A lot of GSDs have a natural soft mouth. Others can easily distinguish between the appropriate time for biting down vs carrying softly. And, of course, there will be others who will need work to learn to be soft mouthed.

Well,
Nobody has suggested Keleah doesn't try, if that's what she really wants to do. No one has suggest GSD's can't be trained to hunt birds. Only why?
Unless the 'individual' dog shows some definitive proclivities that lend themselves to bird hunts, it becomes a set of exercises dealing mostly in adversity because it goes against the grain. Why set yourself up for it?

For returns and satifaction on my time and effort, I'd stick with the gun dog group thank you.

 Quote: randy allen

... No one has suggest GSD's can't be trained to hunt birds. Only why? ... Unless the 'individual' dog shows some definitive proclivities that lend themselves to bird hunts, it becomes a set of exercises dealing mostly in adversity because it goes against the grain. Why set yourself up for it? ...

Well, obviously there are divergent POVs, but I sure do agree with this one; it feels like honoring the breed(s) to work a dog in the job(s) he has been bred for.

But JMHO!

I admit that I am not an avid bird hunter, but, I own a German Shorthair Pointer and have family that has bred Pointers for over forty years.

I agree with Randy's and Connie's opinion on this. My uncle would always tell me how the soft mouth retrieve and good point are bred for and cannot be 'truly' taught. A dog without a strong genetic disposition toward the qualities required for a bird hunt could probably be taught the exercises, but, there is often not enough real 'heart' or 'drive' fueling the exercise.

See my Pointer, Meggie, in my signature line? Wonder what I did to get that nice beautiful point? Absolutely nothing except drop a bird feather on the ground. I did not need to teach this. At eight weeks old she would lock into a staunch point on both the sight or scent only of a bird. Meggie would sell her soul to satisfy her drive for a bird. lol

If you think your GSD can do it and you are just having fun. Give it a shot. There is no better teacher than experience and there are often exceptions to the rules.

That is a gorgeous Pointer. My dad hunted birds with an Elhew pointer many years ago.

Well, I don't know why the man had GSD's out hunting, but one thing was for sure... he had a full puch of birds in his vest. I failed to mention this before, because I was so excited.

I know that it would be more logical to hunt with any of the many sporting/hunting breeds out there, my hubby hunts with our Lab. It's kind of a novelty to see a breed, not bred for something in particular, doing the work (ie. GSD out bird hunting). Not something you see every day, that's for sure.
I'm not suggesting that anyone should go train a Pomeranian to hunt birds, or have a Rottie as a sled dog, or have a Chihuahua as a seeing eye dog, lol.

I guess I see the GSD as so versitle that it could be a hunting dog, and maybe we will train our GSD to hunt and maybe we won't. The only reason I think it would be a good thing is because my hubby is more interested and shows more attention to our Lab, and having our girl learn to hunt would be a good bonding experience for my hubby and her. I think with lots of time, patience and practice that my GSD could go out and hunt birds with my hubby and our Lab. I don't think that she could ever go to a field test or any kind of hunt test and pass, let alone win anything. And I'm definitely not saying that she'd be better than any sporting breed.

Okay!
If the dog has the proscribed tendencies, why not?

Try to keep it positive....please.

I took my GSD to a fun gun dog competition last summer....
Just retrieving dummies, finding hidden dummies, control work (heel, come, sit etc)...

He finished 2nd out of 114 dogs

Granted it was a fun charity event but there were some BIG names in the gun dog world there - once they got over their inital shock some did come talk to me.

 Quote: randy allen

Well,
Nobody has suggested Keleah doesn't try, if that's what she really wants to do. No one has suggest GSD's can't be trained to hunt birds. Only why?

Why? Well for me it is because I like the taste of wild game birds and I have no desire to live with a gundog. I have had a few gun dogs, and I'm not knocking them; but they are just not the right type for me.

And there are many other things I would want my dog for besides bird hunting.

 Quote: randy allen

Unless the 'individual' dog shows some definitive proclivities that lend themselves to bird hunts, it becomes a set of exercises dealing mostly in adversity because it goes against the grain. Why set yourself up for it?

Any time you want a dog for a certain activity, it is better to look for one that shows "definitive proclivities" even if it is for activities that the breed is commonly used in. For instance, GSDs are often competed in SchH. But there are many GSDs who would not do well in the sport.

But in bird hunting, the herding instinct is very conducive to training the dog to point birds. So it is not hard to get a decent bird hunting dog with a GSD.

I am not advocating buying a GSD for the purpose of field trialing. For that, a gun dog breed is far superior and almost necessary.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

it feels like honoring the breed(s) to work a dog in the job(s) he has been bred for.

But JMHO!

But how many people with GSDs have large flocks of sheep? There are still working German Shepherd Dogs out there. But they are certainly not the majority, or even the 4th or 5th activity that GSDs are used in.

But that's what they were bred for.

Its great to see a dog doing what it was bred for. But that isn't always practical or even possible. I think it is better for a dog, a definitely for a GSD, to do some sort of human paired activity which utilizes one or more of a GSDs talents. But that is just my opinion.