My husband is a felon, and therefore cannot own or use a gun, even for hunting. We are currently saving up for an RV, and once we have that we'll save up to buy a few acres in Tennessee (we currently live in Texas, but I'm originally from Ohio). Our plan then is to live in the RV on our land in TN while we build our own house together. We plan to both work part time to have some money, and also have time to work on building the house together. We figure we shouldn't need to work full time since we plan on trying to live off the land as much as possible- using solar panels for solar energy, possibly also utilizing water and/or wind as renewable resources as well, growing our own fruit and vegetable gardens, harvesting plants and herbs from the land, as well as, of course, hunting game. We decided that my husband will be in charge of doing the hunting and I'll be in charge of training dog(s) for him to use to help him hunt, as well as helping out with the skinning, gutting, prepping, and cooking. I'm already a professional dog trainer who has trained 2 of my own dogs, as well as going to clients' houses to help them train their dogs since 2015, and I have been employed full time as dog trainer at a dog training, boarding, daycare, and grooming facility for over the past 3 years. So, since my husband won't be able to use a gun to hunt for us, he'll be using a bow and arrow as well as traps, snares, and a slingshot. I can't seem to find a good answer to this online, so I thought I'd try asking here. I'm trying to figure out what breed(s) would be best to use to aid him in hunting with a bow and arrow. He's told me that he'll need a dog to help him close the distance between him and the game or to actually catch the game for him, so it sounds like a typical gun dog/flushing dog probably wouldn't be best? I was thinking maybe a beagle since they are supposed to good at finding bunnies and circling them to keep them close and in a small area or maybe a sighthound because I think they were bred to catch small game like rabbits? Or maybe some sort of treeing dog? But he also needs to be able to track larger game like deer as well, so I'm not sure. Personally, I'm generally not a fan of scenthounds, but since we're gonna be building indoor/outdoor kennels on our land, I suppose I'll be open to them if they actually turn out to be the best option. It just probably won't be a house dog as well. I'm new to training dogs for hunting, so would love some advice from someone who has used a specific breed or breeds for hunting with a bow and arrow before. Thanks in advance!
I've only hunted game birds with a dog, I much prefer a pointer to a flusher. That would be especially true if I was trying to shoot a bird out of the air with a bow. A pointer will hold the bird until I walk up and purposely flush it, much better IMO with a bow. Don't have any experience with hunting any other game with a dog. I do want to say, however, that while there are a handful of states that allow running deer with dogs, many do not allow them except for tracking for recovery after one has been shot. Be sure you know your regs to avoid unpleasant game warden visits.
I'm a fan of the Black Mouth Cur. See avater. They will hunt anything and excell at treeing. If your husband isn't that good of a shot the BMC will probably catch the critter for you.
German Wire or Short hair Pointer. Can do anything- track, point, flush, retrieve. The more white the better. I've always thought if you plan on using a dog during any deer hunting season; you probably want to avoid a tan-colored dog and avoid anything that could be remotely mistaken by its coloring as a coyote.
Thank you all for the responses! I was actually just wondering about BMCs as we get some at work, and they're usually pretty cool and energetic dogs. If they'll actually catch the game, that'd probably be the best scenario. My husband said that he probably doesn't really need a dog to help track/recover deer, so nvm on that one anyway. GSPs have been growing on me lately at work haha. Very sweet and smart/easy to train dogs. I had similar thoughts about flushers as what was said, so glad to know that for sure! Does anyone have any experience with setters? Figure they would be similar to pointers since they set instead of point. I've heard that Brittanys can do just about anything as far as setting, retrieving, etc. as well? Personally, I've always wanted a Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever, but idk if that would be at all what we're even really looking for haha. Thanks again for the replies!
My bird hunting (my only hunting with dogs experience) experiences with Brittany's is they are hit and miss for whatever reason. I've seen some that are outstanding and others that just don't seem to have the instinct for it. All were owned and trained by the same guy. I've never seen a German shorthair that wasn't a great bird dog if they got some training. Most can just be taught to obey commands so they stay close enough to you that they don't jump birds that won't hold outside of your shooting range, be taught to fetch, and their instinct will take care of the rest. I have seen one that got really excited the first time she got a nose full of birds on the first hunt of the day and would disregard commands to stay close and end up jumping birds out of range. With her we just figured out to play a bunch of "fetch" with her before we headed out hunting, if a bit of the fresh energy was burned beforehand she obeyed and stayed in range. Just her personality, fabulous bird dog other than that one issue. I've also hunted with a couple of Springers, they are flushers but can be very good too. Great personalities, I'd rather have a Springer for a pet year round than a shorthair, but a black or yellow lab is excellent too for both hunting and a pet. I'd much prefer a black or yellow over a chocolate lab. The only other type of dog I've hunted with was Vizsla's. Good instinct. Can't comment on much else, the one trio of them I hunted with were a bit wild, which could relate to the owner's training. Although pointers they flushed every single bird we encountered out of range and they never locked up on a single bird and held it. I really think it was a training thing. You sure didn't walk over any birds with those three along, ha ha.
One of my dogs is a hound mix with mostly beagle and foxhound, he is not trained as a hunting dog but he has an amazing nose. I like to drag a treat around my yard and have him track it, he finds it in seconds.
