You can ADOPT a great bird dog for just the cost of saving the dog and gas money. A friend of mine and I saved an English Setter recently for less than $1000. Most of the $1000 was vet bills and donation to the dog rescue ladies. This particular English Setter's Daddy was dying, or dead by then, and the dog rescue ladies had taken in the dog. While the dog's Daddy was sick and dying everybody forgot about his dog and let the dog almost starve to death in the back yard. Yes, this bird dog was almost dead of starvation when the rescue ladies got to him. They put him up on FACEBOOK under the IBDR, Ill Bird Dog Rescue, with warnings of imminent death if someone did not come and get him. I drove 700 miles one way to meet this English Setter bird dog. He was just about starved to death like the ladies said. He was so sick he could hardly eat, his stomach was shrunk up. I took him out back and you could immediately tell that he was a great dog. I gave the ladies a reward for saving the dog and took the dog 350 miles to my son's house and his neighbor a lady vet. The Lady Vet said we had a 50% chance of saving the dog, the dog was now starving and sick with a cough ! We got lucky, BUCK got well ! We gave BUCK to a hunting and shooting friend of ours who runs a shooting club. A few weeks ago a pro dog trainer was shooting and saw BUCK and said "that dog looks trained and acts trained". He got his whistle and blew a command and BUCK did what he was trained to do. BUCK was a college grad !!! He had a Masters Degree in finding birds and whistle commands. Go on FACEBOOK and look up dog rescue and you will see many choices.
Another good place to find dogs is:
Above and Beyond
English Setter Rescue
http://www.esrescue.org/The CODE for a good bird dog at ABOVE AND BEYOND is they tell you that the dog IS NOT cat friendly OR that the dog is BIRDY. Some of the dog rescue ladies are NOT HUNTERS so be nice, look at the dog yourself and do not ask questions.
Good Shooting To You All, Jent
