Price of gun dog?

Stevegeraghty

How much should you spend on a gun dog? Be it a springer or cocker?
And is donedeal the right or wrong place to go?

deerhunter1

Stevegeraghty wrote: »

How much should you spend on a gun dog? Be it a springer or cocker?
And is donedeal the right or wrong place to go?

Personally, I would not buy a dog from Done Deal. There are plenty of Kennels too go to and plenty of people here to put you on the right track. It depends what you want in a dog. Pup or trained or half trained, what breed.

Cork24

German pointer!!

Or a mix between cocker and a spRinger

But then it is all about what you are hunting ducks I would take up a lab birds German pointer or a mix of the two you stated

You could. Be talking around 500 for a ok dog and anything up for a great dog

If you don't want to train him yourself you be looking at a dog at 2 years old he/she should then have enough training with the dog owner to do the job, if their a good dog trainer they will ask you to come up for a days training in handling the dog the way he was trained. You wouldn't want to buy a dog and then start f**king swearing at him as he wouldnt come back to u..

To tell u the truth in the past 3 years I have being though 4 dogs before I found a dog that right for me and is doing what it's meant to do

snipe02

Stevegeraghty wrote: »

How much should you spend on a gun dog? Be it a springer or cocker?
And is donedeal the right or wrong place to go?

those are two choices that are completely up to yourself but personally ive paid 550 for a pup that was worth every penny but that was during the boom days and money wasnt an issue for me then now i would pay 350 and no more for the same pup so that would be my limit and secondly i would not buy a dog from donedeal go to the closest breeder to you and get references if you can like if they can say such and such bought pups from me ask them thats just me

Stevegeraghty

I think I'd like a cocker pup (bitch)

I plan to start training myself,ie. the recall,fetch and all the basics and then get a bit of help when it's time to do a bit of work?
I believe you can't (shouldn't) put a shot over her till she's 18 months or so
Be mainly rough shooting I'm after

TriggerPL

Stevegeraghty wrote: »

I think I'd like a cocker pup (bitch)

I plan to start training myself,ie. the recall,fetch and all the basics and then get a bit of help when it's time to do a bit of work?
I believe you can't (shouldn't) put a shot over her till she's 18 months or so
Be mainly rough shooting I'm after

good cockers with gundog backround papers your looking round the 400 500 mark , dont let trailing backrounds put ya off they havnt been as watered down as springers .

normally round 9 months you can fire a shot , but do it the right way have the gun 100 yards away and move closer over a couple of day dont just stand beside her firing shots , and have her hunting at the time so she relates it to something fun.

wouldn say not buy from donedeal but becareful lot of crap on there , go look at pups but do ever feel like you have to buy one

dodderangler

Was told that dropper like a german pointer cross springer can be great workers and they do be fairly cheap

Stevegeraghty

Cocker for me for 2 reasons
My great grandfather used to train cockers and I remember them from when I was a kid at my grand parents house
And as my house isn't to big and the fact that I'm a big fan of my dogs living in the house I like the cockers size

garyc007

my friend is bringing his german pointer bitch for some lovin later so there will be some serious pups on the way. she is a great worker and so is the stud dog, id be tempted to take a pup myself. now personally i prefer the springer, but again it depends what and where you hunt. dont heed the whole 18 months, if you are doing plenty of training anywhere around the 6 month mark is okay with me!

dodderangler

garyc007 wrote: »

my friend is bringing his german pointer bitch for some lovin later so there will be some serious pups on the way. she is a great worker and so is the stud dog, id be tempted to take a pup myself. now personally i prefer the springer, but again it depends what and where you hunt. dont heed the whole 18 months, if you are doing plenty of training anywhere around the 6 month mark is okay with me!

Il take one

huntsalot

I have a two year old springer bitch for sale for €150. She is smart and takes training well. She is not gun shy and shows great promise.
I want her to go to a hunter and I know she will be great.
I just have not had the time to give her, for loads of reasons. Pictures in the for sale thread. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056621400
You'd be getting her at the best time to start training, with a long summer to get her right for the season.

garyc007

dodderangler wrote: »

Il take one

im sure hed be okay with that. think he has 2 booked already. theyl be some big pups id say, i thought the bitch was big but the dog is huge!

dodderangler

garyc007 wrote: »

dodderangler wrote: »

Il take one

im sure hed be okay with that. think he has 2 booked already. theyl be some big pups id say, i thought the bitch was big but the dog is huge!

That's what you need big pups
The pointer we had years ago was a big bitch good dog

dicky82

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056631247

brianfrancis45

Stevegeraghty wrote: »

I think I'd like a cocker pup (bitch)

I plan to start training myself,ie. the recall,fetch and all the basics and then get a bit of help when it's time to do a bit of work?
I believe you can't (shouldn't) put a shot over her till she's 18 months or so
Be mainly rough shooting I'm after

If you haven't trained a gun dog before , my advice for what its worth would be that first off you buy the book ''Training Spaniels'' by Joe Irving . It's the bible of spaniel training and it breaks down exactly what needs to be done at each stage of the dog's age/training. Secondly, I'd personally think twice about a getting a cocker ..... from the experiences of some of my friends (who are experienced handlers) who purchased cocker pups from well known + different working lines in the past , it appears difficult to get a good one and also cockers can be hard enough to train. In fairness I haven't hunted a cocker myself so I'm just going on what those friends have said but then again the fact that the cockers they had ultimately didn't meet their expectations and were replaced by springers , would appear to speak volumes...

I hope I don't offend any cocker owners with the above comments, as that is definitely not my intention (every man to his own and all that ...) but if you are a novice handler and you want to get a pup and train the dog by
yourself , I'd be inclined to think that you might well have a better chance of more success with a springer from good working lines.


Having said that, when it comes to pups there is no doubt that it's always a bit of a lottery as to whether a dog will ultimately be good enough or not. Training a pup up to a good standard by yourself undoubtedly gives great satisfaction but if you end up with a dog who doesn't make the grade and for example you are faced with a situation where the wife and/or kids don't want to see ''Fido'' being shown the door, then you might be better off buying a part trained spaniel who is already showing good prey drive/hunting well and put the finishing touches to the dog yourself.

Just my tuppence worth and I am sure that there are others on here with more experience than me , who may be able to guide you better with their experiences as to cocker versus springer.

Stevegeraghty

Thanks for the info guys

I'd love to hear more views on cockers,