Dog Size

jeffstally

jeffstally

Member
B.Kossum just made a post stating that he is looking for a smaller dog and was asking for advice on what to get. What do you prefer when it comes to dog size and why? I am sure this has been talked about, but I thought it might make for good conversation.

I prefer a smaller dog for these reasons:

1. I can have more dogs in the house
2. Cheaper to feed
3. I can fit multiple dogs in a dog box
4. They don't take up the whole bed
5. Easier on the house/floors

What do you think?
 
I like smaller dogs mostly for the reasons you named- they are easy keepers. I can feed 3-4 30 pounders for what it costs to feed a couple of 60 pounders. I don't think being small really leaves them at any type of disadvantage either. I've been a Pit Bull guy my whole life and I've always though smaller was better with them.
 
FCSpringer said:
I just like bird finding fools that love to hunt, for me size really does not matter. Short, fat, big or small, if they don't get it done, they have the bags packed to a couch somewhere else.:D
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I agree. My springer that lacks a decent nose is headed to my wife's grandpa's house as soon as he recovers from a surgery.

I will hopefully be in the market for a pup soon.
 
when I first picked out my GSP we named him Moose cause he was the biggest dude in the litter,,4 years later he is the smallest of all the GSPs I ever hunt with..but I got a little Brit a couple years ago she does eat alot less and she is begenning to teach me alot,I am really impressed and she has no truoble keeping up with the big dog,we should have named her Rocket....
 
I grew up hunting with a yellow lab that was pushing 100 lbs at fighting weight. I lived in the country and hunted him almost every day, and as a result, he was a lean, mean, bird finding machine. His size wasn't an issue because 95% of the time I hunted within walking distance of my house. I think it was beneficial having a dog of that size because he could hunt multiple days in a row without wearing down.

I now have two Cockers. Macy weighs about 25 or 26 lbs and Rocky is around 28lbs. I can hunt them extremely hard for a couple of days, and I'd bet on their stamina against any other breed or size of dog during that time, but after that they need a little time to recuperate. If I run them in shifts during a longer hunt (say 4 days), I can keep them in pretty good condition all the way through to the end of the last day.

As I see it, the advantages to having a Cocker sized dog as opposed to one of the larger breeds are:
1) Easier to have in the house
2) Less food
3) Less waste
4) Easier to transport
5) More fun to watch (subjective...but I think hyperactive movements of a little cocker are more fun than the comparative lumbering of, say, a Lab).


Disadvantages are:
1) Wear down faster on extended hunts
2) Unable to handle cold water like a larger breed
3) Can't pull a fully loaded sled
Okay, I'm grasping now...I think points one and two are the only things I give up by going with Cockers...and point one is compensated for by running the dogs in shifts...especially since I'll be hunting with 3 Cockers this fall!
 
Well you hit on the salient point for me. I have to hunt in the thickest waterways, and matured CRP. I now have reasonably small French Britts, After a lifetime of Pointers, Setters, and GSP's, I thought the smaller dogs and closer workers were more my speed. Wrong supposition, Some of the Britts take an edge and run as big or bigger than any of the larger pointers, eat as much as my two nearly 100# Chesapeakes. Where they cannot compare, is brush bucking ability, 30 or 40 minutes in the 4-6 foot tall and tangled CRP, and they are done. I assure you any other 30# dog will be too! If you can hunt hedgerows, cut crop edge, pine barrens, western short grass open prairie, or manicured preserves, a small dog is great, in the stuff I have to root through to find wild birds, a larger stronger dog would be a great advantage. If I was stronger and twenty years younger it would be a help too! An old race horse adadge holds that a good big horse will beat a good small horse every time.
 
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drive

Its not the size of the dog in the hunt but the hunt in the dog. Ive found its not the size "with in reason" but the drive in the dog. Some breeds hunt the thick stuff much better!
 
I hunt with labs or our GSP. I'm can't imagine hunting or life without them. The only time they seem small is when they were puppies. If I hadn't started to raise labs I would have own a Braque Frances. I hear they are a smaller GSP with the temperment of a lab. That sounds like a great combo. :) Just a thought for you because they BF's are smaller.
 
I do not believe the size of the dog matters one bit as long as its black, male, and a lab:D. I believe that proper physical conformation is most important as function and form do go hand in hand.

My dogs are between 70-80 lbs and I use medium crates for travel and larges for the house. How about the rest of you? I think most people use way to big of crates for travel for their dogs safety. Plus 3 mediums will fit side by side in a full size pickup if you build a shelf over the wheel wells.
 
Interesting thread. My springer just happened to turn out tiny (28-29#). My wife wanted a small dog anyhow, and we just got lucky I guess. Works for us since we live in a condo, she doesn't eat too much, fits on the bed and doesn't take up room, etc.. same reasons a lot of you pointed out.

She's happy in any kind of cover, but without the body mass, she does struggle a bit in really heavy stuff. Not saying I'm running out to pick up a large breed dog (cuz then I'd be picking up lots of large breed poop!), but I do see the advantages. I can say, drive though is no determinate of size. dog's got it, or not.

RoosterFetcher said:
If I hadn't started to raise labs I would have own a Braque Frances. I hear they are a smaller GSP with the temperment of a lab. That sounds like a great combo. :) Just a thought for you because they BF's are smaller.
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I was looking at BF's early on as well! I had read good things, but have never met one, or seen one work. Still a very interesting breed to me though. Maybe someday down the road, if I ever get tired of chasing a springer. naaahhh, who'm I kidding?!
 
I like to watch little dogs hunt but most of the stuff we hunt in MN is Cattails iv just found that little dogs dont hunt them as well and as long as my 75lbs lab can. I may be wrong and some of you own small dogs that can hunt catails but I have not seen one that will go as long as my lab. Maybe one day when I get a little older and dont want to walk the thick stuff I might switch.
 
My male springer goes 45lbs running weight and the female maybe 40lbs. Both dogs hammered tules and heavy cover for 4-6 hrs a day six days straight two weeks in a row and hardly slowed down a bit. After the third day my males muzzle was completely raw because he wouldn't leave the tules or berry briars. That was the best trip of my life, we ate pheasant and quail almost every night for dinner.
 
I don't have trouble in any cover. The thick or thin, the dogs head right at the thick stuff, because they know the birds are there. Odie is 50 lbs and all leg, he powers through just like any lab with more stamina then the labs we have had, the small girls cruise under the stuff and do a great job longer then you want to walk. Good dogs no matter the size will find there way to the birds. It does not get any thicker then bung hole deep snow and 5 foot tall cattails along thick red willows.:thumbsup: Good dogs no matter the breed or size gitter done.
 
FCSpringer said:
I don't have trouble in any cover. The thick or thin, the dogs head right at the thick stuff, because they know the birds are there. Odie is 50 lbs and all leg, he powers through just like any lab with more stamina then the labs we have had, the small girls cruise under the stuff and do a great job longer then you want to walk. Good dogs no matter the size will find there way to the birds. It does not get any thicker then bung hole deep snow and 5 foot tall cattails along thick red willows.:thumbsup: Good dogs no matter the breed or size gitter done.
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+1

My dog's don't struggle with thick cover. They did, however, struggle with the deep snow in IA this past Christmastime. Of course, I was struggling too, so it didn't really matter. I'm not sure any dog would have been able to navigate that stuff well!
 
They did, however, struggle with the deep snow in IA this past Christmastime. Of course, I was struggling too, so it didn't really matter. I'm not sure any dog would have been able to navigate that stuff well!

Yup, the standing snow had Mick jumping, landing, and then jumping again instead of leaping and bounding.

Called him in, it was too much for either of us.
 
My little springer Ellie can hunt the cattails all day long. She goes under instead of through them. The only thing that has stopped her from hunting all day is deep snow.
 
FCSpringer said:
I don't have trouble in any cover. The thick or thin, the dogs head right at the thick stuff, because they know the birds are there. Odie is 50 lbs and all leg, he powers through just like any lab with more stamina then the labs we have had, the small girls cruise under the stuff and do a great job longer then you want to walk. Good dogs no matter the size will find there way to the birds. It does not get any thicker then bung hole deep snow and 5 foot tall cattails along thick red willows.:thumbsup: Good dogs no matter the breed or size gitter done.
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2+

I run a pair of FBECS, both males, which run only 33-35 lbs during the season. Living in No. Michigan, they are grouse/wc specialists that take a busmans holiday to chase roosters in SoDak every year in early November. They give no quarter to any dog of any breed in the grouse woods. When there's a foot of snow in the woods, the bird season is closed effectively anyway.

I will concede that a 100# Lab will handle a cattail swamp with a foot of standing water better. Or a tangled mess of CRP, as noted above.

It's not the size of the dog in the hunt, it's the size of hunt in the dog.:thumbsup:

NB
 
jeffstally said:
B.Kossum just made a post stating that he is looking for a smaller dog and was asking for advice on what to get. What do you prefer when it comes to dog size and why? I am sure this has been talked about, but I thought it might make for good conversation.

I prefer a smaller dog for these reasons:

1. I can have more dogs in the house
2. Cheaper to feed
3. I can fit multiple dogs in a dog box
4. They don't take up the whole bed
5. Easier on the house/floors

What do you think?
Click to expand...


I think small dogs are handy when I'm quail hunting in thickets. My bigger dogs stay on the outside while my little girl goes right through the middle. Large thicket stands (40yards long by 20 or more yards wide) are nearly impossible to cover from the edge.

Hunting w/ small dogs in big KS CRP can be quite a challenge. I'll take my GSP or my GSP in tall CRP anyday over my "pocket" brittany. Not that the little brit has a hard time finding the birds in the big grass, it's just that it is hard to see her when she does find them.

I think there will always be a bit of diversity in my kennel!
 
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