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January 21, 2010 by
There's an old myth that says a hunting dog has to be an outdoor dog. The idea is that by living indoors a dog will some how become mentally and physically weak, its sense of smell will be ruined and that an indoor dog "just won't hunt" if exposed to the easy life and the family.
For the most part, that's bunk. But, with every good myth, urban legend and rumor, there are some truths to it. What's real and what's not? Can you keep a hunting dog indoors? Read on and you'll know, but:
My question to you: Is your hunting hound an indoor or outdoor dog? Does it double as a family pet or is it strictly "your hunting dog"?
The second question I ask for my own personal interest. My Lab is most definitely a family pet (and one that lounges on the leather couch and sleeps in the bed) that plays with our toddler and alerts us to someone at the door.
I've talked to many pros that have been around for a long time and they have said that's typical for today's hunting dog. Thirty years ago, however, "Dad's hunting dog" was his hunting dog; nobody played with it and it lived outside. Over the last couple of decades that has seemingly changed and most of the hunting dogs out there double as family pets, live indoors and are cared for by the entire family.
So, does living indoors hamper the hunting instincts and abilities of a canine?
In short: no. However, they do need some time out of doors (both during training and during down time) to acclimate to temperatures (in both extremes: heat and cold). Having a fenced yard or outside kennel is also handy if you want to remove the dog from the house for any number of reasons.
Having a hunting dog inside isn't going to ruin its sense of smell, as many old-timers will tell you. If a dog can take a direct spray from a skunk up the nose and still sniff out pheasants, a little dry air isn't going to destroy its nasal membranes. And in some parts of the country, indoor air is humidified and contains more water vapor than the outdoor air. Health-related issues that impact the sense of smell would be completely different topic (and of greater concern), as would "scenting conditions" (and that can be a big mystery for anyone to figure out!).
Keeping your hunting hound indoors allows you to bond with him and it gives him the opportunity to learn what makes you happy, as well as unhappy. It can learn its place in the pack and how it fits in with the family. By keeping your dog indoors, you exponentially increase your time to train little things: obedience, patience, enforcing commands, etc.
There is a drawback to this though: Dogs are always learning. It doesn't matter if you're training at the time or not. Remember this: You are always training when you're with your dog. It becomes a matter of what you're training; good habits or bad?
This can be a real issue if you have kids. Children love their pets and want to play with them. That's great, but if they're throwing 1,000 tennis balls for Fido to retrieve, his desire to do so under demanding circumstances during training, as well as his steadiness, are going to be negatively impacted. It's hard to motivate a dog (or a person for that matter) to work for an end goal if what they want is freely given to them.
This is where having a fenced yard or outdoors kennel comes in handy. If you're not in position to consistently and effectively train the entire time the dog is inside with you (that's a ton of pressure on you, especially if you have a family), you can put him outside where he can just chill (the constant pressure of training isn't good for him either). His own spot outside can be a haven free of pressure (you can create the same thing indoors with a crate).
The time outdoors also allows him to acclimate to temperature changes. If you're in the South and expect him to hunt the heat of the early season, he has to get used to not only being in it at rest but also under working conditions. If you're in the North, your dog has to get used to the dropping temps, build his coat (if you have a Lab or other similar double-coated dog) and fat reserves (this goes to feeding changes). A dog that is used to the temperature it is expected to work at and has trained under those circumstances for at least 6 weeks prior will hunt better, recover quicker and is less likely to be injured or impacted (succumb to overheating or hypothermia).
How much time he spends outdoors will depend on the dog, the climate you live in and personal schedules. I tend to leave my pooch outdoors during the day when I'm at the office and then train in the evenings and let him in for the night. That might work for you or it might not; there are a lot of variables.
So lets hear it Gun Doggers: Is your hunting dog an indoor resident or does he reside strictly outdoors? Family pet or one-man dog?
[ Read Full Post ]January 15, 2010 by
If you're in the Pacific Northwest this weekend, specifically Eastern Washington, you can hear me on John Kruse's Northwestern Outdoors radio show. If, however, you find yourself out of range of the 7-plus radio stations that carry the show, you can listen to my interview by checking out the pretty cool site, fishingandhuntingreport.com.
It's a pretty informative interview that covers gun dog topics such as: keeping a new pup indoors or out, importance of obedience training, marking and preventing a gunshy pup.
I was going to cover each topic in this blog, but think I'll cover each individually over the next week or so. In the meantime, give the interview a listen. It's only 9 minutes and is filled with info. However, when I blog on the topics, I'm going to go a little more in depth and might weigh in with some advice from pros.
If you have any questions after listening to the interview, post them up here and I'll answer them.
[ Read Full Post ] January 11, 2010 by
My Labrador retriever has had exactly one bath in his entire six years of life. I have never bathed him. The singular act of adding a Lab to water while inside a house was attempted once, by my wife, when I wasn't home and when Kona was about three months old. It was an act that has never been repeated.
I didn't mind that she tried to clean the pup up. He, of course, wanted to get into the tub with the bulldog (who used to get regular baths, but has had to make due with his own odor since our son was born). My wife logically thought it would be a good idea to clean both pups at the same time. However, she didn't account for a Labrador's love of water. To hear her tell it, Kona was Satan incarnate.
Besides possibly being a bit of a chore, it might not be a great idea to bathe your hunting dog...especially if he's a duck dog.
While we don't want a stinky mutt curling up on the couch or camping on the bed with us, bathing a waterfowl dog should be an act undertaken with aforethought.
You see, waterfowl-hunting dogs like Labradors and Chesapeakes excrete special oils that help protect them from cold water. You can often feel these oils on your hand after petting one (especially Chessies). The oils work in unison with the double-layer coat of the dogs and help them repel icy water and to dry quicker.
If you bathe these dogs too much, or too close to a waterfowl hunt where the dog is expected to make cold-water retrieves, you're robbing him of a defense against the cold. Give the dog plenty of time to "re-oil" themselves after a bath and before a hunt. I don't know if there's a specific amount of time it takes a dog to rebuild their oil, but I wouldn't bathe one within a week of a cold-water hunt. That's just a stab in the dark; it may or may not take that long, but when it comes to helping my pup fight the cold I try to give him every advantage possible (acclimation, neoprene vest, dry spot to sit, toweled off between flights, etc).
As I said, Kona has had one bath in his entire life, and he's been in some nasty cow ponds during training or just while out hiking or hunting. Most smells usually disappear shortly after he dries. If he's been in some really nasty water, I will hose him down when I get home and that usually takes care of any problems. There are a few other things you can do:
*I remember this tip from a book when I was a kid. It was called a "dry bath" or something similar. You rub the dog down with corn starch (or was it corn meal?) and then brush it out of the dog's fur. Supposedly, it absorbs the odor without the mess of a bath (although I think having a bunch of corn starch on the floor would be at least as bad as a bath...).
*This site also has a good quick tip on using a squirt bottle to simultaneously wet and soap a dog; saving you a step in the whole dog-washing process and supposedly making rinsing easier.
*Waterless dog bath foam looks interesting. I have never used this but the premise looks good and might just be what many of us need. Instead of wetting, shampooing and rinsing a dog, you simply massage the foam into the coat, let dry and then give a quick brushing. It seems like it might be a good way to eliminate odors (like from mucky cow ponds...) quickly without too much hassle. Has anyone ever used this product? If so, how did it work?
What other methods have you used to give your dog a quick and easy bath to remove odors or filth so that you and the pup aren't in the dog house with the wife? For that matter, how often do you give your pooch a bath?
[ Read Full Post ] January 6, 2010 by
Being able to "read" a dog is the most important aspect of training. It's just one of the intangible marks of a great trainer. It's also one of the hardest things to do correctly.
By "read," I mean: being able to recognize a dog's body language and interpret his state of mind. When you can do this, your ability to effectively train greatly increases; you can adjust training plans on the fly to better fit the dog's psychological and physical limitations.
The best way to learn to read a dog is get your hands on as many as possible and to pay attention. It's through hands-on experience with many different dogs in a variety of similar situations that you'll notice nuances in behavior and body language. There's really no shortcut to learning this other than doing it. However, there are a several things that can help speed the learning curve.
Train with a Pro: A good professional trainer can speed your learning curve dramatically by pointing out a flick of an ear, tail height and motion, panting, eye contact, acceptance signals or any number of other things that range from confusion to obstinacy.
Not only can a pro point out the changes in body language, they can put them into context; a raised tail can mean two completely different things depending upon what is happening to and around the dog at the time.
Read a Book: There are numerous books out there on canine psychology. One of the best that I've found is "The Dog's Mind" by Bruce Fogle. It was recommended to me several years ago by pro trainer Ronnie Smith, a man that can read dogs as well as anyone out there. It's not so much about reading body language as it is about how a dog thinks and develops from prenatal to old age.
One of my favorite books is "Dog Language: An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior" by Roger Abrantes. It's not your traditional "book" but rather an encyclopedia that you use to look up different behaviors, such as yawning, mounting, ears, etc. It tells you what it can mean in various contexts and why a dog might display that specific body language.
Watch a Video: If you can't observe or train with lots of different dogs, DVDs can be an effective alternative for learning about body language. They hold an advantage over books in that you can watch real dogs in real circumstances displaying various signals.
A great DVD set is "The Language of Dogs: Understanding Canine Body Language and Other Communication Signals" by Sarah Kalnajs. It features extensive video compiled from hundreds of hours of Kalnajs' study of dogs. She explains the signals and puts them into context. It's an excellent 2-hour and 13-minute, 2-disk DVD set that won the IIACAB Award for 2006 Best Dog Behavior DVD.
Observe Dogs: Like I said, there's no substitute for hands-on learning and observation. Once you begin to understand canine body language, look around and watch every dog you encounter. You'll begin to notice subtle signals that tell the world how an owner and his dog relate to one another (you'll be amazed at the number of dogs who are in charge...).
Put your new-found observation skills to work wherever dogs and people congregate. Dog parks are great places to watch canines interact, as well as people (especially if you want to witness some dysfunctional behavior from both species!). Training sessions with other gun dog enthusiasts are another place to observe various dogs. Watch how your buddies' dogs relate to them and other dogs and then how they work in the field. There's often a correlation.
[ Read Full Post ] January 2, 2010 by
Besides working the field for birds, dogs provide another important role in our life: that of defender. They alert us to potential danger in the home and provide a measure of security on walks at night. There is a downside to the protective dog, however, and that's when it becomes overly protective of it's family/pack members. When that happens, you shouldn't see a loving dog but rather dysfunctional behavior that could have severe implications for both humans and the dog.
Just this week I visited a college buddy who had picked up two 14-week old Plott hounds. They were cute little buggers with a nice voices. They had already put the house cats up trees a few times. Along with the pups, though, was a young stray dog he had found 8-miles back in the woods while hunting. It looked to be an Australian shepherd or something similar.
When I brought my two dogs in, there was a moment or two of anxiety from the stray, named Skeeter, as the dogs sniffed each other. The young dog bit and snapped my dogs and continued to do so after the initial introduction.
"He's really protective of the pups and the kids," my friend said.
This isn't the first time I've heard this statement. It's usually said with respect or a matter of awe; as if the dog is so smart and caring that he's protecting the kids. And, in a way it is protecting the kids but it might be dysfunctional behavior as well.
Many breeds of dogs have a tendency to herd or protect, but when that genetic drive moves into pack mentality and/or the dog is allowed to administer corrections to strangers, you're looking at trouble.
Think of the overly protective dog like this: If it's "mothering" your kids (protecting, guarding, etc), what is going to happen when your kids do something that the dog perceives as wrong?
It's going to do the same thing it does to a puppy. Nip and bite. Dogs don't have hands and can't speak human. They administer corrections to pack members and puppies via body language (which humans are very poor at reading, especially children) and with bites and nips. If your dog believes he/she is responsible for the well-being of your children and has the duty to protect them, when they do step out of line it's also going to administer a correction with it's mouth and teeth. While it might not be a vicious attack, the consequences can be the same: a dog-bitten child.
The problem gets even worse if the dog is guarding and watching the kids and administers a correction to a neighbor or their child. In that instance you might be required to put the dog down, pay for doctor bills and live with the fact that your dog might have created a permanent disfigurement or anxiety in a child.
To correct the problem of the overly protective pooch, you have to work on it's boundaries. Children tend to complicate the issue. They can also be incorporated into the solution. Obedience and training help establish a pecking order in the family and can help put a dog at ease by knowing that it doesn't have to protect and watch out for the family at all times. The site I found this picture on has some great tips for households with children and dogs. If you have any doubts about the situation, seek the help of a professional.
As for my buddy's pooch Skeeter, I put him on a leash and did about 20 minutes of heel, sit and stay work. After that he never tried biting the dogs again. He's not cured. It was a temporary fix that most likely regressed once I left the next day. To cure the problem, continual training to the point of psychological imprinting is required but it did work for what was needed and impressed upon my friend what the dog would need.
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