Pics, observations, and questions

Had a nice hunt this morning with my first cousin. My pup found several coveys by himself. Also found a few singles and several dead birds. Weather too hot for us and dogs. 84 degrees.

1) not used to having to carry water for my dogs. My usual hunting country has plenty of surface water. Creeks and tanks. I watered my dogs with regular bottled water. I think a squirt type bottle like cyclists use would be good, also considering some type of collapsible canvas bowl. I would like to hear your suggestions.

2) got back to truck. Dogs exhausted and thirsty. Let them drink all they wanted and lay under truck while we cleaned birds. Felt like they would be cooler than putting them in the box immediately. Toward the end of the cleaning process, the dogs came out from under the truck eating the quail scraps and entrails. Both of these dogs have always had a very soft mouth. Nothing special that I did, I just got lucky. Do you think letting the dogs eat the quail scraps will cause them to start chomping birds in the field?

3) my male pup is about 8 mo old and my bitch is about 3 yrs old. I was thinking about having someone do some forced retrieve work with them during the off season. Too late for her?

I've eaten at Jacobys quite few times. Good place. Did y'all hunt near lake ivie?

Between Brady and Melvin

I'm really liking my pup. Best thing is that I'm pretty sure he is a Republican. He chews the left wing off every bird he finds before he brings it to me!!

I see the tail came up on the pup.

Yes, very happy about the tail!

Pharmvet,
I, too, carry a couple of regular drinking water bottles in my vest for my dogs. I just stick the end of my index finger in the end of the bottle and pour. Dogs seem to get most of it. But.....the beauty of hunting from my mule is that I always have water within 2-3 minutes of a dog at all times.

As far as eating entrils and becoming hard mouthed.... that would mean that they were retrieving or finding dead birds. I would like to have that problem to deal with. My dogs do neither real well. I have never seen this practice effect a dog negatively though. More like a reward.

What did you do to get that tail up on the liver/white pointer?

He did nothing. It was there all the time. Look at the tail set.

Bill is correct about the tail. I suppose age and confidence has been responsible.

I was wrong. Nice tail set. I defer all things bird dog from here on out to the masters.

Anyone here know how to post a short video?

Nice photos!

Having a wirehaired breed that gets hot easily, I have always carried the green Gatorade bottles for my dogs. When thirsty, they will quickly learn how to drink out of a squirt bottle.

When hunting I wear a strap vest that has two water bottle pockets. The Gatorade bottles fit into thost pockets perfectly. Most sporting goods stores have the Gatorade bottles for sell and Amazon.com also has them available.

Here is a picture:

Looks like you had a great hunt and your pup is coming along fine with his style.

as far as carrying water, I bought a case of water onetime that had the squirt tops on them and after I drank all of the water I kept several bottles and all of the tops and have them in my buggy and dog bags. you can teach your dogs to water from them by wiping a little peanut butter on the nozzle and then water them as they are licking it off. They figure it out in just a couple of drinks.

Do you think letting the dogs eat the quail scraps will cause them to start chomping birds in the field?


Some people let them have the heads, and other say not to.
I guess it would depend on the dog, as to if it caused a problem later on.

I don't ever do it, but if you give my dog an inch, he will take a mile. Then I spend the next month trying to fix it.

I am a big fan of the collapsible bowl vs squirting water bottle into mouth, more water gets to where its supposed to

look about 6 or 7 posts below this one, how do take videos of bird hunt ( or something like that) ------- I posted a link to my drop box acct.,,, below that in quick reply, bobcat 1 ,, posted that same link but all you have to do is click on it,,, I dont know how he did it. With the one I posted you have to cut and paste.
I never let my dogs eat the guts,,, or the heads , or any part of a bird. As a rule if the temp gets above 60 the dogs will wear out in about 30 min. No way to prevent that. If you run them too hard you chance them getting hypoglycemia,,, in which case they can only hunt about 30 minutes regardless of the temp. Long ago I ruined my best pointer pushing him too hard.
Looks like you had a really nice hunt.

PM sent dune2218

Dune I appreciate the info on pushing a dog to hard and I will always keep that in mind in the future.

Camel packs are the way to go.