are you sure about that
enjoy seeing your pics

Just make sure your dog is trained and will obey.....

Nothing is more embarrassing than to spend the whole day wondering where your mutt is, yelling HERE _____ till you pass out.

It makes other hunters mad even though they will never say anything.

then,, don't kill your poor dog who is not in condition and will hunt his/her azz off doing what they love, only to find themselves trying to survive heatstroke caused by their dumbazz owners who think the have a "hunting" dog.


Now this rant being over, I've taken my dogs in the past, had great success and fun.

just be smart.

It is NOT hunting unless you have a dog or two

A dog is a tool just like a shotgun

A dog is a tool just like a shotgun, I wouldn't hunt without a shotgun, just give him some water when he gets thirsty and shoot your birds

Your reading to much into it, Hermes. I didn't say run the dog ragged and let it die and get a new one. A working dog by definition is a tool, a shotgun is a tool, I could go as far as to say my emolyment is the tool used to keep my family fed and under shelter...nice personal attack though

Guy, every person he's bit had it coming, especially gdogg

Last year was my lab's first year of hunting. We hunted many afternoons in Woodson that start at +100 degrees. I bought her a Swamp Cooler vest by Ruffwear and made sure to keep it wet/moist. It worked great and each dose of water would last far longer than if we just poured water directly on her. Feeling underneath the vest, it was noticeably cooler by maybe 15-20 degrees. It also served to protect her underside from the brush and thorns. I highly recommend it. Make sure you follow the sizing instructions.

Swamp Cooler by Ruffwear

Your reading to much into it, Hermes. I didn't say run the dog ragged and let it die and get a new one. A working dog by definition is a tool, a shotgun is a tool, I could go as far as to say my emolyment is the tool used to keep my family fed and under shelter...nice personal attack though

Guy, every person he's bit had it coming, especially gdogg

Based on your response to flintknapper- no, that's exactly what you meant, Cowboy

Greek, it is what it is I guess, I won’t change your mind, what’s interesting is the term “cowboy” being used. The cowboy a lot of times has a bit of a reputation that is not real spot on thanks to the old west movies and tall tales and the border line carnies that follow the rodeo piled into an impala 5 deep running wide open down the hiway. Most people would say that they are a rough group, drink too much, cuss too much, rough on their horses, dogs and livestock. They like to fight and will throw a punch at the first chance given. It’s been my personal experience that this stereotype could not be further from the truth when speaking about the majority of cowboys. Of course there are those guys that try to live up to that reputation, but they are for sure the minority.

Growing up when I heard the term cowboy thrown around my mental picture was an old man in a beat up hat that drove an even more beat up flatbed that stayed hooked up to the stock trailer that looked like it wasn’t gonna make to out to the road. Growing up in central Texas we didn’t work cattle off horseback, our neighbors didn’t, and their neighbors didn’t either. The herd was gathered and lead to the pens by the feed truck, all cows knew was if they followed the feed truck they would get hooked up with some grub. We’d drive out in the middle of a pasture and start blowing the horn and they would gather around us, once all around we drove real slow and they followed right along. Once in the big pen a couple of “cowboys” would get in the pen and start sorting them on foot. The cows are separated from the calfs, and ran up the alley to the squeeze chute where they were fly tagged and sprayed. The calfs were sorted through based on what their fate had in store for them. Replacement heifers were branded and added to the breeding stock, the bull calfs cut so they could be backgrounded and sold later. All this was done on foot, not a horse one was around. Squeeze chutes, range cubes and holding pens are the king in Central Texas. This was my view of the true cowboy.

Then I graduated high school and it was off to Lubbock, Texas. It was in this area that I learned that there were huge ranches that did things a little more traditional. These places out west made our central texas places look very small acreage wise. These pastures were so big a feed truck pulling up and honking its horn was not going to do much good. They had to have “cowboys” on horseback riding pastures to gather the cattle out of the scrub brush. Some of these new yearlings on the ground had never seen a feed truck or a person for that matter. At these places a good horse was a must. They gathered the cattle and drove them to the pens for working. They sorted like we did, but it was all on horseback. Then once the cows were out and calfs remain it was time to rope and drag. To me this was real deal cowboy work, no squeeze chutes, just men on horses roping calfs and dragging to some men on the ground who had to man handle and hold the calf down while It was cut, inoculated and branded. This was dirty and hard work, but they did it all the while joking, laughing and smiling. Although the approach is different than what I was use to there one common thread, all these men gave it 110%, you didn’t see anyone leaning and taking it easy. It was go go go until the work was done.

When I got back to central Texas I started wondering why the cowboy work is so regional? It wasn’t until the last couple of years that this has really been on my mind. I mean why do we do things so different than the guys that are 4-5hrs down the road? Best I can come up with is how the areas were settled and who settled them. Around here there is a very heavy German influence, along with that I guess they brought their European ways over here and just raise a gentler herd that are easily handled. While out west they have a more vaquero influence and those guys were horsemen through and through. I think that has a lot to do with it, but the biggest thing is grass, and I’m not talking Colorado grass, I’m talking cow grass. The Germans picked this area because it was fertile, it had rivers, it had grass, it had good dirt for crops. With more grass they didn’t need as many acres per head as you would out west. Therefore, the cattle got used to seeing people and understood that people were good and a truck honking its horn meant they were about to get hooked up. Out west it takes so many more acres per head they have to have these large sprawling pastures.

The last few times we have had to work cattle I noticed that at one set of pens the cattle were just more waspy. Once they got in the alley headed towards the squeeze chute it was like watching the Daytona 500. Catching them in the head gate was a chore, you had to be quick or you were going to miss and then hear about it the rest of the day. Few months back I started looking into cow psychology so to speak. We all know they are a herd animal, and once you get that leading one headed the right direction the rest would follow, that was the easy part. Herd animals assume that everything is out to eat them and they get nervous when surrounded by a lot of people and new things they are not use to seeing on a daily basis. On days we work them we always have a couple of trucks, a ranger 4-5 men and a couple of kids helping, and they just would not settle down. I started doing some research on low stress handling and came across some great information. Our alley way is a pipe fence with hog panel, they can see through it and see us and the trucks and all our crap. The sight on this stuff wigged them out and they would haul arse to get away. Then once they got into the cute the brakes were thrown on due to being caught in the head gate. At this point they really wigged out, it made work just a little harder.

What I took away was that we needed to “blind” them to keep them calm. We are now lining our alley way with cedar staves so that they cannot see anything to get nervous about. This is already done at one set of pens and those cows work real easy, so I am confident it will be like a whole other herd we are working when the other pens are set up the same. Low stress is the key to how we do things.

I guess my point is that I have never seen a cowboy be mean to an animal. Those animals put a roof over his head and beans in his belly. Now he will have firm hand and expects his dogs and horse (west texas guys) to respond accordingly, but there is a big difference between a firm hand and being mean. If you let an animal get away with something they will try to get away with it every time, nip in the bud is the only way to go, ask any dog trainer and he’ll back that up.

Greek, it is what it is I guess, I won’t change your mind, what’s interesting is the term “cowboy” being used. The cowboy a lot of times has a bit of a reputation that is not real spot on thanks to the old west movies and tall tales and the border line carnies that follow the rodeo piled into an impala 5 deep running wide open down the hiway. Most people would say that they are a rough group, drink too much, cuss too much, rough on their horses, dogs and livestock. They like to fight and will throw a punch at the first chance given. It’s been my personal experience that this stereotype could not be further from the truth when speaking about the majority of cowboys. Of course there are those guys that try to live up to that reputation, but they are for sure the minority.

Growing up when I heard the term cowboy thrown around my mental picture was an old man in a beat up hat that drove an even more beat up flatbed that stayed hooked up to the stock trailer that looked like it wasn’t gonna make to out to the road. Growing up in central Texas we didn’t work cattle off horseback, our neighbors didn’t, and their neighbors didn’t either. The herd was gathered and lead to the pens by the feed truck, all cows knew was if they followed the feed truck they would get hooked up with some grub. We’d drive out in the middle of a pasture and start blowing the horn and they would gather around us, once all around we drove real slow and they followed right along. Once in the big pen a couple of “cowboys” would get in the pen and start sorting them on foot. The cows are separated from the calfs, and ran up the alley to the squeeze chute where they were fly tagged and sprayed. The calfs were sorted through based on what their fate had in store for them. Replacement heifers were branded and added to the breeding stock, the bull calfs cut so they could be backgrounded and sold later. All this was done on foot, not a horse one was around. Squeeze chutes, range cubes and holding pens are the king in Central Texas. This was my view of the true cowboy.

Then I graduated high school and it was off to Lubbock, Texas. It was in this area that I learned that there were huge ranches that did things a little more traditional. These places out west made our central texas places look very small acreage wise. These pastures were so big a feed truck pulling up and honking its horn was not going to do much good. They had to have “cowboys” on horseback riding pastures to gather the cattle out of the scrub brush. Some of these new yearlings on the ground had never seen a feed truck or a person for that matter. At these places a good horse was a must. They gathered the cattle and drove them to the pens for working. They sorted like we did, but it was all on horseback. Then once the cows were out and calfs remain it was time to rope and drag. To me this was real deal cowboy work, no squeeze chutes, just men on horses roping calfs and dragging to some men on the ground who had to man handle and hold the calf down while It was cut, inoculated and branded. This was dirty and hard work, but they did it all the while joking, laughing and smiling. Although the approach is different than what I was use to there one common thread, all these men gave it 110%, you didn’t see anyone leaning and taking it easy. It was go go go until the work was done.

When I got back to central Texas I started wondering why the cowboy work is so regional? It wasn’t until the last couple of years that this has really been on my mind. I mean why do we do things so different than the guys that are 4-5hrs down the road? Best I can come up with is how the areas were settled and who settled them. Around here there is a very heavy German influence, along with that I guess they brought their European ways over here and just raise a gentler herd that are easily handled. While out west they have a more vaquero influence and those guys were horsemen through and through. I think that has a lot to do with it, but the biggest thing is grass, and I’m not talking Colorado grass, I’m talking cow grass. The Germans picked this area because it was fertile, it had rivers, it had grass, it had good dirt for crops. With more grass they didn’t need as many acres per head as you would out west. Therefore, the cattle got used to seeing people and understood that people were good and a truck honking its horn meant they were about to get hooked up. Out west it takes so many more acres per head they have to have these large sprawling pastures.

The last few times we have had to work cattle I noticed that at one set of pens the cattle were just more waspy. Once they got in the alley headed towards the squeeze chute it was like watching the Daytona 500. Catching them in the head gate was a chore, you had to be quick or you were going to miss and then hear about it the rest of the day. Few months back I started looking into cow psychology so to speak. We all know they are a herd animal, and once you get that leading one headed the right direction the rest would follow, that was the easy part. Herd animals assume that everything is out to eat them and they get nervous when surrounded by a lot of people and new things they are not use to seeing on a daily basis. On days we work them we always have a couple of trucks, a ranger 4-5 men and a couple of kids helping, and they just would not settle down. I started doing some research on low stress handling and came across some great information. Our alley way is a pipe fence with hog panel, they can see through it and see us and the trucks and all our crap. The sight on this stuff wigged them out and they would haul arse to get away. Then once they got into the cute the brakes were thrown on due to being caught in the head gate. At this point they really wigged out, it made work just a little harder.

What I took away was that we needed to “blind” them to keep them calm. We are now lining our alley way with cedar staves so that they cannot see anything to get nervous about. This is already done at one set of pens and those cows work real easy, so I am confident it will be like a whole other herd we are working when the other pens are set up the same. Low stress is the key to how we do things.

I guess my point is that I have never seen a cowboy be mean to an animal. Those animals put a roof over his head and beans in his belly. Now he will have firm hand and expects his dogs and horse (west texas guys) to respond accordingly, but there is a big difference between a firm hand and being mean. If you let an animal get away with something they will try to get away with it every time, nip in the bud is the only way to go, ask any dog trainer and he’ll back that up.

Did you have to write that to graduate?

Haha! Yep they can figure that out GA. Your dog is why I wound up with my 2. Love them to death.