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Key Nutrients for a Healthy Skin and Coat
Humans can use topical supplements like moisturizing lotion or hair conditioner for good health, but a dog doesn't have that luxury. The condition of a dog's hair and skin comes from proper feeding, and it's far more important than just making them look good. Healthy hair and skin protect them from the environment.
This Summer, Beat the Heat: How to Keep your Canine Athlete Cool
Blistering summer heat and high humidity accompanies a hazy, hot and humid weather report. That intense weather drives people to the beach, the lakes and the shade. If you think it's hard for people to cool off, it's even harder for dogs. Hyperthermia, the raising of a dog's core body temperature above normal, can put animals at risk. Fortunately, there are ways to recognize the symptoms so as to keep dogs safe.
SportDOG® Brand UplandHunter® 1875
Technology has taken over the world these past few decades. It's impact on dog training has caused many handlers and trainers to gravitate towards GPS tracking collars. But for anyone running dogs inside of bell range, the SportDOG® 1875 fills an important gap. 'Complexity is the enemy of execution,' goes the saying, and that defines the SportDOG 1875.
The importance of protein, fats and carbs in a gun dogs diet
The intensity of a flushing dog working for three minutes is different from a bird dog that runs all morning long. Gun dogs need to be fueled by the correct type of energy, one that gives them drive at the breakaway and enough juice to swim against the current for that 15th retrieve. Nutrition tailored to support these different types of activities helps dogs work at their peak potential.
Hi-Tech Climax
It was the end of the season. It promised to be a battle royal between two all-age dog-handler-scout teams. The dogs were Gen-X and Millennial, full-brother pointers, sired in West Kentucky, the latter from a year-earlier litter. The handlers were Mike Eanes and Ike Reams, former team mates in a "helpin' each other" partnership that went sour. The scouts were Archie Bell and Will Smith, twenty-something former Georgia high-school baseball rivals who had pitched opposite one another in consecutive-year state championship finals games, each winning and losing one. There was no love lost between opposing team members. But that was nothing compared to the rivalry between the dogs' owners.
How Much Water Should Your Gun Dog Drink?
Most sporting dog owners and handlers know how to calculate daily amounts of food, but is there a way to determine how much water your dog should drink? According to Eukanuba's Pet Health and Nutrition Center's Director Dr. Jill Cline, there is.
Field Cocker Madness
The brace of pointers was stunning, and they were locked up on the edge of one of the thickest patches of greenbriar I'd ever seen. The tangle was so dense it resembled unfurled rolls of concertina wire. A little cocker named Rip didn't care, for when he was cut loose, he snaked his way through that mess with more moves than a belly dancer. I'd I couldn't see him, but to know where he was I just needed to see which section of greenbriar was shaking. When the dog locked on his target, a covey of wild quail exploded. They believed if they held their ground they'd never have to leave. How wrong they were.
How to Feed your Dog
Feeding hardworking gun dogs requires a bit more than scooping some kibble into a bowl. It's a simple three-step process that pays big performance dividends.
The Meat Dog - by Tom Keer
No one ever filled up a freezer with grouse and woodcock, and that's why folks who purse these birds are never considered meat hunters. A whitetail doe or a cow elk, that's called filling the freezer. The cost center procuring the savory grouse or the two small medallions of livery tasting woodcock breasts places the gamebirds on par with truffles, caviar, and tuna. Ours is a whacky pursuit of a foxy local bird and a seasonally migratory bird with an upside-down brain. Go figure.
10 ways to kill more grouse
Ruffed grouse are hard to hit in any situation. They're wild, just like the terrain in which they live. Here are 10 tips to improve your hits. They're ones I learned the hard way which is short-handle for the fact that I've missed one hell of a lot of birds.
Oklahoma is more than OK
Opening Day is the one we wait for all year long. It's the time when we gather our family and friends, our dogs and favorite shotguns, and trade in every day life for the fields. If we're lucky, the day falls on a weekend and we don't need to make special arrangements. But if Opening Day lands during the week, well, then many of us mysteriously get sick. If enough of us bird doggers scrap work then the country's gross national product might suffer. It'll rebound when we return, but if we miss the opener there is a good chance we won't. Belling dogs and following up points isn't all it's cracked up to be; it's much, much more.
The Conflict - By Tom Word
A lawyer fears a conflict of interest like a foot-plowing share cropper fears a kicking mule. And so fear grew in me after on impulse I recommended Sweetie to John Bassett as a grouse dog after his beloved Jill went to her reward. That recommendation put me in jeopardy of losing both my two best friends and best client and principal source of referrals, and my regular quail-hunting partner and key to quail hunting territory.
Tip #1 - Dont post all your ads at the once, spread them out over time.
This is one biggest mistake I see people repeatedly making on the site. I'm all for you posting every single one of your dogs and puppies on Gundog Central, I just think it's a bad idea to dump them all on the site at the exact same time. I see people who have a litter of puppies they want to sell, so they'll post one ad for each puppy ... all on the same day. Great idea, right? It increases your exposure, lets everyone see the different puppies you have and kind of monopolies the front page with just your dogs. Wrong, not only is it poor online etiquette, because it forces a massive amount of other people's classifieds way down the page, but it's just poor, lazy marketing.
SportDOG: Gear the way youd design it
My dentist, Doc Biehn, was a waterfowler and I always got to check it out when I got my teeth cleaned as a kid. I remember one visit when he handed me a new, Marlin Super Goose he extracted from his closet. I'd never seen anything like the 10 gauge, bolt action shotgun that took a 3.5 inch shell and came with a two-shell clip and full-choked 34-inch barrel. That beast weighed a whopping 10.5 pounds, making it a virtual shoulder-cannon for waterfowlers. I could barely lift the heavy artillery let alone work the bolt without significant muzzle rock. My amazement turned to confusion, and in the end I couldn't see how that firearm would replace my side-by-side or pump in the blind. The Super Goose must have been designed by someone who didn't hunt geese.
Girls, Guns, and Gun Dogs!
Growing up in the south one gains an appreciation for late fall/early springtime bobwhite quail hunting behind a brace of pointers about as much as anything can be appreciated. The landscape here is dotted with private plantations, public shooting preserves, and small family farms that hold the elusive Gentleman-Bob...opportunities abound. In fact, I cut my gun dog teeth, as it were, training pointing breeds and stumbling around bottom lands I could access hunting quail. It would be some years before I switched my focus over to retrieving breeds entering the world of professional training and trial competition.
