How long should you hunt your dog?

[hunter83]

I took my 1.5 yrs old gsp on a hunt his first wild hunt this weekend and he didn't pretty good for half the day. We did a 10 hour hunt with another dog the first day. On the next day He was pretty much drained out and didn't really hunt. His under belly was pretty much raw from running in the cat tails and legs where pretty much beat up. He is a house dog compare to the other who lives outside. I will get him a vest the next time though. Sounds like a dumb question but How long should I hunt my dog so hes not drained out? is he still too young to hunt a long period of time? because our other veteran dog (7 yrs) didn't have a problem hunting for 2 days.

[123fish]

What kind of shape is the dog in?

[corncob]

Obviously the dog isnt in shape......Get the dog in shape by running him daily to improve his conditioning. His level of shape will determine how long and how often he can hunt....He got worn out is all.

[laker1]

Itis just like training for a marathon,you got to get in shape. Most dogs are not i shape in early season Just like a athlete it takes conditioning.

[ESSGuy]

How did he hunt? Was his speed and pace faster than the older dog? Did he cover more ground than the older dog? All could be a factor. Some dogs just do not have the drive that others have. I have 3 springers, 10,8 1/2 and 2. They all have great hunting drive but the 10 yr old just has that something extra that makes him never stop until I have to shut him down.

[hunter83]

Hes pretty much in shape. When we first started he was flying 100 mph. he was faster and did cover more grounds but the next day, seem like he could barely move and didn't want to move. Thats when I notice he was pretty much beat up on the legs and belly. I take it that maybe he was to sore from the hunt. He been really slow walking for the last couple days and sleeping alot. I though maybe I hunted him too hard for his first time. All we hunt is in the thicket and cat tails. I will give him a couple weeks break to heal up and take him back out to see how he does.

[ESSGuy]

He will learn to pace himself as he hunts, mine run like they are at a field trial for the first hour then will begin to pace themselves. Give a good quality premium food during hunting season and also watch the temperature. This weekend was fairly warm,temps in that thick cover with no air flow can cause overheating. A good bird dog will not quit, so it's up to us to tell them when they have had enough. Good luck.

[hunter83]

yeah, The bad part was after the hunt, He was so tire he didn't even want to eat. hes on purina pro plan (sport) so I think he on quality food. Thanks

[LABS4ME]

I wouldn't use a neoprene vet for the first alf of the season... Heat build up can be an issue.

Sounds like a dog that is not conditioned. Being in 'shape' is different than being conditioned to hunt. Quick training periods do not condition a dog for an extended hunt. Work him pre season for simulated hunts, right now I wouldn't lay him up for a couple weeks, I'd do more half day hunts with him to build up his stamina. Suppose to be cool Saturday, get him out there for a good 6 hour hunt!

Good Luck!

Ken

[CaptainMusky]

Get a skid plate niy a neoprene vest. You won't have to worry about overheating with a skid plate.neoprene is better for waterfowl when they spend lots of time in the water I wouldn't recommend those for upland hunting.

[hunter83]

thanks, gonna head out to cabelas in rogers and get a skid vest. He seems to be back to normal today, I can see all his wound scabbing up and peeling so he's healing again. Man, he did get beat up pretty good around all is paws, legs,and couple big scratches when he ran into the barb wire. You are probably right, he gets lots of exercise but maybe he was not condition for a all day hunt. maybe i will head out to willmar area this weekend. Thanks for the advices

[CaptainMusky]

I hunted for years without a vest, then after purchasing one I felt terrible for "mistreating" my dogs all those years by not having one.

The one thing that is tough to avoid though is the area around the nose and eyes.

But man did it save the the undercarriage.

It was kind of cute, I took my pup out saturday for his first hunt and the skid plate I had from my last dog was still in the kennel (he died last year). Trigger picked it up in his mouth and just sat there with it. Almost like he knew what it was for and waited for me to put it on. :-)

The brand I have is called "skid plate". It seemed to fit GSP's the best of the ones I tried on. It also is very well built with better buckles and straps and heavy duty cordura. Its lasted me nearly 8 years of pretty heavy hunting so I think that is awesome.

One of the original reasons I bought was to help see the dog in the grass, but the protection was amazing.

[blindluck]

We exercise our GSPs just about every day off leash out in a prairie area. We usually walk about 1.5 miles or more. Usually by the time a person has walked about 5 miles a dog will start to slow down a bit if the dogs are off leash and running freely. We've walked 8 miles before the dog has really started to tire.

Walking them in the prairie area all the time has gotten them used to being in the environment. The tall grasses and such do not seem to bother them at all. We never use a skid plate. Maybe if I saw really bad terrain but they do fine. It was hard for one GSP at first, but after a few tries and a few trips to the vet he now flies through barb wire with ease like our other dogs. Like everything else it is practice.

As stated earlier the biggest challenges this time of year should be not letting them overheat and make sure they are getting water. There are treats out there that are like Gatorade for dogs. GSPs kind of solve the conditioning problem themselves because if they do not get exercise they will let you know. They can turn into an unruly mob.

Our Pheasant season opens here the 25th. We are headed to our favorite hunting preserve this weekend for 1/2 day hunts on Saturday and Sunday to make sure they are "tuned up" and ready to go. Best of luck to all.

[rundrave]

Walking them in the prairie area all the time has gotten them used to being in the environment. The tall grasses and such do not seem to bother them at all. We never use a skid plate.

I dont put any vest or protection on my 2 GSP's either I think running them in the same type of cover in the off season toughens up the skin and I see no need for them. I hunted my 2 dogs for 7hrs on Monday and they didn't have any red or raw spots after the entire day.

[sdsu_jacks]

It all comes down to what you as an owner has done leading up to this point. When I lived in a rural area my preseason conditioning was mostly going out to our hunting spots and "hunting without a gun." Now that I live in the metro area my dogs conditioning is running next to me while I ride a bike. It's all built up so he can be in optimum condition his type of year. And since hunting dogs are extreme athletes, I attempt to always keep him in decent shape but really up the tempo mid July-mid October.

[Ryan_V]

One thing I didn't see mentioned was the heat. I dialed back hunting this weekend due to the heat. I have a gsp as well, and the heat really affects them. My gsp will hunt hard for days on end, when the temps are cool. Dogs can't dissipate heat like you and i. They very easily overheat, and I have seen dogs driven into the ground hunting them too hard in the heat. A dog doesn't know either, their hunting instincts are strong and they don't know to slow down. When it's as warm as it was this weekend,I limit the dog work to an hour or less during the day, then hunt again late afternoon, before sunset. Your dog won't give you a warning if they are in danger, he will just tip over. Please be careful, if he was overheated this weekend, he will be more prone to it in the future. Losing a dog isn't worth a couple roosters. I talked to a trainer once that said at 65° he works a dog no longer than 25 minutes at a time.

As far as skid plates, my advice is don't bother. I've tried a couple over the years and they'd just rub the dog raw in certain places making things worse. The perils of being a upland bird dog are many, including a cut up belly! Good luck! Enjoy the season, but don't push your dog in the heat!

[CaptainMusky]

As far as skid plates, my advice is don't bother. I've tried a couple over the years and they'd just rub the dog raw in certain places making things worse. The perils of being a upland bird dog are many, including a cut up belly! Good luck! Enjoy the season, but don't push your dog in the heat!

not if you properly adjusted it and find the right one for the build of your dog.

Buy one that's too big or small or not properly adjusted and I agree.

[mainbutter]

Even 'in-shape' people certainly overwork themselves. Being a top-tier athlete that can perform at high levels for extended periods requires some pretty extreme training, along with being very particular about diet and REST.

Adequate rest is absolutely essential to animal health when training for and performing serious physical activity.

My dog isn't an athlete, but he runs every day. After a full weekend of outdoors-ing, he is pretty drained and spends the first day back at home pretty much just chilling. Many dogs, especially young dogs, don't pace themselves and will expend all their energy to the point of just crashing.

Regular conditioning for lengthy periods of activity along with good diet and rest will improve your dog's overall ability to go longer without crashing, but an in-shape dog can still burn itself out in a day and be pretty sluggish the next day.

If your dog is spent, it's rest day.

[bobberineyes]

I've always had a rule when it hits 50 degrees say by noon to pretty much wrap things up for the time being. You and I can feel the breeze blowing but the dogs can't in the tall grass. It doesn't matter if they are in shape or not, if there tongues are really hanging low....they are done for the day.

[herm]

I'm in season 5 with my first hunting dog. My mentors taught me these tips: 1. Learn to read your dog...tongue, ears, what does it do when you stop? (If it sits, quit.) 2. The warmer it is, the more water and breaks needed. 3. Cold weather can be just as dangerous as hot weather. As mentioned, hunting a dog for any length of time in cover in temps close to 60 is not good, which brings me to the most important point: 4. You are the adult here; dogs will hunt to the end...it's up to you to make sure that line is not crossed. Ever.

[BLACKJACK]

As others have said, sounds like the dog was not conditioned for hunting hard, plus the hot weather. Part of conditioning is also getting them out in the grass and cover so their paws and belly get toughened up.

I've started using a skid plate on my lab. Where we hunt in SoDak there are a lot of SHARP barb wire fences, twice we've had to make vet runs to get major cuts stitched up, the final straw was when my brothers dog impaled himself on fence post, a skid plate would have helped.

So I get back to MN this year and went hunting Sunday, thinking I don't need to bother with the skid plate on the grassy area I'm going to hunt - she comes back with two bleeding punctures in her chest. Saw her hit a fence once, plus going thru willows, and there were lots of dry cut down trees (wish the bastages would run more fires thru to get rid of them) where she could have run into.

Morale of the story is that she'll be wearing the skid plate the rest of the season. Shes so hard charging that no stinking fence is going to stop her from getting to a pheasant.

The skid plates are easy to adjust and I've never had a problem with chafing, I check her over everytime back. Get a big enough one, I had to goto XL because shes 'muscled up' and the other one didn't fit.

[leechlake]

If I'm hunting in any weather I carry a bottle of water that I can squirt in the dogs mouth and a spare liter bottle to refill. With my three dogs it doesn't last too long. Some dogs don't like the squirting bottle but if you put some peanut butter on the thing and practice at home eventually the dog will "drink" out of the bottle.

I will stop and give them a drink and then sit for 5 minutes or more just so they quit running for a while. I'm kind of hyper sensitive about this but I'd rather that way than the other. Seems 55 degrees and over I will not go a full hour with the dogs without heading back to truck or finding a good pond or river to go cool down and get a drink.

[BLACKJACK]

I carry a quart bottle, sometimes two if its hot, with a foldup dish, finding good water is not always possible. When it freezes up they also come in handy.

[CaptainMusky]

Yep, plenty of water. Its nice to be able to wash their snouts, around the eyes and a drink. I usually have 3 or 4 squirt bottles with. All in the hopes to keep my dog from drinking some green sludge.