http://www.americanhunter.org/articles/best-all-around-hunting-dog

This of course is just one persons opionin.

POINTERS

• Pros: best at finding upland birds
• Cons: worst at retrieving; nearly useless for waterfowling

I also wonder how many pointers the author has hunted waterfowl with?

I guess since a Brittany is from a Setter its classified as a pointer and not a versatile? First time I have seem them classified as a pointer.

WTH He put a poodle pointer over a DD?

He put a lot ahead of the DD. It is after all the number one preforming dog in NAVHDA ya know.

You will notice AKC only Calls Brittanys. They removed "Spaniel" from the name a long time ago. Like we recently talked about with other breeds. I always heard American Brittany vs French Brittany Spaniel and having different traits from each other.I have raised, trained, and hunted a Brittany. He was a natural pointer and not a flusher. Very much like a Vizsla in many ways.

When dash was the fourth dog in his litter to get a prize one, I looked at last years breeder awards and was surprised there were very few Vizslas. Maybe only a single breeder award for VS last year. I also seem to remember the breed with the most breeder awards was the GSP.

And I do remember reading a few years ago that the PP had the highest percentage of passes of any breed. But we are talking percentages of the dogs entered. There are many more GSPs and GWPs entered than PP.

I thought DD and GWP are both registered with NAVHDA as GWP. They don't recognise them as separate German and American breeds.

I am a fan of DDs. I have only watched a couple PPs, but after following an older PP through his UT, if I were looking for a second non vizsla breed for a versatile dog, I could see my choice having a slight edge to the PP in a search.

I noticed the article completely left out Vizslas BTW.

I am unable to find any NAVHDA records by breed online. Do please share the link if you have it. It would be interesting to see the overall stats by breed rather than individual dogs.

of the upland dogs, i agree with the author. i'm not familiar with the pudelpointer though.

all of the breeds will find game for you if there is game. pick a breed that suits your personality. it's a long relationship and you have to like each other. i have had good luck and enjoyment from the brittany over the last 40 years. but i have two good hunting buddies that have been enjoying their english setters just as much.

"Best all around gun dog" is like, best all around rifle. No such thing. Different folks need/want different things in a dog. Plus, dogs are individuals. They are all different, even within a breed.

A good gun dog, that suits YOUR tastes and personality and hunts the way you want him to is a jewel. Regardless of breed.
I've had pointers, shorthairs, spaniels and labradors. and one strutting little setter, that were excellent in my eyes. Maybe not perfection, but certainly did a heck of a job at what I needed them to do.

I've had other pointers, shorthairs, and labradors, and a brittany that were not up to snuff and were "rehomed" to less demanding circumstances.

I guess a better description would be best Bird dog breeds by catagory if only considering a few breeds in each and limited exposure to each of those breeds.

No Coon dog catagory, no Large Game Catagory, no hog dogs, No rabbit runing, no rabbit pointing, No all game breed...

I will admit, someone would probably burn their place to the ground if they picked any breed of coonhound over another for a coon dog or big game.

All in all lots of breeds missed on this study and even the ones they do have, use older stereotypes for the breeds. things that have been improved in the last 20 yrs shows not reflection in the article.

Boykin Spanial water or land, Pheasents to ducks and doves and @ 35- 40 LBS dont brake the bank to feed any dog will have its place but I changed 20 years ago from shorthairs and labs and aint look back. great family pet, not a kennel dog There kool and there tricky. easy to clicker train. moma's fav color, chocholate LBD little brown dog. my 12 year old girl still rocks. within reason more info on the net state dog of south carolina.

I've been very lucky. My Pointer does all the things they are known for plus she's a great retriever, even over water.

My Brit, will hunt dead till the sun goes down but he no likey the water.

Pretty good combo though.

I know, makes me wonder how many pointers the author has hunted over.

This is because he obviously has no idea what he is talking about. The reason I know that is because he put the DD in a group with the German Wirehair. Those are two completely different breeds. The DD has breed standards. The Wirehair can be bred by anyone without restriction.

Drahthaar all the way, these are bad dudes. Like stinkbelly said, the auther didn't know what he was talking about, completely different dogs.

Who knew? I always assumed they were basically the same dog, different registeries.

DD require breed tests and approval, among other things, before they are allowed to breed.

German Wirehair require male and female parts to breed.

People who can't meet the basic breeding requirements for a DD may register it as a German Wirehair and breed it uncontrolled and unchecked.

This breed is the same way Deutscher Wachtelhund

There are several breeds that are bred under different registries.

How many Wachtelhund are there in North America?

I think 2 in Texas and maybe 200 in N America. I sign more papers when I got her than I did when I bought a house. But I wish I could take the credit on how ggood she is. You can see all the work they did over the years in making this breed.

^^^^^^^^^This may just be the best all around hunting dog/breed I have ever witnessed. While hunting along side this dog there has never been a situation it was not ready to handle. All I can say about my lab vs. this dog is mine swims faster, will pick up dekes after the duck hunt, and cost much less.

For the last 40 years, all my Brittany's have been AKC registered. But my most recent pup came with a Field Dog Stud Book Application for registration. I did register him with this organization, but not AKC (no papers). Is AKC falling by the wayside for sporting dogs in favor of the stud book registry?

Am not sure but I hope so. Akc seems more interested in dogs that only look pretty and not with preserving the hunting instincts of dogs.