Upland Hunting is a form of hunting in which a hunter pursues upland birds including quail, pheasant, grouse, woodcock, prairie chicken, chukar, grey partridge, and other landfowls. Unlike waterfowl ( ducks), Upland birds are found on dry land and thick cover.
A hunter will usually use a team of dogs to locate and retrieve the bird. At Upland Dogs, we like to hunt in small groups of 1-2 hunters and tend to run no more than 3 dogs at a time.
There is all kinds of dogs and breeds you can use when upland hunting. At Upland Dog, we like to go hunting with our German Short hair pointer ( Gunner), Our English Setter ( Bryce), and our Black Labrador Retriever (Maddie). We sometimes even take out our un traditional upland Dog ( Sunshine) who is a German Shepard. Although German Shepards are not considered traditional hunting dog, our sunshine has become quite the retriever!
What kind of dogs are used for Upland hunting?
Upland Hunting dog breads can be divided into two different hunting roles when developing your upland hunting dog team. These roles are pointing dogs, flushing dogs and retrievers. Many different breeds of dogs can be trained to do 2 to 3 of the rolls. As an Upland hunter, you will need to decide if you want a dog that can do it all or do you want a team with superstars who know their individual task.
Disclaimers* There are hundreds of dogs and different sub-breeds. If I did not include your favorite breed below, please educate me in the comments below. I also want to say, that any dog can be an upland dog…. My wife and I use a German Shepard as a retriever and it makes for a great day out in the field.
Pointing Dogs
General Definition: A “pointing dog” is used to find the bird and will “point”, “freeze”, or lock up when ever he or she smells a bird within close proximity to the dog and hunter. The hunter will then walk up on the location causing the bird to fly or “flush” from the location.
Dog Breeds for Pointing: American Brittany, Bracco Italiano, Wirehaired Griffon, Vizsla, Munsterlander, Irish Setter, Pudelpointer, Picardy Spaniel, English Pointer, Llewellin Setter, Gordon Setter, German Shorthair Pointer, English Setter, Deutsch-Kurzhaar, and a French Brittany.
Flushing and Retriever Dogs
General Definition: A flushing or retrieving dog is used by an upland hunter once the pointing dog does it’s job in finding the bird and is used to flush/ spook the bird from cover. The bird takes flight and is hopefully shot by the hunter. It is then the flushing/ retrieving dogs job to pick up and return the bird to the hunter with while the pointing finds more birds.
Flushing and Retriever Dog Breeds:
American Water Spaniel, Boykin Spaniel, Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Clumber Spaniel, Curly-Coated Retriever, English Cocker Spaniel, English Springer Spaniel, Flat-Coated Retriever, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, and Poodle.
What Equipment do you use for Upland Hunting?
At Upland Dog, we have written a few blogs with the gear we like the most for hunting quail with our dogs in North Carolina. To view our favorite gear in detail, click here.
However, here is a general list of gear we like to take into the field every time we hunt.
Every time Claudia and I hunt with our dogs at the farm, we like to bring orange hunting vest, safety glasses, work gloves, ear protection, leash, hat, shotgun with corresponding shells, a good pair of boots, brush pants, brush pants, gps receiver with corresponding collars for all the dogs, and water for both humans and for the pups.
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