Your Favorite Gun/Hunting Dog and Photos
 

I know I am new to this Parker community but I wanted to start a thread where we could talk about our best hunting dogs, their breed, how they were trained, why you love them so much.

My current hunting dog is a German Shorthaired Pointer (GSP) named Hoover but, my best and favorite was a Brittany Spaniel named April. April would hunt from dawn till dusk non-stop just for the love of the sport. I was in awe of her ability to find birds in places you would never expect. She would even point at birds roosting in trees. For a Brittany she was tiny. She was only about 25-30 lbs. When we got her she was the runt of the litter and then came down with distemper which may have stunted her growth even more. When April lived through the distemper we brought her home and she slept with me in my bed from then on. When my family moved we gave her to a guy who owned two older Brittanys and he continued hunting with April until she finally passed in 1982.

Attached is a photo of Hoover, my current hunting dog pointing at a lizard in the plants in front of my house. For the record, I do not hunt lizards... LOL

John

Wife, gun and dog, from about 18 years ago.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a19...2/99187ee7.jpg

Ben was the huntingest dog I have ever shot over, gone for about ten years.
Still have the wife and Parker.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a19...ungBenJPEG.jpg

Faithful Shiner at age 13 and my beloved Betty dog. There have been several other setters a nd a Brittany whose careers I have on film and print whose memories are also dear.
Just wondering, what size shot and what are your favorite chokes for lizard?

Ruby my Gordon setter
 

Last picture was P.A> grouse....Parker repro16 28" Q1/Q2

Here is my 3 year old little girl Lucy, she is my 4th lab.

Favorite dog photo
 

Bella has become a great grouse dog at 6 yrs old. It's torture for her to sit for a photo opp though.
Dave

These are a couple pictures of my English Setter, Phantom.
For me, he encompassed everything that a person could want in a hunting dog.
I lost him suddenly at age 7, long before his time.
I've owned about 20 pointing dogs since 1980.
He was, and continues to be my favorite.

It was as hard on me as losing a child.

For as long as we remember them, they live forever!

Gun picture to follow, have to dig up a good one.
Parker Repro 28 ga straight, splinter, double triggers.

This is an easy one for me. Gunner with the Parker I had custom built in his honor. The last photo was one of his last hunts and he was to busy trailing a Pheasant to stop and be photogenic. He is truly missed.

Here is Radar in his younger days on the Chesapeake Bay.

This is Aspen last fall. Next to her is a 16 gauge W&C Scott and Son Premier Grade.

This is Radar and me in 2007. The location was a North Dakota corn field...

There is nothing in this world like a Labrador Retriever. I raised them for ten years and had seven of my own. Each one was exceptional in their own right and all were devoted to their owner and loved dearly and sorely missed.

Tom

I've had a grand run with this tiny English Setter since I got her in 2005 --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../14Nov0602.jpg

She was still hunting hard at the end of this season, but will turn 13 before next season starts.

Miss mary, (wife of over 50 Yrs.) and my best dogs ever. These two old dogs have been gone a few years, but not forgotten. they were my best dogs ever. My son Chris has had some very good dogs since these two.

The black dog was out of Eddie Bauer's "Paha Sapa's Kennel. The Old Setter was a direct son of Grouse ridge Will, he came from the east coast. The Setter needed a psychiatrist, but he was a bird dog… the black dog was rock solid with any game that you chose to hunt.

A real shotgunner May forget some of the details of long ago hunt,, but he never forgets the good dog work. or the dog.

David


http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps817646e9.jpg

Here is Crazy Daisy, she has two speeds flat out and a dead stop. I'd put her up against any dog, a great nose, determination, endless drive and stamina. It's hard to believe she is 10 already. Where do the seasons go?

don t have a picture of my dads german short hair female she was the best quail dog and squirl dog i ever hunted with....charlie

Up to this point, I have never let you guys in on my secret weapon in the grouse woods. This is Huck Finn, and he is all dog. He sleeps with his head on my shoulder at night, and takes no guff from my 3 English setters.

Oh
COB - If you have to put any more collars on Daisy, you'll have to trade her in for a giraffe.

"Tar", shown in my avatar, was a good one -1300 retreives., and over 80 trips to Detroit's Children's Hospital as a therapy dog. She made a lot of kids smile.

My pointing lab Parker (pictured in my avatar) on his last trip trip to S. Dakota. Best bird dog I've ever owned or shot over. Died 3 months later at age 9. The VH28 pictured with him was his favorite..

My boys
 

Attachment 40570. Gauge and Milo, brothers from different litters. They love hunting together.

My 3 year old Llewellin, Star, and a nice limit of Woodcock with a bonus Pheasant this past fall on a rainy day in New Hampshire. And him a few hours later relaxing in MY CHAIR:shock:

Daisy like her jewelry. She has her regular collar and the E-collar and her bell collar are all orange for a reason. She is a hard dog to see in the thick stuff.

Here are Willie and Tara, two dogs that never made the cut as bird dogs but were still family. Willie had potential until he blew his knee out at 1yr old. It was held together with 150lb test mono filament and was good until he left us 14 years later. Tara just never had it in her to be a hunter. She suffered through insulin dependent diabetes for years and it's complications such as deafness and blindness. She was Audrey's little girl 110 %.

This is Pink, my little Pointer. Although I usually have an iPhone with me, I rarely remember to use it to take photos!!

http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa8cd391d.jpg

Here are a few quick "after the hunt" photos from this past October in Maine. The gun is a Fox 20g.

http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/a...psm0hfhwgw.jpg

http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/a...psfe0d6454.jpg

http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/a...psimenejpz.jpg

Here are a few.

Gentry with a nose full of pheasant

http://m9.i.pbase.com/o9/10/209910/1...y103_15_14.jpg

This old fat guy and Gentry examining our first Shirttail

http://m1.i.pbase.com/o9/10/209910/1...23_14.jpg[

Timber on a chukar

http://m2.i.pbase.com/o3/10/209910/1...er02_12_10.jpg

out to the pheasant preserve with Momma and the boys

http://m2.i.pbase.com/o9/10/209910/1...ys03_15_14.jpg

And because of the season...a snapshot my better half took of me last year hunting turkeys...sorry about the Fox AE :^)

http://m7.i.pbase.com/o9/10/209910/1...eyhunt2014.jpg

and last years turkey

http://m5.i.pbase.com/o9/10/209910/1...ll05_16_14.jpg

Bill,
Love that first photo through the grasses.

Bill, your Timber looks a lot like my Star on point.

Steve, Star and Timber do have of some similar of traits when on point but I think your Star has a little nicer and higher tail on point.

That first photo of Timber always reminds me of Researcher's avatar.

COB.. Willie and Tara hit the couch like they have been chasing roosters all day in a cold rain... you gotta love them Shorthairs

The only thing either of them ever chased was a food dish. Willie did get out for some Pheasant his first year but when his knee let go he was done. Those two were bosom buddies and inseperatable. They rest side by side in the back yard now.

Testing new computer system, hope this works.

The picture works

Not so sure about his shooting form :rotf:

The child holding the gun appears to be cross dominate, right handed but left eyed, and should learn to shoot left handed--now it may be that he is just to young and really doesn't know how to shoot properly, or a posed picture. I commonly check for eye dominance as part of a routine eye exam and it is fairly common

My grandson got a nasty bruise and nosebleed when he shot my VHE 28 ga. with the stock under his armpit like that.





.

The child didn't have vision problems, just a little small for the gun (VHE 28 ga.) which was not loaded just a training session. The child is now 36, the gun went to tuition, the dog is now pointing celestial Bobwhites.
James

James, after i posted late last night, I thought I should go back and edit that--wasn't trying to be critical, just a job related (optometrist) observation. It is a great picture and beautiful dog. I bet that VHE 28 would bring a good bit more today, but then college tuition has probably more than doubled. Fortunately, i have never been bitten by the 28 ga bug. I have a nice Uggartechea 28, but rarely use it.

It is a great picture James. Mine can't hold a gun even that well yet. A shooting instructor friend of ours says you have to be 100 pounds in order to properly handle a shotgun. Based on that yardstick, we have about 40 pounds to go.

great picture....did the young man go on and become a hunter after he growed up. hope so..... charlie