There is a lady that has a labradoodle on this forum, and they are training her to hunt. I will make sure she sees this post. Her Sammy is going away for training for a couple of weeks. There have been quite a few used for hunting.

 

We got our Sammy to be a hunter. My fiance is allergic to labs but is an avid duck and goose hunter. We got her from a breeder that has champion field trial lab lines and her daddy is a 75lb chocolate poodle who will also retrieve pheasants. She is very birdy and just beginning training. In two weeks she is going for an intro to birds and guns- we're calling is "camp" while we are out of town. She will have her first hunt this fall and then next summer go for more extensive training.

She is 5 months old right now and learning VERY quickly. She has been heeling for over a month and LOVES to bring the bumper back. My fiance is VERY excited at how smart she is, how quickly she is learning, and her clear natural abilities and drive. She is happiest when shes training! (she also loves the water! Jumped right into the lake the day after the ice went out!) We really could NOT be any happier!

Here are a couple of recent hunting training pics...

HAPPY girl after a training session!

and a couple of water pics- taken with my phone so not as good of pics-

Here's her website that has links to her breeder and some other pics and info:

http://sammydoodle.tripod.com

 

Wow, those are some great pics.. You must be so proud!

 

We are!!! I cannot WAIT to see her on the last day of "camp" ... they will start her out retrieving dead birds, then move to live ones (wings clipped so they cant fly away) and then they will add in the gunfire! I will take LOTS of pics that day when we go to learn about her trianing and how to continue the techniques.

 

I can't wait to see those pictures!! Sammy is just a doll. She has the cutest face. I have seen fozzie and Phantom outside chasing birds on the fence, and stalking them. I am waiting for one to catch a bird, and bring it to me. LOL She looks like she loves the water! I set the baby pool up in the yard for the dogs again. You should have heard people make comments when I bought a baby pool a couple weeks ago. Things like, it's not even summer yet, and so on. Little did they know, it was for the dogs!! :lol:

 

Both poodles and labs have inherently soft mouths... I bet if fozzie and phantom do catch a bird they will bring it in LIVE so be careful!!! LOL


It will be so fun to see what she can do this fall. I will probably even have to go out to the blind for her first hunt to watch.... get all bundled up, it will be worth the cold to see her in action!

 

How about video taping some of it! That would be great to see! I can make videos with my camera. Short clips, but still it is fun to do.

 

Thank you for the info!
Rampart

 

We are also training our labradoodle for hunting, Riley loves the water and playing with the feathers and he has no hunting lines. I cant wait to start his training and get him finding the birds in the field and retrieving out of the water. Good luck.

 

Hunting Labradoodles ...

Hello!! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but my lab Belle has a hunting pedigree and several of her pups have successfully gone to hunting homes. I do have references from these families and I'm sure, if nothing else, they will be able to tell you a bit about the training process and how easy, or hard it was ...

 

that would be great! If I could get some contacts for your references I would appreciate it greatly! I am in Colorado also, so I'll keep in contact.

 

I sent you a Private Message!!!

 

Chester went running into a pond near our house the other day to go after a duck. He'd never done that before. I'm just glad he was off-leash so I didn't end up in there with him! I know it doesn't really apply to a hunting post but it was funny and duck related---so it was like hunting...sort of...

 

hee hee Natural Instincts! Although they're supposed to bring back the ducks once they're DEAD! LOL

My dad has a chocolate standard poodle that they adopted from a farm where the father pheasant hunted. They were show dog breeders and Casey's eyes turned amber so he wasn't show quality anymore, so they didnt want him anymore

But anyways, the dad would take Casey out pheasant hunting with him sometimes just for fun. Casey actually flushed out a bird from a bush and caught it in his mouth, ran back to the owner as if to say "Hey dad! Look what I got!"

As soon as the owner praised him, Casey opened his his soft mouth and let that pheasant go free... not a scratch on him! He just wanted the praise from his owner! These dogs are MADE to be bird dogs from both sides!

 

I have a hunting labradoodle

I have a 14 month old Labradoodle named Pickles, who is a weapon in the field. She has been trained to hunt since she was only 4 months old, and is one of the best field dogs I have ever seen. She has done over 80 retrieves this season, all of them to hand, and some of them were sensational (400 yard blind retrieves, etc). She has an amazing nose as well.

In my book, and in the eyes of the men I hunt with, the Labradoodle is a far superior hunting dog than a lab. Calmer, smarter, more easily trained and doesn't shed so she transitions to the home much more easily. She's a great swimmer to boot.

 

I have a 14 month old Labradoodle named Pickles, who is a weapon in the field. She has been trained to hunt since she was only 4 months old, and is one of the best field dogs I have ever seen. She has done over 80 retrieves this season, all of them to hand, and some of them were sensational (400 yard blind retrieves, etc). She has an amazing nose as well.

In my book, and in the eyes of the men I hunt with, the Labradoodle is a far superior hunting dog than a lab. Calmer, smarter, more easily trained and doesn't shed so she transitions to the home much more easily. She's a great swimmer to boot.

Pickles ... your post caught my attention and caused me to register just to reply. I too have a 14 month old Labradoodle. And he too has become a hunting machine! I had my doubts when I began the training process, and even after the first month of season I was reconciled to the fact that "Rusty" would never make the duck dawg that either of my two yellow Labs are. However, six weeks into season and the lights really went on for him. By the time season ended in late January Rusty had far surpassed even my fondest hopes for him.

For those interested in seeing the chronology, here he is from the day we got him at 7 weeks of age until the last day of season on January 23rd. Click on image and give it a moment to load fully ...



Now I must take exception with your over-enthusiastic description of the Labradoodle being a "far superior hunting dog than a lab." That's possible if you and your hunting pals have extremly limited exposure to many gun dawgs. Overall it's simply not true and tends to discredit the quality work that a Labradoodle IS capable of ... but certainly not superior much less far superior to the Labrador Retriever as a hunting dog.

At least that's this 69 year old hunter's opinion after 55+ years of training and hunting gun dawgs.

 

I don't know anyone but I think they are good hunting dogs due to the fact that they are half labrador retriever and maybe they are not only good hunters but smart one due to the poodle half.

 

Cappy,

Thank you for your reply, and glad to hear that you're hunting a labradoodle as well. The men that I hunt with, and the trainers that I work with, are some of the best in the north east. Pickles works at a club where there are about 10 full time gun dogs, and by the time she was 14 months (she's now almost 18 months) she was being used as one of the "house dogs" by the club - the youngest they had every had a private owners dog take that place.

I grew up hunting over labs, and love them fiercely as great gun dogs and pets. Where I think Labradoodles excel is in their calm nature, making them really easy to train and work with at a young age. Pickles has now done over 165 bird retrieves to date, and still climbing.

Let me know how the training goes with your pup!

 

Your dog looks great Cappy! Is it a male?

 

He was until 7 weeks of age when the breeder changed him to an "it".

 

I too think that it is instinctive in the breeds. We take our Brinly hiking alot and she flushed a bird out of some thickets. Last week she caught a bird and a squirrel in our backyard, lol. My husband is an avid hunter but being military does not have the time to train her as he is away alot but she would most def. be the ultimate hunting dog given the time and training.

 

John ... did you read the entire thread and understand the purpose of the original post and subsequent replies?

Nobody was asking "which is better" ... so why would you come into a Labradoodle site and advise people to NOT get one for hunting because ... "the labradoodle breeders probably don't use good hunting dogs as their breeding stock."

Some people actually check the field performance background of the lines they are considering as thoroughly as they do the health clearances.

Of course some people post uninformed replies because they probably just are.

In addition, the doodle may be their choice simply because of the relative zero shedding and allergic reactions by most owners.

 

i train hunting labs for 20 plus years untill 12 weeks ago i raised a litter of labradoodle pups out of one of my labs and a standard poodle female with a natural ability to hunt and track game., no more lab hunting dogs for me any time i can train a labradoodle 3 times faster and they are a whole lot smarter andmore willind to please you than a lab and do now chew up every thing they see.i have 10 week old labradoodle pups retrieving live pigeons unharmes and finding planted birds in the fireldplus they will hunt for anybody, they are greatif i can just get my hunting clients not to look down on them.

 

WELCOME! AND GOOD FOR YOU!
I hope your input will help others interested.
Do you have to keep your doodle cut short so he/she doesn't get burrs and tangles?

i can train a labradoodle 3 times faster and they are a whole lot smarter andmore willind to please you than a lab and do now chew up every thing they see

Now THAT describes a doodle!:grin:

 

"While Labs and poodles were both originally bred for hunting, the labradoodle breeders probably don't use good hunting dogs as their breeding stock. So go with a pure Lab.

Errrr....My F1 LD has 32 champions in her 6 gen pedigree, 26 of them Labs, mainly field champions...
Super duper in the water, one heck of a nose...but we don't hunt.
One thing I have to add here is that English labs are much more mellow...
Field Labs tend to be a bit more hyper, but the trade off is they tend to be much more intelligent than the English.
I bred my girl to a super mellow poodle line & got the most incredible pups!

 

Field Labs tend to be a bit more hyper, but the trade off is they tend to be much more intelligent than the English.

In addition, they drive from the LEFT side of the vehicle vs the right as the British dawgs do. ;-)

They love to hunt and will sit patiently along side you in a blind for hours ..

But love water retrieves most of all ...

 

Too CUTE! LOL