First Dog

[jsb 6]

Hello! I'm looking at starting to get into beating this season. May be picking up also. It'll be my first time. I'm posting to see what dogs people recommend for beating/picking up. I have trained border collies to work sheep in the past.

[greenshank1 407]

Hi mate

 

Go along and see what the ground , terrain and cover are like. See what dogs , the experienced beaters and picker uppers are using and what suits the shoot the best and what suits you.

Enjoy your shoot days .

[DAVE P 100]

Springer spaniel mate...cant beat them

[jsb 6]

Thanks! I know that there's quite a lot of cover, fairly thorny. A few small rivers going through drives. Was thinking a springer

[Nik_B 3,790]

Thanks! I know that there's quite a lot of cover, fairly thorny. A few small rivers going through drives. Was thinking a springer

 

Our shoot was like that, tight cover and lots of gorse and thorny hedges plus lots of barbed wire fences sometimes in double layers either side what would have used to have been stone walls which mean you had to lift dogs into them. Unless you are a bodybuilder doing that with a big dog wasn't an option. It seemed that the smaller dogs like cockers and smaller springers worked very well on this one and the cockers outnumbered the springers by a long way. I think it comes down to preference but it sounds like springer or cocker would be best.

 

We went for cocker, I like them more than springers, they're small fun and cheap to feed lol

[fabiomilitello 37]

This question is so open ended lol, spaniel men will say go for a spaniel and lab men will say go for a lab. There is no right or wrong answer!