This project came into being at the beginning of 2000 when Dr. Chris Hageseth left his medical career to pursue a dream - the creation of a television show about upland bird hunting and bird hunting dogs. He was successful and his show, Bird Dogs Forever, was picked up by the Outdoor Life Network, where 24 original shows were aired from 2001 to 2004. The shows are now being viewed throughout Europe and at the website www.myoutdoortv.com.
 
The Bird Dogs Forever website grew out of that show. Chris saw that he could provide a unique service to the many people who contacted him with questions about where to hunt and about dogs to hunt with. He established the kennel and destination pages in 2001 to serve as a place for people to meet. Over the years the listings have grown until today nearly 1900 listings are available to visitors. If you know of a hunting destination or a kennel that is not listed, have them get in touch with us.
 

 

 
Why We Like to Hunt:
- paraphrased from an old Field & Stream magazine
 
"I hunt because my father hunted, and he took me with him, and so we built a bond that I still cherish. And because his father hunted, and his father’s father, and all of the fathers in my line and yours, as far back as those fathers who invented spears and axes and recorded their adventures with pictures on the walls of caves.
 
I hunt because I’m convinced, as many anthropologists argue, that prehistoric man was a hunter before he was a farmer, and because the genetic drive remains too powerful for me to resist. I do not need to hunt to eat, but I need to hunt to be fully who I am.
 
I hunt because if I didn’t, I would have seen fewer eagles and hawks, foxes and porcupines, insects and songbirds, and although I do not happen to hunt these creatures, I do love to enter their world and spy on them.
 
I hunt because it is never boring or disappointing to be out-of-doors with a purpose, even when no game is spotted, and because taking a walk in the woods without a purpose makes everything that happens feel random and accidental and unearned.
 
I hunt because it reminds me that in nature there is a food chain where everything eats and is, in its turn, eaten, where birth, survival, and reproduction give full meaning to life, where death is ever present, and where the only uncertainty is the time and manner of that death. Hunting reminds me that I am integrated into that cycle, not separate from or above it.
 
I hunt because it keeps my passions alive and my memories fresh and my senses alert even as my beard grows grey, and because I am afraid if I stopped hunting, I would instantly become an old man, and because I believe that as long as I hunt I will remain young."