Chocolate Labs

[Born Hunter 17,637]

I wish I had taken a decent picture of one of my beaters shorthair bitch pup that he brought for the last shoot day, just for a look on an informal day.

Hes got her in fantastic condition and she’s a real doggy bitch. I hope he gets her to standard because I’ll very much enjoy shooting over her with him on a rough day.

Also seen some nice continental breeds today at jagd und hund show in Germany. No decent pics again though.

[j j m 6,481]

my mate has a choc lab and its a good worker

[The one 8,397]

My mates got a choc lab and it's like lactose intolerant  a right pain in the arse with food or it's always got dihorrea. 

[gnasher16 29,648]

20 hours ago, Born Hunter said:

I might have misunderstood you then, I was just pointing out that quality remains in all the top gundog breeds. In their respective fields they are all the masters of that trade. If by quality you mean general health then I dunno in honesty. Any of them would work into double figures, so beyond that I’m not sure I’d care too much.

Everyone comments on how classy shorthairs are but I’m not convinced they’re any more ‘top quality’ than a spaniel or lab or whatever. Difficult to compare really I suppose.

My mistake i probably wasnt clear...by quality i meant purely in physical structure as opposed to ability in the field

[shovel leaner 7,648]

One of the beaters on our shoot has one and it has little drive on game . However it is reasonably obedient and tootles about his ankles and puts birds up , it has never rushed into the flushing point and ruined the drive and is a pleasure to have around unlike some of the wild spaniels and labs I’ve seen which have been too much dog for their owners training ability. 

[Born Hunter 17,637]

22 hours ago, shovel leaner said:

One of the beaters on our shoot has one and it has little drive on game . However it is reasonably obedient and tootles about his ankles and puts birds up , it has never rushed into the flushing point and ruined the drive and is a pleasure to have around unlike some of the wild spaniels and labs I’ve seen which have been too much dog for their owners training ability. 

Ain't that often true, to a degree, of labs in general. Which is brilliant on a drive where you're tripping over birds in light cover. All you really want to do is move them to the flushing point, business like.

But when you're having to hunt hard for a small bag in unkept country those wild little f****r with big tabs are utterly priceless!

[sussex 5,776]

The first twenty years of my shooting life I can’t think I ever see a chocolate lab , it’s only in the last fifteen years or so they have become popular , in that time I’ve never seen one I would consider worth feeding , they all seem heavy in body and shorter in leg and come up well short in the work department . Compare that to the other minority colour , the red labs and it’s the reverse , I’ve seen several stunning dogs over the last few years in both confirmation and ability . 

Whilst the labs have had a problem with hips and eyes , testing and breeding from good sound dogs is getting on top of these problems much like the working collies and English springer spaniels..