Seven Steps to Ready Rover
Published Sunday October 5, 2008
It's not too late to prepare your dog
BY DAVID HENDEE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Duck blind, goose pit and decoys ready? Check.
Seven steps to ready Rover
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Trainers Chris Jobman and Brad Lewis suggest these steps to prepare hunting dogs for the bird seasons, to keep them comfortable and safe, and to set the stage for a rewarding fall and winter in the field.
• 1. Back to basics. Refresh obedience (come, stay, sit, heel, kennel and quiet). Practice hand commands. Re-establish who's the boss.
• 2. Get in shape. Cut back on food a bit and start exercising to lose excess weight. Build endurance gradually with once daily exercise. Swimming produces less strain on tendons and bones. An out-of-shape dog shouldn't be exercised hard on land for more than 10 minutes at a time. For swimming, start with 15 minutes and build to 30 minutes.
• 3. Feed for fitness. Start feeding a performance dog food with higher calorie and protein content made from quality ingredients as dogs start working harder in exercise or in the field. Read the label to determine how much to feed your dog.
• 4. Condition to gunfire. Practice retrieving with launchers that throw dummies 70 yards or more with a lot of bang.
• 5. Creature comforts. Buy a neoprene wading vest to keep waterfowl dogs warm when out of the water and to help protect them from cuts and punctures when diving into the water and retrieving. Upland game-bird dogs may need tummy protection, too, but be careful not to overheat them. Dogs lose most of their heat from their belly, pads and tongue. Trim their toenails. Short toenails promote healthy paws.
• 6. Hydrate, hydrate. Prepare containers to provide dogs with frequent fresh, clean water breaks in hot and cold weather. Thirsty dogs aren't picky. Don't allow them to drink from stock dams and shallow ponds with toxic blue-green algae colonies. Ingestion of toxic blue-green algae can result in liver failure and cause blood to lose its ability to clot.
• 7. First aid. Prepare a field kit with a multi-tool pliers to remove cactus needles and burs, sterile saline solution to flush eyes and wounds, hemostat (resembles a pair of needle-nosed pliers with a locking clamp), small scissors, tweezers, antiseptic, nonstick bandages, topical ointment to plug wounds, remedies for heat exhaustion and energy boosters, such as a sport bottle filled with water mixed with a little powdered glucose.
• To contact Jobman or Lewis:
Chris Jobman: www.flatlanderkennels.com
Brad Lewis: 402-650-0775
Brad Lewis handled Cracker, a 5-year-old male Labrador retriever, to a master title during the Missouri Valley Hunt Club trials. Cracker's owner is Jason Roessner of Elkhorn. Lewis said he takes pride in hearing how well dogs hunt for their owners. "That's what it's all about, having fun with your dog," he said.Ring-necked pheasant and quail habitat scouted? Check.
Hunting dog ready for the season? Uh-oh.
An out-of-shape or disobedient dog is an October surprise no hunter wants to encounter.
Still, it's not too late to restore the order and rebuild a dog's endurance in time to enjoy the waterfowl and upland game-bird seasons, even if your retriever or pointer misses the fast-approaching opening weekends.
"Anything is better than nothing, so even busy people who can get out with their dogs two or three days a week is important," said Brad Lewis, a dog trainer who operates Ruff River Retrievers at Valley.
"If you take a dog who's been in the kennel for 10 months and just go hunting, it would be like me running around the block two times. I might not make it, unless I get in shape."
Chris Jobman, a dog trainer who operates Flatlander Kennels near McGrew in Nebraska's Panhandle, said hunters should start getting their dogs in shape for fall with early morning and evening summer workouts.
"But if you're just starting now, don't try to make up for it in one weekend," Jobman said. "It's not the dog's fault that it's out of shape. Don't try to be macho. Take it easy and work into it. Everyone has a little time each day to run a bit with your dog and spend five to 10 minutes on obedience."
For starters, Jobman said it's important to get the extra pounds gained during the summer off the dog by cutting back the food ration a bit. Vigorous exercise, however, requires feeding rations with higher, balanced protein and fat content.
"Feed the most expensive dog food you can afford," Jobman said. "Don't buy cheap food with bad ingredients. If you bought a Ferrari, you wouldn't put bad gas in it. Look at your hunting dog as a Ferrari."
Jobman runs dogs in pastures, not county roads, with an all-terrain vehicle.
"You don't want to run over them and you don't want to run them to exhaustion," he said. "But run them a bit and give them a lot of swimming. Swimming uses a lot of muscles and it's low impact exercise."
After exercise, allow dogs to stretch and lounge around to cool off before returning them to their kennels.
Lewis said hunting dogs rely on their handlers to keep them fit and healthy.
"These are dogs with a lot of desire. They like to hunt and they'll burn a lot of energy in the first few minutes of hunting. They can outlast most humans, but they don't know they're out of shape and they could drop over," he said.
Three years ago in South Dakota, an estimated 100 hunting dogs died during an unusually warm week during the opening of the pheasant season.
Upland game-bird dogs cover about three times as much ground as the hunters with them, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
Their faces are in weeds and grasses, looking and sniffing for birds. A black dog with a heavy coat will overheat more quickly than a light-colored dog or light-coated dog. Dogs prone to more excitement during hunts can be more susceptible to heat stroke or heat exhaustion more quickly than a steady, easy-going dog.
Lewis said grasses that upland dogs dart through can cut or rub hair off faces, around eyes or between legs. Waterfowl dogs can impale themselves on submerged posts or tree debris. Glass, burs or rough terrain can cause bruised or cut paw pads.
"Boots work but they look funny and takes dogs a while to get used to them," Lewis said. "I know a guy who uses duct tape to keep boots on his dog."
Jobman said most trainers offer one- or two-month refresher programs for people who haven't prepared their hunting dogs for the fall seasons. Trainers get the dogs in shape and refresh obedience commands.
"Then when the season opens, that dog's ready to roll," Jobman said. "You can't let a dog sit for eight or 10 months and expect it to perform like a machine."
• Contact the writer: 444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
