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4 Great Ways to Shoot Your Dog
Karl, a German shorthaired pointer, zig zagged his way through the humid, early season corn maze. These South Dakota stalks stood tall, taller than even an NBA center, and if a bird flushed up it’d make for tricky shooting. To harvest a bird over a point, Karl’s owner knew he’d need to get out to the edge. When there was an opening he headed west, and stopped where the last row of stalks met the winter rye.
Fly Management Plan by Steve Snell
I had a customer last week who was having trouble with a Fly Trap. It wasn't catching the flies that were around his dogs. Come to find out, the trap he used was designed for house flies, but he had biting flies. When I told him that was the problem, he responded, "No, sir, a fly is a fly is a fly." Well, that's not true.
When and How to Socialize a Sporting Breed Puppy
Socializing puppies when they’re young is key to building strong and confident adult sporting dogs. Puppies need to learn about everything, which includes the environments in which they’ll live and work, people, other dogs and animals, and routine care. Read on for some tips on when and how to start socializing your sporting breed puppy.
Should Your Sporting Dog Shift to an Off-season Diet?
Sporting dogs burn a lot of calories during the hunting season. To support their elevated nutritional needs, savvy handlers feed them performance kibble. Off-season nutritional needs are often different, and that’s why many handlers shift a dog’s diet to one with lower amounts of fat and calories.
How Nutrition Supports Trainability in Your Sporting Breed Puppy
Sporting breed puppies have a lot to learn. Nutrition that fuels healthy brain function and learning supports a puppy’s ability to master a variety of tasks. Puppy diets that contain clinically proven levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) can provide a training edge.
Hunting Those Cold, Wet Winter Days in the Fields and Woods for Pheasants
We had parked a half-of-mile down the road. A couple of dozen roosters stood idle in the field. They resembled tiny black checkmarks from a distance against the white backdrop. Every once-in-a-while some would scoot in and out of brush piles and thickets. The snow had covered the land. Tufts of yellow grass were scattered across the field. Most of the grass had been covered by the snow. With no where to hide, the birds found refuge in what little cover they could find. This meant flocks of pheasants sheltering up together out of the elements. A small woodlot seemed to be providing roosters a place to get out of the wind and cold. According to the map the public parcel included an adjacent field of sorghum.
First Season Expectations
You’ve built up to your pup’s first hunting season—but what should you expect from your young dog? The experts weigh in.
Key Nutrients that support a dog’s muscular system
Featuring Russ Kelly, M.S., Eukanuba and Royal Canin Pet Health and Nutrition Center
Poisonous Plants For Dogs
Dogs make such great hunting companions because they have great instincts, and they love to explore. Unfortunately, this desire to explore can sometimes take over, and the instinct to check something out with their mouths can lead to a great deal of danger. A lot of plants and flowers growing in gardens and in the wild are innocuous to humans but poisonous plants for dogs.
Tips for traveling with your Gun Dog
Whether you're driving a decked-out dog hauling rig or crating Rover in the backseat of your sedan, traveling with dogs is a process. Here are some tips and recommendations from two hunters and trainers who spend a lot of time on the road with their dogs.
Understanding Bird Scent - Part 1 The Birds
In his book Best Way To Train Your Gun Dog, Hall of Fame Trainer Delmar Smith said: "No one's ever understood one thing about scent." Add this: Odor chemistry is complex and still poorly understood. (The Science of Smell, Iowa State University May 2004). Now we can understand why few, if any, have dared enter this research field of bird scent and pointing dogs.
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.
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.
Money Order Scams - Tip #2
If you place a Classified ad on Gundog Central, as sure as the sun rises, you'll eventually be contacted by a scammer trying to get you to bite on a money order scam. It might sound frightening, but you have nothing to worry about if you know that to look for. I've been dealing with these scams on Gundog Central for over a decade now. These scams aren't isolated to Gundog Central but every classified website on the internet were members list items for sale. There will always be some lazy idiot out there trying to trick you out of your hard-earned money. Unfortunately, when someone does fall for these scams, it's not only the anonymous con artist that looks bad, but also the website where the transaction took place. I do everything I can to monitor, block and report these people to the right authorizes. That alone isn't enough, so I want to make sure everyone knows what to look out for and how to deal with these people
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.
