work in the field. She'll hard point a bird until the bird moves or until I tell her to get it.
 
I have never had a lab. I have seen some that seemed to have really good disposition and some really bad but I am sure that can be said for all breeds. I know some labs point without breeding them to do so. I really don't understand why anyone would want to take a flushing dog and breed it to point. It just seems to go against the natural instincts of the breed.

The only pointing lab I have ever seen in the field all it wanted to do is fight with any other male dog it would come across. This to me is totally unacceptable I feel a hunting dog should want nothing more than to hunt when in the field.
 
peterpointinglab said:
how does one refine this ability? or is this just natural?
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If you plant your training birds by putting them to sleep "head under wing" & covering them w/ grass, you will increase the tendency of any dog to "hesitate".

I saw this recently at a Springer field trial where the bird planter was doing just that & it caused a lot of otherwise hard flushing spaniels to soften up their flushes. (A big no-no in that game)
 
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A smart gundog knows when to charge in and get after a bird if needed. I've had pointers for the last 20 years but I may get a lab for my next dog and a lab with some pointing instinct I would think would only help in an upland hunt. I'd love it if my pointers had more retrieving instinct in em.
 
I'm a 30+ year pointing dog guy also. But my next dog(s), will be flushing labs, or springers, ( depending on whether I am willing to deal with hair!), I think that now that there are more pheasants than quail, where I hunt, the flushers are better suited to thrashing mature crp, and other heavy cover, than the pointing dogs. With educated roosters, getting a really solid productive point is difficult at best. instead of wading into the head high brush to flush, I could stay in a shooting lane and at least get off a decent shot. Maybe the grass is always greener, but that's how I have envisioned it. My experience with dog breeds "which do it all ", they don't do any of it very well.
 
I was typin my reply at the same time as Nimrod was, I can see a dog slowing down as a no no as well. I was mostly commenting that some would want a bit of a point out of a gundog, and its not fair to say a certain breed of gundog is just a fighter. I can name brittanys, labs , shorthairs and pointers that all will fight. Some are females too.
 
I wonder how they managed to get the labs to point? Do you think there is some pointer in there lineage some were in the past? I would love to see videos of flushing labs and pointing labs hunting. That would definately get me more information on the breed. LOL time to warm up BING!
 
I just got back from South Dakota last week. My lab started pointing when I was out there. If the birds would try and run she would flush. If the birds where holding tight she would go into a hard point. We also had a GSP with us and she backed its point one time. Very cool to watch she held the point for about 5min before the gsp flushed the bird.

It was nice to have the best of both worlds. I have owned 2 other labs from the same breader and one would point if the birds would hold the other would only flush.
 
Careful Mordis! Your treading on dangerous ground! Might explain the snipey noses and rangy physique too! Pretty far from the standard. Next thing you know , you'll be questioning where the GSP's got all that white! and all that run!
 
Though some labs will point, your best bet to get a dog that is guaranteed to point is to go with one of the traditional pointing breeds. A lab/GSP cross isn't even guaranteed to point. You may get the worst of both worlds and get a dog that doesn't like to retrieve and flushes (not that flushing is bad, but not what you are looking for if you want a pointer).

If you do your homework you can find a pointing dog that is calm in the house and has plenty of retrieving instinct.

What the pointing lab breeders do is take the dogs that tend to have a stonger tendency to point and keep breeding them to try to nuture the pointing instinct. Problem with this is certain health conditions may be overlooked in favor of that instinct to point. If you are set on a pointer why not choose one of the traditional pointing breeds where this instinct has been honed for 100's of years.
 
Many dogs have a natural instinct to point. 30 years ago when I was a kid and caught snakes almost on a daily basis I had a yellow lab that pointed snakes under rocks and boards as good as a pointer points a bird, front paw up and locked up tight. He just learned it due to us lookin for snakes all the time. I guarantee you he had no english pointer blood in him it was just natural. I'd love to have that dog today for birds. I've seen poodles , dalmations and a few other dogs point to some degree. They just selectively breed the ones that do it the most.
 
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