I've got an 8-1/2 year old GPS. Great dog, best of the bunch. The guys I hunt with call him superman. Very active dog and very young at heart/mind. Last time out he injured his front wrist. First significant injury other than thorns and a few cuts. Came back with a slight limp, went through his paws for thorns, etc. Next morning, wrist was swollen and he wouldn't put weight on it. I limited his movement for the next 48 hours - in the dog box, only on short lead for food/water/etc. Swelling went down and it appears he is back to his old self.
Question is, how long do you hunt a dog before retirement?
Any rule of thumb for age/condition?
I have no doubt that this dog would hunt himself to death if I let him, and maybe I should. Might be more cruel to retire him.
However, if any dog deserved a good retirement, he does. But I'm conflicted because he still has a ton of energy and unbelievable drive.

I am going to hunt my GSP until she simply cannot physically do it anymore - she loves it too much any other way. Dogs don't know what "retire" means, IMO you are not doing them any favors not hunting them but just the opposite.

I am not a dog expert but that's my opinion.

I'd let him hunt himself to death or until he can't go anymore.

I have a 12 year old brittany that has the drive of a puppy, she will tell me when to quit.

All the above. They will let you know.

Mine hunt till they cant. If they still have some go in them, I will take them.

8.5 years old is not old for a dog in my opinion. He should be in his prime and know all the tricks and traits of birds. Enjoy him and let him enjoy doing what he loves to do best. Believe me, you will know it when you see it when it is time to put them up. It is hard to watch.

A few years ago, one of my buddies had a Brit that was coming to the end.

He was 13 then, he died at 14.
Doug would take him with us nearly to the end. Hunter was too old to stay up with another dog but Doug would let him take the field and hunt briefly then put him up. I know Hunter was happy with that.

Couldn't leave him at home.
Let them go as long as you can.

Clearly y'all are geared towards upland dogs - I get it. However, I was less bearish on my lab.

Ace started having seizures at 5 and by 7 they were occurring monthly with no pattern of onset and while taking meds. He had a seizure on a hunt just after a long water retrieve. That one scared me as I realized he could have one while in the field and at a point to where I could not get to him fast enough. There was no way I was going to watch my dog drown - I retired him that day and he only made it about a year before a major seizure shut him down for good.

I can see running an upland dog with good drive until they got no more 'go' or want.

Ginger was 12.

January 12, 1992: This was a hunt I'll treasure forever. I went out this morning with ET, and SK. We hunted the Goat pasture near Wharton. It was wet and the water was standing in the low places. The quail were on the ridges.I don't know how many coveys we got up. My guess is 12 to 14. Some ridges had two or three coveys in a small area. All the coveys were pointed. Some were divided finds that we originally thought was a point and a back.

Sis made a little loop to hunt by herself.

Ginger pointed three coveys while Sis was gone. Her second was a covey that brought old memories of South Texas hunts during her prime. It's not classic, but the covey was running and she stayed with them. She knew what she was doing and we knew what she was doing. She had a perfect location when the birds stopped. She went on to point several more times including a dead bird that we had shot out of our first covey.

Ginger was always the least trouble of any dog I've ever owned. Cathy sneaked her in several times to sleep with her over the holidays. She was a lady.

We knocked down 37 birds and picked up 34 birds.

Ginger died in her kennel after the hunt.

I like that story Bill.

We tried sneaking Cracker in the house but we got Oxnered pretty quick.

It would be an answered prayer if Jenny went out like that.

Now, that's the way it SHOULD be.

A great way to go out.
Choked me up a little.

Just this past Saturday, I was hunting with a good friend of mine who has a now 15 year (as of Dec.) setter. I gave this dog to my buddy who was out of my Dad's stock and bloodlines. Scamp has been a pretty decent birddog all of his days. Today, he can't hear or see over 4 ft. in front of his nose. But the nose still works.

Case in point (no pun intended)...
Saturday about mid day, we were hunting through a draw and my male dog hits a scent of birds on a cow trail in the draw. Scamp was puttering around in front of us and picks up on the birds as they were running in front of us and my dog. Those two dogs catwalked those birds for at least 200 yards across a farm road headed towards a canyon. Scamp got on the wrong side of a sheer gully from my young dog and the birds. In one of the greatest Kodak moments I will always have in my mind, I look to my right and Scamp was standing on cliff overlooking the gully and pointed at the birds across the ravine. I am now sorry that I didn't have at least my phone with me to take that picture. He was at least 50 yards away standing tall pointed with nothing but shear wall underneath him. The old rascal went tit for tat with the young dogs later that afternoon originating 6 covey finds on his own. He was just in a slow cow-trot all afternoon never over 30 yards from us making plenty of game. For as many times as I have cussed that dog in the past, I was as proud of him Saturday as any dog I have ever hunted. He got to sleep in the house on Saturday night. He brought back plenty of memories of his mother who was the finest bird dog that ever hit the ground in my opinion. I had a full brother and sister to Scamp that died at 13 & 14 years of age. They were all class bird dogs up until the day that they were slowed down....but not retired.

I have a 12 y/o GSP right now and we just got back from a quail hunt last weekend. Here's my experience with aging dogs. He still has the drive of a 2 y/o and will try his best to put it in cheetah mode right out of the box, that's usually when I have to watch him the closest so he doesn't get hurt. I usually start him in a more wide open pasture to let him burn of some steam and then I pick him up and drive him from pasture to pasture to hunt whereas when he was young, we hunted from pasture to pasture! I watch him and call him in frequently to check his paws and water him, but I usually only hunt him about an hour to an hour and a half in the AM and again in the PM depending on conditions. He'll hunt each morning/afternoon for the whole weekend like this, but by Sunday afternoon, he's noticeably slower and a little stove up. Sometimes, by the end of the weekend, I'll cheat and drive around until I flush a covey from the buggy and then I'll put him on the ground to go work the singles. (BTW, it was just me and the dog and we found 10 coveys on Saturday and 8 Sunday and I killed 1 bird out of each covey for 18 total... a really good trip. He's still a bird finding machine, even if he does it a little slower!)

All total he ended up with a small cut on the front foreleg, a broke toenail, tender paws (rocky where I hunt) and few cactus thorns. minor stuff.

He was at the vet earlier this year and he marveled at how good he looked and the shape he's in for a 12 y/o dog and ask me if I still hunted him and I said "yes, as carefully as I can". he said... "keep it up, that'll make him happy and he'll live longer". I thought to myself, yep, I'm gonna keep taking him out until I have to literally carry him to the birds because nothing makes them happier than huntin' birds.

Had an English Setter named Dude. His very first hunt @ 8 mo he was nailing coveys and singles in snow about 10" deep. He would dive into holes in snow to retrieve dead birds. 13 years later in a snow storm he got away from me. When we noticed him gone I started backtracking to find him. I looked, whistled, and hollered for an hour. Left my buddies and got in the truck to drive section line. While driving my cell rang, a pair of hunters in the next section called and said we got your dog. he was as happy to see me as I was to see him. That was his last hunt. He couldn't hear and I couldn't bear that again.
I would suggest everyone have their cell and home phone with your name, not the dogs name on collar.
He would sure be sad when the other 2 would load up to go hunt, it would last til wife let him in to lay by the fire. best dog I ever had.

Thanks guys. He is an OCD machine when it comes to hunting. Made my heart skip when he went lame for 2 days.
Up until last week, I was still hunting him hard usually for two days at a time. He still comes out of the box like he's on fire, but at 8.5 yrs, the pace drops off a lot quicker. We have other dogs, just that folks always want to hunt over "superman" (actually Jager) and my pride kicks in. I need to start managing his field time better.
As for passing away after a great hunt, I hope I'm that lucky (not referring to the dog).

We were rabbit hunters when I was a kid. We had a clubhouse on the river that we went to most weekends. The dogs would run rabbits from daylight till dark if we let them. One of them was getting old and had a tumor behind his front leg. Vet said there wasn't anything short of putting him down that could be done. We let him run till the end. One day he went out running and never came back. We knew he was running rabbits in heaven...

retiring my dog from hunting is like retiring me from hunting
we will do it tell we die ( die happy )

As long as he is able and wanting to hunt, I'd hunt him.
Just shorten his time in the field.

Boy the years fly by at my age. Pulled his papers and he's 10-1/2. Probably doesn't change your opinions but I should have known that and managed him better this year.
Took him to my old bird dog vet and he said he was in amazing condition for almost 11 and I should hunt him.