Does anyone on here hunt with these/ have any advice about them? Thinking about getting one for ducks.

Also, do any of y'all use a dog to retrieve in flooded hyacinth grass or flooded sawgrass. Didn't know if dogs have trouble traversing this terrain.

I had an awesome pup that was doing great but got ran over. I've got a buddy in Missouri that raises the best ones I've ever seen. I'll be headed up there in a few days to pick up two.

I've upland hunted a fair amount with GSP's. Very hard hunting dogs. Unfortunately, never water hunted with them.

I have one I'm training to be a duck dog. However it's going slow but not because of him. I had him trained for upland but quickly decided I will get more use out of him as a retriever. I will say that his bird drive is more than any other dog I have been around. His feet are webbed and he enjoys the water as much as a lab. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1353899735.635255.jpg

I just bought one. Excited to start training her. Where do you hunt? I live in South Carolina and not sure if the cold would affect him

You will not regret it. They need an amazing amount of running and playing to expel their energy however. Make sure he has plenty of room and time to play. I'm in Louisiana and I know people down here use vests for them if hunting in the water. They are fairly cheap at Academy($35ish).

I have a GSP I duck hunt her in SE LA she does great they really are a versatile breed. Smartest dog I ever owned. It's fun to limit ducks by 9am then quail/snipe/woodcock by noon. Great dog

Shorthairs are GREAT retrievers!

I have 1 and it's an excellent upland game dog. Every shorthair I've seen hunting ducks is too high strung and can't sit in a duck blind.

Do any of y'all have any good training references? I bought the book water dog but any other recommendations are appreciated.

Greg mine does great in the blind with GSP a lot depends on the blood lines. Mine has mostly European lines where the Breed is used more for its purpose as a versatile hunter. Here in the US the breed is bred almost exclusively to upland hunt. But if u get a good one they are amazing at what they do.

Do y'all have any good training references?

Also, kind of discouraged. Picked up the pup yesterday and tried playing fetch with her and she doesn't seem to show much interest in fetch. Ive heard that good retrievers show a desire to retrieve at a young age. I can throw a toy and she SOMETIMES will run after it and shake it with her head. Sometimes i can call her to come back and she will bring it and other times she will leave it and come back. I don't try to fetch with her more than 3-4 times. Would it be that she is just new to this whole situation and is curious about everything or do I need to get rid of this pup and find another that has an obvious drive to retrieve. Kinda torn because if I were to trade her for a litter mate then I would want to do it soon but don't know if it would be a premature decision.

Give her time. If you just picked her up yesterday than she will probably take a little time to settle in. The big thing right now is to just let her be a puppy, her hunting drive will come around. I have 2 GSP's but have trained them for upland birds. They have way to much enegy to sit in the blind with me. Now with that being said I do know and have hunted with other shorthairs that made excellent duck dogs.

As far as a training souce. I have used the Ronnie Smith videos to train my pups. These videos are geared to upland hunting but the First 2 DVDs (puppy Development 1&2) are great for training any hunting puppy from the time you pick them up to the time you put them in the field. Good luck on training the new pup

http://www.ronniesmithkennels.com/training-videos.htm

Thanks for the feedback.

Read Water Dog by Richard Wolters again & again don.t worry about retrieving
right away get to know your pup.