What does it mean to you and do you make it a priority?
I'll go first: A dog that stays to the front and hunts for the gun. Takes to training. Adjusts the range it hunts at, based on the cover we are in. Keeps up with me rather than the other way around. I'm a foot hunter and after fighting a hard head, it is something I look for and place a high value on.
Go.

X2

Since Bill has forgotten more about dogs than I'll ever know X3

X4. I have one now that is on thin ice with me. Handles well for about 45 minutes and then tends to give me the slip. Out all night on the lease recently and then gone a long time on the last hunt. Frustrating!

As long as my dog holds the birds until I get there he is hunting for me. I want him to really range out there as needed to find birds. 600 tp 800 yards in open country

I view it as a dog that wants to please you.

Some dogs just don't give a rip about what you want and only want to do what they want. They may be great at finding birds but pay little attention to you.

I want a team player.

For me, a biddable dog needs the drive to find birds to be paramount.

But if that’s job1, then 1A should be wanting to please me. They’ll respond to any command, they’ll check in, and enjoy the whole thing.

I guess I don’t want a dog that just does their job....I want her to do her job and enjoy it as much as I enjoy being behind her.

A talented, trained pup that’s having a blast.

X4, self hunters are a pain. Forrest

I am not a bird dog man.
Listening to you bird dog men is revealing because it explains why the only bird dog I have ever owned is so special: because she both loves hunting itself with a passion that defies description and loves to please me with an equal passion.

I agree with all of these...
Biddable to me has always meant “trainable”. You can’t train drive, you can’t train point. I’ve always looked at a biddable dog as being a teammate that will work with me to accomplish any task we set out for. Whether it be finding birds to shoot, dead birds, retrieving them, loading up when I tell him, or coming back when I call him. If I do my job, he does his job… no matter what it is. I also feel that a “biddable” dog will learn and pick up things on their own through experiences. Like some have mentioned, working close when on foot or in tight cover, running big in open country when on the trucks. Having a savvy enough dog to know how to cut off running birds or re-engaging on a moving covey. These types of things are almost impossible to train in a controlled situation so a true biddable dog is able to be “trained” by his experiences. Of course, this can only come from a from a dog that hunts for you. How many dogs have you seen run from mott to mott to fenceline because they know that habitat is most likely to produce birds… that’s biddable in my book because I didn’t train that dog to do that, he's trying to do his job and find birds the best way he's "learned" how.

To me a biddable dog can learn and is willing to submit to training. It covers everything from come here to front running, If a dog is trainable you can teach him to stay out front, his submitting to the training is what I call biddable and yes sir I like them that way.

If you don’t have at least one of those you don’t appreciate the easy ones. I have one pup that gets shocked at least 5 times every time he’s on the ground. I have three easy biddable dogs that know what to do and there’s very little hollering and whistling. Two of them haven’t felt any electricity in two years. I feel a biddable dog is one that does what’s commanded the first time I tell them. I only tell them once and then they get to feel the hearing aid.

I get the feeling many here want to control there dog like a robot. Makes no sense to me. For example sounds like many want there dog to work in the 10 o’clock to the 2 o clock position. And range only to where they are in sight all the time. So all the control over the dog to enforce this teaches the dog not to think for himself and will always be looking at you for direction. Exactly what I don’t want. He is the one with the nose not me

If the dog is picking up scent and it leads him to the 9 o clock position why on earth would you discourage this. If birds are scarce and the dog needs to range further out to cover more ground why would you discourage this. That’s what GPS trackers are for

I like to see my dogs work. I like them to do what I tell them to. If I’m not seeing my mutts check back at least every 5 minutes that’s not what I want. In many ways GPS has hurt bird hunting. I have a buddy of mine that has one of the best bird finders I’ve ever hunted behind. The only problem I have with the dog is when you turn him loose you don’t see him again until you walk up to flush the bird. The dog finds bird and will hold them all day. I just don’t like watching a GPS instead of the dog. To me that’s not hunting. This dog will be 900 yards away in heavy cover on point In any direction. He’s a great dog but not a dog for me. Our other dogs that stay with us will find plenty of bird and make the hunt much more enjoyable. For me my enjoyment of the hunt is watching my dogs get birdy and nailing them down on point. I don’t get that enjoyment when George finds a covey a half mile away.

Hmmmm. So you would rather have a dog hunt close and find one covey over a dog that ranges out and finds 20 covies

Yes

Not me....I let the dog be the dog and dictate the hunt. I’ve seen em enough training em. My dogs smell birds a lot better than I do. Everyone has their own way of doing things but I’m not a fan of the boot polishers nor will I hunt with guys constantly yelling whoa at their boot polishers. Been there done that. No thanks. My dogs earn my trust and I let them roll. Have some that range to 500 yds in given conditions.....same dogs will hunt at 100 yds as well and adapt to my position.

GPS, in my opinion, is the best thing ever for more reasons than locating a big running dog on point. It’s saved many good dogs lives. I won’t turn mine loose without it. Period.

I hunted with a group this fall that constantly wanted to show the dogs (mine included) where the birds were...didn’t work out too well. Good guys for sure, just not my kind of hunt.

The “hunt close” vs. “range far” debate is probably the best campfire discussion there is.

Rick Bass wrote a book titled “Colter” about the best dog he ever had. It may be the best written book about a dog I have ever read. Thing is, he decribes Colter as a big-hearted bird finding machine - but such a runner that even two long stints with one of the best trainers in the country never fully got it out of him. The dog he describes in the book that to him was a bird dog without equal sounded more to me like an undisciplined runner that would drive me to distraction. Spending my hunts chasing down a dog is not my idea of bird hunting. But Rick obviously loved him as a dog the likes of which he will never see again.

I think it’s lucky for me I hunt woodcock where a ranging dog is simply not an option. Jenny hunts within sight most of the time and within hearing all the time. She checks with me regularly, but she does the hunting - not me. The most I will ever do is call her back to hunt some area I think she may have missed. (Even at that, she covers ground so instinctively well that most times I’m betting she’s already wind-checked whatever piece of cover I send her to.) At any rate, I don’t direct her often because she knows more about bird hunting than I ever will. As was said, she’s the one with the nose, not me. I don’t own a shock collar and don’t use GPS anymore (tried it for a year or two but never needed it). Never even used a whistle. She has a bell and that’s it. Words of soft direction, praise and hugs is all she ever gets from me.

I’m certain that me being a total neophyte about bird hunting and bird dogs when I got her was the best possible thing for her because I couldn’t mess her up trying to “train” her.

That’s never going to happen.

I say that to make a point the more ground your dog covers the more birds they find.

How and where one hunts should dictate the type of dog needed. A walking hunter does not need the same type of dog as a rig hunter. Hunting off a rig in wide open country or in tighter cover calls for different range. Because I'm at the point of hunt off a rig (or quit) and hunt big country, I like for them to run. I sometimes run a close dog and a swinger together and from my experience the running dog finds more birds. Lot's more. I've never seen one that could not be brought in. Put that collar on hard head's flank and he will do it your way. I've also never seen a close dog that can be made to run big. So I will take the wide swinging kind and we will come to an understanding of how far from the rig they go.

I don't think that is what is desired at all. I know it's not what I desire. If I am up north and want to hunt two miles of CRP, perpendicular to the wind. Drop off in a coulee for a mile and hunt cattails. Then hit a half mile of hedge row through harvested grain, then back across the wind hunting another CRP back to the truck, I want to do it with ease, and in silence. In the open CRP the dog needs to run big. Big areas of cattails are tough to get around in. The densest cover gets. I want the dog to close it up. Hedge rows are narrow and long. The birds in it will often run till they get to the end of it. I want to arrive at the end before the dog, so they don't squirt out the end. If the dog points in the hedge row, after I get into position on the far side, rather than me flushing, the dog is "hupped" to put the bird up. In escaping the dog, it comes up on my side of the hedge row, transforming a low shot opportunity situation into near 100%.
I hunt lots of different birds in varied cover and locations. I like a dog that easily adapts his tactics and range to whatever we tie into, without a dog rodeo...It's a dance of sorts and I am leading. When the dog makes scent, he takes the lead.

Edited to add: What happens when your gps craps the bed? (I use one as well)

Biddable means trainable to me. Some are more biddable than others. Some need nothing but whoa. Birds are the best trainer for a young dog. You can't put run in them but you can reign them in. Give me big running dogs for pointers. Now my cockers work differently because they don't point, they are flushers so I want them close so I get a shot.

It wasn’t too bad of a day today. My biddable dogs did manage to find 4 coveys. One even had 9 bird in it. The other three had 6 or less. I had to shoot one for my second season Shorthair. She backed my Brittany’s point like a pro. After the covey rise the birds flew into a flat down below me. I sent the dogs down there and sat up on a ridge to watch. The Shorthair was birdy for over a 100 yards before going on point. I had to drive around to get down there. She held that bird a long time. I decided I had to kill one today. She fetched it up and got some love.that pair of dogs found three coveys today. The other 2 found one with a nice point from a first year dog. He got one killed for him too. Hunting is so tough this year I had 25K acres all to myself this morning. I imagine the rest of the season one buddy and I will be the only ones hunting. It’s only 45 minutes from the house for me or I probably wouldn’t hunt the last weekends either. Last weekend we found 2 coveys on Saturday and zero Sunday morning.