My Favorite Dog Quote

The late George Bird Evans writes in Troubles with Bird Dogs. "I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we knew better. They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love with no moral restraint, and do not for all of their marvelous instincts appear to know about death. Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying."

Canine CPR

There may come a time when your 4-legged friend needs your help and knowing how to perform CPR may save their life. This process is not difficult to learn and all dog owners should know how to do it properly.

• Check for breathing and a pulse. Watch the chest closely for any movement. Check for a pulse with your index and middle fingers. The best place to check for a pulse is on the femoral artery, ankles and chest.
  
  
• If you see no signs of breathing and cannot find a pulse it is time to start chest compressions. Lay the dog on his side. Place your hands on top of each other, lock your elbows, place your hands on the dogs ribcage and start compressions. Perform 5-10 compressions, using fairly strong force.
  
  
• If this does not get the dog breathing again you will need to do mouth to nose breathing. I know this sounds funny, but remember, you are trying to save a dogs life. Put your mouth over the dogs nose, lightly sealing around the sides of the nose with your hands and blow a steady, medium size breath into the dogs nose.
  
  
• Rotate between chest compressions and nose breathing and after a minute or so check for a pulse. Continue this routine until the dog recovers and then get him to a vet.
  

If the dog does not survive, at least you will know that you did everything you could.

Picking the Right Pup

Choosing the right hunting puppy can be a daunting task. They are all so cute and how are you supposed to know which one will become the hunting dog you desire? In my case, I had no choice because Charlie was the last puppy of the litter. Luckily he turned out to be the best dog of the bunch. In this case, 6 other people did not make the best choice. So how do you choose?

One method or test you can use to determine the true disposition of a pup is to pick him or her up and cradle them in your arms, on their back. If the puppy just lays in your arms and makes no attempt to get up-righted he may be too docile to make a good field dog. If the pup struggles and fights and yips until he can get away he will likely be too high strung to train properly. If the pup struggles for awhile and then settles down for a good belly scratching it is a good sign and shows that the pup has some drive yet is willing to be trained.

Remember, when choosing a puppy, there are several methods you can use but none of them are fool proof, except one, your heart. When you are looking at pups and one of them sticks out from the rest and it just feel right, take him or her home. Forget every test or sign you have heard about and enjoy the dog. Even if they never develop into a good hunting dog you will still have made the right choice.

Training a Retriever Pup

I wish that I would have known about this tip when my lab was a puppy. He is a fantastic retriever both on land and in the water, but in the water Charlie likes to take the fastest way back to shore and then run the bank back to me. This is a bad habit for a retriever and it would not bode well during any competitions.

A method I recently read about for training retriever pups is to go to a small pond that is encircled by tall grass or cattails. Beat down a small path to the waters edge and do your water retrieving training from there. The pup will have no choice but to return to you if they want out of the water. When the pup does get back to you, lay on the praise. After a few sessions of this training it should be engrained into the pups mind that he needs to retrieve directly to you if he wants the praise and the chance to retrieve the dummy again.

Skunked

If your dog makes friends with a skunk this fall while hunting I have a tried and true recipe that will make your partner smell like new in short order.

Mix together these items and bath. If once doesn't do it give your pooch a second bath and the problem should be gone.

1 quart hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp dish washing liquid

Saving Your Dog from Flies

If you have a dog and they are being bothered by black flies you need to go to this link on Doug Leiers blog ND Outdoors & Beyond. He has posted a great tip that will save your dog the pain and frustration of black flies. Thanks Doug.

Sink or Swim

Getting a young dog into the water can be a challenge at times. To help out the process get some help. Not from a person but from another dog.

My neighbors young Vizsla pup had no intention of getting her feet wet. They had tried all types of coaxing to get her to swim, all with no success. My solution was simple, take my fish...I mean dog out to the water with the pup and let him do the training.

I took just two throws of the dummy before the young pup couldn't take it any longer. Within just a few minutes my dog did what my neighbor couldn't do in several trips to the lake.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the great mother's out there. Being Mother's Day I thought I would pass along some old wisdom that I was taught years ago by a dog breeder. He told me that in nature the canine Mother is responsible for feeding the young pups. Hunting is instilled into the Mother more so than the Father of the pups. The Father, which is of no surprise, is primarily interested in, yes you guessed it, breeding. This being the case the dog breeder said that with everything being equal, choose the female pup when buying a hunting dog. Over the years I have asked dog owners their opinion on this subject and most agree that their female dogs have all been better hunting dogs. Did I listen to this advise, No. My current dog is a male British Lab. He has been a great dog and as you can see in the picture he has the pointing trait which is pretty cool for a lab. Did I make the wrong decision getting a male? Not a chance. I would Love Charlie even if his nose fell off.