Well, I don't want add any fuel to the fire but I think most folks who are adament about the fact that their dogs live in the house and sleep at the foot (or on the bed) are mostly those who own versatile dogs. Labs, GSPs and others. I'm betting that those who don't have them in the house have rougher breeds, coon hounds, lion dogs and my sickness pointers.

I've always believed that pointers are just a little bit closer to the coyotte than other breeds. Now I know folks that have them in the house, but they are few and far between. My old lab slept in the bed and ended up on me alot of nights, but my pointers have no manners and are, I believe harder to house break and trust in the house and alone. If I'm wrong and a bunch of you have your pointers in the bed I'll go away quietly but I don't think these are the in the house dogs that alot of other calmer versatile types are.

One other thing, I don't care what kind of dog it is if it gets care and love and sleeps in the recliner every night, I'm beting if it has the fire to hunt it will still hunt in the morning after it gets out of it's jamies and finishes a bowl of bacon and eggs...........Good tunes are always good tunes and good dogs are always good dogs............

For coon dogs it is all bout the Nite Champion and Grand Nite Champion. If your dog won't hunt well at night it isn't worth it's weight as a coon dog...Just my opinion as a long time coon hunter.

hey redbone, to the "labs cant hunt coons" comment. Ill have u know that less than 1 hr ago, my two labs treed a coon!!! and the trail wasnt older than 5 min old!!!! lol.... real hard right!!! i saw the coon at my parents house and brought my two dogs down there to see what they would do, my full bred lab hit on the trail instantly, and found the coon out on the ground and then hauled arse after it. then treed it on the neighbors land. it was funny as heck. BTW im just jacking with u, i know labs arent worth crap for real coon hunting.


Also to the comment about not changing ur mind. I can tell u that i would consider buying a "high end dog" but i cant see paying 1000 bucks, maybe 500 or so.... ive sure learned a lot, and myabe it didnt change the two extremes, but the people reading surely learned a couple things.

I have had 2 male pointers that lived in the house. Each one earned the right to come into the house. They both had field trail placements, walking not horse back, but they were real easy to housebreak, of course they were 2 or older before they came into the house. The current one, Bud, people come out to the house at the lease and see him sleeping on his bed in the corner and say that is the dog we are hunting over, the next evening they say that I changed dogs over night. Our 5 year old triplett granddaughters just love Bud, he lets them lay on top of him, pull him around, play with his food, you name. So pointers can be good house dogs and still go all out.

A good freind of mine gave me a GSP puppy that I picked out of the litter. A trainer came and bought most of his other puppies. He has bred, raised, trained and sold them for many years.

I have had almost no expereince with bird dogs, but have had a lot of cow dogs (catahoula). My freind offered to train this GSP for me for nothing, so we could hunt over them this next season. Did I ask him if these dogs were certified, NO! Does it make me any difference, NO! I wont look a gift horse in the mouth!

None of his other dogs, and he has quite a few, show any symptoms of any problems of any sort. This breeder doesn't have any fancy big time kennel, his dogs sell by word of mouth.

Personaly, I wouldn't pay 500.00 or more for a dog, but that is just how I roll.

My daughter bought a female GSP puppy from a from someone that had an ad in the local paper. She had the puppy micro-chipped and sent her registration forms off, about 2 weeks later they came back only to find out that the mother and father were brother and sister out of the same litter! The man that my daughter had bought her puppy from had bought his dogs from the same man that had given me my puppy. He only paid $250.00 for them. When I told my friend about this he immiediatly called the man and gave him a very stern talking to. He was wanting $700.00 each for these puppies, but he told my daughter that he would let her have one for $500.00. Talk about a rip-off! This man knew what he had done but I guess it didn't make him any diference. Had I known that she was going to buy a puppy from him, I wouldn't have let this happen.

My daughter sent a signed letter to the editor of the local newspaper addressing this matter, so nobody else would get ripped off like she did. The local paper didn't have the spine to print it though.

My freind would have given her a puppy, cause thats the kind of guy he is.

You are right, when I first got interested in field trials I was in Wichita Kansas and met Manuel Casado who owned a multiple Nat Shooting Dog Champion named Easy Mark. Marks full brother Plum Thicket Sam was owned by a Dr. in KC and lived in the house full time. He was trialed sparingly and hunted hard. Alot of folks who saw him said he was a better dog then Mark. They can live in the house and tear it up in the field...........