dog question

S

Steve Stevenson

Member
Before I ask the question I want to state that I know specialists are better, but, does anyone have any experience with a "pointing" Lab? I need to have a dog that I can use for upland (quail) hunting and also as a retriever. I dont like the looks of the wire-haired dogs that many people use for combo work. Thanks, Steve
 
where are you located? Fill in your profile, so we have an idea.
 
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Steve,

No, I've never been in the field with a pointing lab but I have pointing Chessy. He has gone so far as to honor the point of a 'real' pointer. Amazing to watch. He came onto it naturally. If I worked with him there is no doubt he could be real solid at it. The way it is now, he at least gives me enough time to get into position for the shot and is all I ask for.
 
I have a "pointing" lab, but use him almost exclusively for waterfowling and previously hunt testing. I put very little time in training for pointer qualities, but we still managed to take first place in a NAGDA ametuer pointing event (against 2 pointing breeds). Those events only require holding a point for a few seconds. Had him pheasant hunting in ND shortly after, but he didn't point the pheasant. he had too little training for pheasant. He ran big in ND.

I don't know if it's true to all the pointing labs, but mine runs big. If you get one that runs big and you can't train him to hold a point long, he won't be a very good bird dog. I'd also be concerned about hunting quail with a big-running lab simply because of the heat. (I assume you're down south somewhere where you're hunting in the heat.) I think a pointer can take the heat better than a lab. However, i think a lab would do fine in the heat if it was a close hunting dog like flushers. I'm no expert, just my opinion here.

He does great as a retriever and is an AKC-SH, UKC-HRCH and UH. He's extremely focused on birds when we duck hunt, but gets antsey if no birds are flying. I don't know if that's cause he's a pointing lab or not. He's my first. I think my next dog will be a regular flushing lab simply because i don't do much upland hunting at all and if i do, i want a close hunting dog for grousel hunting.
 
i have hunted with many pointing labs and if they are trained right they are great dogs if not trained right you will have one or the outher not bouth.
 
I know a guy here on Long Island that has had a pointing labs. He just told me a few weeks ago he just got another pup and it is going to start training this month. If you have not picked a pup yet I'll get some contact info for you.
 
My lab has occasionally "pointed" a tight sitting pheasant and her lines supposedly have some "pointing" in them. I'm not really a believer in "pointing labs" but I guess you can teach a lab to do pretty much anything. As far as a big running lab, that sounds like a dog out of control, but then again, I wasn't there to see it.

In my experience, if you are interested in successful upland hunting, a flusher/retriever is your best bet. Get a lab, and if it happens to "point" at opportune times, so much the better. If you want to put the time in to train it to point, you'll find out if you and the dog have what it takes to put it together. But then, what do you do on birds that run?

NR
 
spending time over the years on versatile dog forums the only thing I see consistently is the percentage of puppies in a litter that turn out to actually point is small. I see a lot of arguements regarding their stamina, how big they will hunt, pointing staunchness and what it takes to get the dog to point. Seems to be a lot of disagreement out there on whats really going on. My impression its not something I would ever be interested in.

but, I may be biased because beauty doesn't effect the dog abilities, and beauty is in the eye of beholder anyway.

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good luck with your search.

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My last two labs would "stand game" regularly and in some cases my boy Stanley would hold point for a long time especially on grouse and woodcock. I once saw him lock up on two hen pheasants on a rainy day. They were perfectly visible and his nose was about a foot away from them. He held for at least 25 seconds and then flinched but he never grabbed them.

I helped with the pointing lab trials once when I guided at a club virtually on a daily basis. I recall helping the judges and when I explained what Stan would do he told me that he'd easily qualify as a pointing lab(at the time...maybe they've changed the criteria now). In any case, to prove my point to a few of the smug breeders we set some pheasants tightly and he stood for over 10 second several times and eventually 15 seconds or so. That's an eternity for lab that isn't trained to do so. The guy says,"he'd go master". It always cracked me up to be honest. I'm confident I could've easily trained either of those dogs to "point" as good as any pointing lab and that bloodline had zero pointing lab in it.
 
Steve,

Both my son and I own PL's. Sadly, we hunt 95% waterfowl, even though I swore I was going to make it more like 60/40 this year (our pups are two years old) I'm impressed with the job mine does, even though I didn't put "as much" time into the upland training as I should have. My son's dog would make a good early season upland dog, but mine is shorter and stockier with a pretty heavy coat and I can't see her doing much good early in the season.

This pic is at about 7-8 weeks of age pointing a pigeon:
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This pic is from this year (December) She had some very nice points that paid off nicely:

Picture%20658.jpg



And then a week or so later this "upland" dog was hunting some pretty extreme temps (minus 3 degrees) So it was nice to see that versatility

Picture%20803.jpg

 
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Depending on exactly what you are looking for I'm not sure you need a pointing lab, you may be able to get by with just a well trained lab or other retriever. I hunt goldens. My dogs are whistle trained. I don't believe in running after dogs with a loaded gun. So, when my dogs get on birds, if they start to get ahead I just whistle sit them. We then walk up and release them when we are in position. Repeat as necessary. If you keep close watch on your dog you can tell as soon as they start getting birdy. The biggest thing is to keep the dog within gun range to begin with and to be ready with the whistle. If my dogs bump birds out of range it is my fault because I haven't kept close watch on them or allowed them to get too far ahead where I couldn't see how birdy they were gettting.I have had my dogs sit and hold it even when they have been right on top of the bird. I just give them a double toot on the whistle as a release and they go in and flush.

Using this method I have hunted my dogs with pointers and I just whistle sit them when a pointer goes on point, thereby honoring the point. Down side is of course that you can't let them run as big as you would a pointer. We hunt pheasants, grouse, woodcock and of course waterfowl.

dave b
 
Guys, thatnks to everybody for their responses. I just wanted to hear from someone who has had or seen pointing labs. I'm a ways out from getting another dog. I am in Alabama and most of my duck hunting is backwaters and sloughs and I am interested in having the ability to hunt upland if I want. Some of my earlier labs, which were not from pointing stock I feel I could have trained to hunt upland, based on some acidential exposure to birds. Anyway, thanks again to all who responded. Steve
 
What you really want is a pointing Chesapeake, They rule the uplands!
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The last Lab I had was a pointer, Mayo Kellogg breeding out of SD . Did the job great for Iowa Pheasants and Quail, he just wasn't as pretty as the "pointers" but he was a 1000X's the retriever any of the pointers!!!!

Google Kellogg Kennels
Good Luck



My .02
Craig
 
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