average speed

[jimbo&rooster]

Playing with my Garmin yesterday I was watching my 2 you.g dogs average speed and distance. This left me with a couple thoughts

How fast dohour dogs usually cover ground?

Horses back dogs?

Walking dogs?

Hunting from foot?

Just curious.

Thanks
Jim

[Hattrick]

I would guess between 13 -16 mh good big drive dogs as high 18. when i road my guys i keep it around 18 an go up 24 mh in sperts. But i have seen dogs that hunt at a tutles pass as well. I havent ran FT yet just MH an NAHVDA. when running braces(30 minute braces) my dogs go wide open i would guess it to be around 16-20 depending on how bad the bracemate pushes torward the front. Ive hand judges almost everytime say my dogs should be in FT instead MH. Now when a bracemate gets pickdup they seem to idle back a little but still hunt at a fast pass. In true hunt situations its seems good dogs pass there selfs slower. I would think FT guys probaly could answer this better.

[AHGSP]

Jimbo,

Just my observations, but the smart dogs when HUNTING, seem to pace themselves at a comfortable 7-10 mph. They HAVE to, to last for an extended hunt.
When running in competitive situations, I think Hat has it pretty close with dogs running from 10 to up to perhaps 20 in short burst(13-16 sounds about right for an avg.). They can be pushed a little faster, but not for long.

[nikegundog]

Side question, I hunt flushers but hunt with quite a few guys who have boot licking pointers, will a Garmin be able to give you any data on a tight quartering dog? Is it a continuous signal or does it send data every five seconds or so?

[birddog1968]

mine average around 7 to 12 depending on location , cover......I can free run them at near 20mph but hunting is another story, they know to pace themselves.

I regularly see 27-33 miles in 2.5 to 3 hours. my dogs vary, my two older dogs are HB x SD blood , youngest is AA bred. Jake my oldest is slowing a bit but if you look at the tracks he goes to objectives and Pepper runs a more busy pattern.

Nike i believe it does update at around 5 seconds and can be set for longer interval to save battery.......you can still get a good idea of pattern at least on my dogs, not sure about a dog that runs a quick windshield wiper pattern.

[SetterNut]

I see that the type of cover my dogs are in makes a big difference in the speed they hunt at.

My youngest setter when we were in Montana ran the first hour out there at over 18 mph in the grass and sage that we first hunted.
But in the tall grass and plum thickets he is down around 12 mph.

My older setter tops out at around 14 mph for the first hour, and hunts more in the 8-10 mph range.

One thing that I have seen is that my younger dogs has had more cuts and punctures than other dogs I have had, and I am pretty sure that it is due to the speed that he goes through cover. That speed is cool to look at, but it comes at a price.

[Wagonmaster]

I used to put my two shorthairs in harnesses and have them pull me on a scooter. On the cyclocomputer we would do 23 mph on a packed clay trail. That is pulling a 200 lbs load, albeit on wheels with only minor drag. That pace was slow for them in comparison to running free. However, speed in the field depends completely on conditions. Hunting cattail sloughs in the snow 2-3 miles an hour would be high. Hunting sharptails on open praire on a cool Sept. day they will definitely be in the 20's. Lots of variations in between. In the hour trials our Walkers do about 10-15 unless in a gallop, and the dogs are covering alot more ground than we are. Put the same handler on foot with a shotgun in his hands and my dog would come in to 50-100 yards with a crisscrossing ground application, still fast but not in the 20's. If he discovers there are no birds in the patch you put him in, then he will put it in a different gear and go try find you some.

Dogs don't think "how fast am I going." They think "where are the birds." and do what is needed to get there.

[birddog1968]

20mph average hunting the prairie? for how many hours. That seem a little unbelievable for any extended amount of time.

[cjuve]

If you are guessing then you don't really know how fast they are going, some dogs look as if they are burning it up others look as if they are barley moving, how fast they look tells you nothing.
On average for 2-3 hrs off a horse I have seen dogs anywhere from 8 to 10 mph but a lot depends on terrian. This is has been true in pretty similiar ground in Nevada,Idaho and Oregon.

After an all day hunt off of foot in chukar country the dogs are usually 5-7mph

[Elkhunter]

If you are guessing then you don't really know how fast they are going, some dogs look as if they are burning it up others look as if they are barley moving, how fast they look tells you nothing.
On average for 2-3 hrs off a horse I have seen dogs anywhere from 8 to 10 mph but a lot depends on terrian. This is has been true in pretty similiar ground in Nevada,Idaho and Oregon.

After an all day hunt off of foot in chukar country the dogs are usually 5-7mph

I agree with cjuve, where I hunt a dog running 20 mph would probably kill itself. My pointer constantly will put his head in the air and walk along the rims with the thermals in his face. So he is probably only goin 2 mph at that time! I would bet my dogs average 8-10 mph. I am just constantly amazed they can run up and down those hills and act like its no big deal.

[AHGSP]

If you are guessing then you don't really know how fast they are going, some dogs look as if they are burning it up others look as if they are barley moving, how fast they look tells you nothing.
On average for 2-3 hrs off a horse I have seen dogs anywhere from 8 to 10 mph but a lot depends on terrian. This is has been true in pretty similiar ground in Nevada,Idaho and Oregon.

After an all day hunt off of foot in chukar country the dogs are usually 5-7mph

I have to 2nd this and was going to ask if these posted speeds were from actual Astro "tracks". I'd be curious to see actual figures off Garmins in both hunting and competitive(shorter duration) scenario's.
The 7-10/8-10 has been the more realistic average speeds off a Garmin in hunting situations of 4-6 hours, as well as highly cover dependent and the higher speeds were, as I qualified them, from "competitive situations/shorter burst" for much shorter durations, thinking 1/2 to 1 hour.

[Gertie]

Chukar hunting in typical chukar terrain a couple weeks ago had Gertie down for about 3.5 hours and she logged 33.2 miles so about 10 mph seems like a good number to me. Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I'm going to try and check every hour and see if she's going faster in the beginning then slowing down or if she's maintaining about 10 mph the whole time. Another thing I've noticed is that she generally does a little more than 3x what I walk. When she did 33 I did about 8.5. Interesting discussion, thanks for posting.

[jimbo&rooster]

3 hours using my Astro mine hit average 8 miles an hour over reclaimed mine ground walking and they had a pretty good pace I was just curious what others are seeing

Thanks
Jim

[steamer]

i had a loaner garmin on my shorthair last spring in a nastra style club trail. it was a standard half hour brace. i think the stats went top speed 22 mph avg. speed 9 mph and ground covered was 4.5 miles. thats on pretty flat ground and the time it took for four finds and three retrieves and a safety. we slow way down when we hunt all or most of the day.

[jetjockey]

Man, my dog is SLOW!!! She averages about 5mph on a 3 hour foot hunt on my Garmin. I've seen as high as 8.

[wems2371]

I don't have the time stat in front of me, but we were out 4 to 4.5 hours on Saturday, and my husband read off 22 miles on the one that was wearing the Garmin. Cover varied from heavy knotweed and sedge in marshy spots, to tall grass prairie, and to some easier shorter stuff.

[gregm]

18 month old gwp. Hunting on foot for chukars, sage and rocks.

Photo12121418.jpg

[Hattrick]

Cool pic:-)

[Trekmoor]

An interesting topic , I think I have been considerably over-rating how fast the pointing breeds are running. :roll:

Bill T.

[SetterNut]

This was from a Prairie Chicken hunt earlier this season, It was pretty hot so he had slowed down by the time we found some PC.

But he was still 12+ mph average speed after running 17+ miles.

[rkappes]

What Garmin’s do you all have?

[SetterNut]

What Garmin’s do you all have?

That is my 320 that I bought last summer. I sold my 220 to a friend.
Both are good, but the 320 is a little nicer to use.


The post above mine is a picture of the Alpha, which is the latest thing with GPS and a training collar in one. I don't know much about them.

[vols fan]

On my alpha my dogs were between 26-31 miles in a three hour hunt once hitting 36 miles in three hours so that's 12 mph. That was cool temps, 30 degrees. That also was the U P grouse woods . Going to south ga open pines next week so we will see if that changes.Did not use in S D chicken hunt but i would guess a little shorter only because it was 80 + .