i was concerned about my buddy overheating after reading some of the posts here. it was me and my dog's first dove hunt. so we went early, tried to stay in the shade for the most part and had lots of cold water on hand. we started at sunrise and ran out of ammo around 11:00am. we went home to reload and took a break for lunch. we went out again from about 4pm till dusk. he did drink a lot but nothin wrong with that. i know it was a good test for him tho because i drenched my clothes from sweat. he really shocked me, fetched up all the birds like a pro, never ran from the gun fire and i haven't even trained him with real birds or real shotgun, only bumpers and a cap gun. i'm glad it worked out because i wouldn't want to do it without him. i saw a couple guys near me without a dog lose a few of their birds and Tonto fetched them up too. he made me proud. GOOD DOG!

great post!

Shade is critical for dogs in this heat.

nothing better than being in the shade watching guys with no dog looking for downed birds. I take that back, it's more fun sending my dog after it, finding the bird for him while never leaving the shade !

glad to hear it. We don't have much shade at all, so water and watching them is important