# top duck dogs



## hdroc (Apr 8, 2008)

what in your guys opinion are the top duck dogs in order


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## gonedoggin (Mar 20, 2008)

#1 Black Labrador
#2 Yellow Labrador
#3 Chesapeake
#4 Golden Retriever (field bred)
#5 Chocolate Labrador
#6 American Water Spaniel
#7 Boykin spaniel
#8 Springer spaniel


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## DuckBuster (Mar 18, 2003)

I'll probably get a little flak for this but.....

NOTHING BEATS A LAB!

yellow, black, then chocolate. :wink:


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## verg (Aug 21, 2006)

That's a pretty vague question really. I think it really depends on the hunting situation. Field, small slough, sea duck hunting etc. Not sure it really comes down to breeds but more so the individual dog. 
With that being said, I'd go with labs or chessies any day.


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## whitehorse (Jan 28, 2008)

again, lab or chessie... it's hard to classify which is best....


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## Chaws (Oct 12, 2007)

How can you break it down by color, that's just stupid!

For hard core in all weather type hunting and for ducks only, a chessie is at my side. I own a lab because I'm not a complete fairweather hunter but I'm also in the field hunting roosters about 50% of my season.


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

gonedoggin said:


> #1 Black Labrador
> #2 Yellow Labrador
> #3 Chesapeake
> #4 Golden Retriever (field bred)
> ...


Ouch! My dog is pi$sed you put goldens and chessies in front of him :lol:


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## gonedoggin (Mar 20, 2008)

Chaws said:


> How can you break it down by color, that's just stupid!


It's no more stupid than picking a "best" breed. What we're answering here is what stereotypes do we have about various phenotypes of dog. One stereotype that's out there is that within Labradors, Black dogs make the best hunters. Yellow dogs are smart and trainable in a "seeing eye dog" sort of way, and Chocolates are a distant third because often they exist because someone was breeding for the rarer color instead of just performance.

The reality is that the difference within a breed is far greater than the differences between them. Although most of us might put the Labrador at the top of our duck dog list, I'll bet we can all think of many, many exceptions.

You should never take someone else's opinion about dog breeds too seriously. It's kind of like shotguns. I may tell you that a Model X is the absolute finest gun ever made but if it doesn't shoot where you look, or if you just don't like the feel of it, it's never going to make you happy. Go w/ what you like, then pick on every other breed. That's what I do. 
oke:


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## Chaws (Oct 12, 2007)

You put Field Bred behind Goldens in your list, you should put that behind every one of those in the list then. Each of those breeds have their own capability as you stated but color shouldn't be a matter of fact. The only two breeds in that list that will produce good hunting stock are the AWS and the Boykin as they're a pretty rare breed here in the US and their show and field lines are the same which is a very distant comparison to the Lab and Golden lines.


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## gonedoggin (Mar 20, 2008)

Chaws said:


> You put Field Bred behind Goldens in your list, you should put that behind every one of those in the list then.


Good point. Field bred Goldens are quite rare but they can be really nice hunting dogs for the right person. Anytime you breed for looks you're going to fall behind those who breed for strictly performance.

I'm not willing to go to ground over the color issue in Labs, at least not between Blacks and Yellows. The prejudice against Chocolates is pretty wide spread among retriever competitors but I have seen a lot more really good brown dogs in recent years. The gap is getting smaller but if you go to a trial, you will see how rare they are at the top.


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## Chaws (Oct 12, 2007)

Very true, there are some really great Choco lines out there now a days. I think it mainly comes back to about 10-30 years ago when the breeding for color was going rampant thus making it more and more difficult to find good lines for field bred chocolates. I've got a great chocolate out of very close lines of Barracuda Blue and Riptide Star, unarguably the BEST chocolates ever in the game. If you look at a color breeding chart like this one (http://www.blueknightlabs.com/color/coatcolor.html) you can see that blacks are easiest to reproduce, then yellows, then chocolates, again making it hard to get high quality out of the later of the 3.

Good conversation though!


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## Wes (Aug 1, 2006)

You forgot continental breeds...I use my Drahthaar for waterfowl until the ice. Wes


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