Pointers and Flushers hunted together?

goldenboy

goldenboy

Well-known member
Alright everyone, what is your opinion on hunting pointers and flushers together? I have flushers and if I am hunting with pointers I will call my dogs off of a staunch point to let their dog do his work. I don't see a problem with it especially if you have many hunters and large tracts of land to hunt. But what does everyone else think and what experiences have you had?
 
I would put up my setters and enjoy watching the flushers.
It does indeed work for some folks under some conditions and often with some history...but, I simply do not see the point.
 
The problem is that the pointing dog guy will think you?re walking too fast. He?ll want to stand still to give his dog time to cover a larger piece of ground. If you go at the same pace, your flushing dog will have to cover the same ground thus wasting his energy & will tend to lose interest.
 
I do it all the time in large cover. Especially hunting heavy cover. If everybody can keep their dog under control. I will hunt away from, not next to the pointers. If dog is on a solid point, I will call mine off. Then after the shot he will go over and retrieve the bird to me:D
 
I have FDs (FBECS) and often hunt with PD guys. We don't do it in the grouse woods here at home, but often when hunting with groups Out West.

It works best if each dog is under control at all times and the PDs have moderate range. And handle and hunt well together without a lot of screaming and whistling.:thumbsup:
 
It's biblical, dogs and cats living together! In the south a " righteous" quail clubs use pointers to find the birds, then a spaniel or Lab, gets off the wagon and flushes the birds and retrieves the fallen. The pointers a half section away finding other birds. It's all about style. On the other hand the scruffy crowd I run with, and pressured birds we hunt, a good shot is the goal, flushed or pointed, as long as a flusher honors the point, mostly to give vagabond hunters an easy shot, I say the more the merrier!
 
I love it i was skeptical at first but my buddy had the land and wanted to bring his lab i said i dont care but deep down i did i was thinking this should be good:rolleyes: Well after a few points you could see that old lab catching on he would see my dog on point and here he would come do bust them lol but keep in mind you definately have to have a broke dog one that is young i dont think would understand the game and might wanna take them out when the flusher was getting close. Another great thing about a flusher is instead of one guy going in to flush the birds and one guy standing back getting the shots the lab or whatever kind of flushing dog you have goes in and then both guys are in position to shoot.
 
I don't see any reason why you couldn't train a flusher to back (sit till released) a point.
As long as the flusher did that, I would think it would be a pretty cool combination.
Flusher in close, and the Setter well out finding birds.
 
The main problem I could see is that the flusher guys would get bored or the pointer guys couldn't keep up.:D
 
my trainer told me that it is for sure doable, but that in his experience, the pointing dog grows tired of having the flusher one upping him and will not hold tight after a while.

he said he only recommends doing it with very seasoned pointers. either way...like mentioned, what is the POINT? pun intended LOL!
 
I did it a couple times with Rusty and Daisy. It was kinda fun until Rusty (golden) figured out what the pointing meant. Then it got to where he would try to run her down whenever she got birdy. I had to either race him to the birds, or hack at him constantly to get him back, so I quit doing it. I just like to have a nice quiet walk and not have to stay on the dog's arse the whole time.:eek:

Also, Daisy (GWP) loves to retrieve almost as much as Rusty did. So I felt bad for her doing all the work and not getting very many retrieves. If anything positive did carry over from the experience of running them together, it would be that she still has a great sense of urgency when a bird goes down. She goes like a bullet to the spot she marked it down, and starts searching for the bird like her life depends on it. Man, I love that dog!:D

Where several guys spread out fairly wide, it has always been a "run what you brung" kind of situation. And it seems to work okay. As a personal choice, I wouldn't do it again as a solo hunter. :cheers:
 
carptom1 said:
I do it all the time in large cover. Especially hunting heavy cover. If everybody can keep their dog under control. I will hunt away from, not next to the pointers. If dog is on a solid point, I will call mine off. Then after the shot he will go over and retrieve the bird to me:D
Click to expand...



I agree. I've tried hunting them "together" and what I've found is that the pointers range out much farther than my flusher works. The pointer often picks up the scent so my flusher often is hunting spent ground, then when we got close to the bird, my flusher almost knocks the pointer over to get the bird.

What I've found that works best for me is similar to what Carptom says...I will volunteer to hunt one of the far ends or sides if we have several guys together working a field with a mix of dogs. This allows my flusher to do her thing and work closer to me where she's hunting fresh ground and is under control enough that she doesn't go in and bust a bird held up by a pointer in the middle of the field. The pointers are usually under control enough where they work the middle of the fields so there isn't dog overlap of field coverage.
 
If it's a small area we just work one or the other. In a large area we tend to move pointers to one side, if it's a mulit pass in the same field then we keep the pointers closer to the side we haven't run and let the flusher (only one friend has one) work the overlap area for anything on the run.
 
Mine experience is similar to 519vx. I ran my weim with my buddies Golden for several years. I was typically 3 or 4 of us with 2 dogs. We kept the golden on the side and my weim on the inside/middle. He didnt have a lot of range so it worked pretty well. After several times out it was funny to see the golden start to actually point a few birds. We never could set it up for the pointer to honor the flusher but oh well.

With my new pointer I don't know how its going to work. That boys got some wheels. We might not be running the dogs together. Oh well I enjoy hunting by self just as much or actually get out with some of my pointer friends
 
Hell we try and breed "bumping birds" out of our pointing dogs. Why would would I want to expose my Britt to behaviour I discourage? Not saying one is better than the other at all for hunting just can't see anything good coming of it for a pointing breed.
 
terrym said:
Hell we try and breed "bumping birds" out of our pointing dogs. Why would would I want to expose my Britt to behaviour I discourage? Not saying one is better than the other at all for hunting just can't see anything good coming of it for a pointing breed.
Click to expand...

Believe me, a flusher could learn nothing but bad habits too. Pointing??? A big no no.:D Seriously though I could see my dog getting frustrated seeing a dog covering ground ahead of him and would probably want to show off his speed.
 
The two posts immediately above illustrate why its usually not such a great idea to hunt PDs and FDs together. The dogs, either flavor, can learn some bad habits, real quick in that scenerio. Unless they are stone cold broke.

Some covers are just naturally better suited for flushing dogs ie. linear types, ditches, stream coridors, shelter belts, brushy fencerows, etc etc. And others fit the PDs to a "T", big fields, CRP, pastures, etc.

I like having both kinds on the truck and pick your spots.:10sign:
 
I have a 4 year old Lab and a 1 year old Britt.
I'll have both on all trips. I'm planning on hunting one at a time depending on the cover.
Sometimes both at once.:)
 
The newly issued PF mag has a good article by Tom Davis on this very topic. I enjoy reading his stuff, he keeps it real world.

His take is very much in line with what some of us have already said above.:thumbsup:

NB
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top