Gun Dog Forum

Hi. This is my first post to the site. I have a wonderful black lab female who got away from my wife when she was in heat (my dog, not my wife!) and consequently we now have 8 black lab cross pups. My female is the best upland dog I've ever hunted over and I was a little disapointed in what happened. However, the father of the pups is about 3/4 black lab and maybe some pointer. My question is this: Is it possible to effectively train these pups to upland bird hunting (grouse primarily) or should I not even bother? Thanks in advance.

In my non-professional point of view I think you would have more than a fair chance with training these dogs! I've seen many "non-sporting" types of dogs who were VERY effective in the field.


ps: Love the clarification on the dog vs the wife being in heat! Priceless!!!

With enough patience, you could train a goat to point and retrieve Sounds like these pups should be easily able to at least flush and retrive and you might end up with pointing labs if you try. Not that we should be trying this willy nilly but no reason the dog can't hunt now that it's here. NBDCA will let you compete with them if it works out really well.