Too old....?

JLP

JLP

Member
Good morning guys,
I have a question for the group. I'm 46 and have been a life long pheasant hunter but due to one thing or another, I've never owned my own bird dog. I have finally come the conclusion that if I'm going to continue to hunt that I need one. My question is, am I too late in the game? Its seems a little over whelming with training and all the different breeds. I would be doing the training and discipline myself as I just cant afford sending to a pro. (2 kids in college) So what say you? Go for it or take up golf!
 
I can’t imagine hunting without a dog. To me I wouldn’t bird hunt if I didn’t have a dog. I am 74 and considering a new pup. The question is whether your partner and living conditions would support a dog. It is a big time consideration. You can train a dog yourself if you have the time and access to the space. It is fairly easy to find a group to train with, also lots of books.
When I get really old I will consider golf. Not there yet.
 
Take the plunge, but beware. Your love for pheasant hunting & desire to do it will skyrocket, even if you think that's impossible. You only need to establish what level you'd like your dog trained to. It takes very little to have a decently trained dog (basic obedience & stuff) who knows how to hunt pheasants. But regardless of training level, to have a fantastic pheasant dog, he/she needs to hunt a lot. So the story you tell your wife is that it'd be unfair to the dog to NOT hunt all the time.
 
JLP said:
Good morning guys,
I have a question for the group. I'm 46 and have been a life long pheasant hunter but due to one thing or another, I've never owned my own bird dog. I have finally come the conclusion that if I'm going to continue to hunt that I need one. My question is, am I too late in the game?
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Absolutely not. If you feel you can still physically hunt without one, it gets easier with one.
JLP said:
Its seems a little over whelming with training and all the different breeds. I would be doing the training and discipline myself as I just cant afford sending to a pro.
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Have you hunted behind dogs before, or always without one? If not, maybe postpone the pup for a year and try to hunt behind behind as many different dogs as you can. I'll volunteer my Pointing Lab and my English Setter to show some of what those breeds can do; If you can make it to southern Iowa next season.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Take the plunge, but beware. Your love for pheasant hunting & desire to do it will skyrocket, even if you think that's impossible. You only need to establish what level you'd like your dog trained to. It takes very little to have a decently trained dog (basic obedience & stuff) who knows how to hunt pheasants. But regardless of training level, to have a fantastic pheasant dog, he/she needs to hunt a lot. So the story you tell your wife is that it'd be unfair to the dog to NOT hunt all the time.
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I like your way of thinking! " Honey it would be unfair to the dog to not go out every weekend!" 😀
 
GladHunter said:
Absolutely not. If you feel you can still physically hunt without one, it gets easier with one.

Have you hunted behind dogs before, or always without one? If not, maybe postpone the pup for a year and try to hunt behind behind as many different dogs as you can. I'll volunteer my Pointing Lab and my English Setter to show some of what those breeds can do; If you can make it to southern Iowa next season.
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I have hunted behind dogs before. Some good ones actually but they were professionally trained. My biggest hesitation is i don't want to screw up the dog. Which is why Im unsure about breed. I seem to read that some are more difficult than others. Mainly pointing vs flashers but I don't want to get that debate going!😀
 
Get the dog and and If you get a dog from some breeders, the price of the pup includes initial training when they are old enough. Money well spent and you can learn with the pup.
 
Mosby said:
Get the dog and and If you get a dog from some breeders, the price of the pup includes initial training when they are old enough. Money well spent and you can learn with the pup.
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I didn't know about puppy training. That would definitely be beneficial. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Get a Brittany. Little training required and they're great family dogs. Gotta make the dog a member of the fam and it will be most biddable afield.
 
JLP said:
I have hunted behind dogs before. Some good ones actually but they were professionally trained. My biggest hesitation is i don't want to screw up the dog.
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The only real way I can see you "ruining" a dog is to intro gunfire poorly and have a gunshy dog. Just start small and go slow.
The biggest thing to help your pup is early exposure to everything experience-wise, water, other people, other dogs, different places. Build their confidence so that nothing scares them, cause they've seen it already, lol.
Training errors would be more like limiting the ceiling of how high your pup could go. The floor is more based on breeding. A well bred dog in tune with you will figure out the stuff in the field.
JLP said:
Which is why Im unsure about breed. I seem to read that some are more difficult than others. Mainly pointing vs flushers but I don't want to get that debate going!😀
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Flushers are probably less training and will be better on wild pheasants early on, because them darn ringnecks run so much. That said both of my dogs are pointers and I'm not planning to switch.
 
Many nice affordable finished/seasoned dogs out there. From free to thousands of dollars. Do your due diligence and check a few out in person and roll with the punches. Been gifted 2 dogs over the years and both panned out.
 
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