Cold Dog, New Tricks

If you live in the north country arctic conditions are right outside your window. Some parts of the upper Midwest have been socked in with heavy snow fall for the past three weeks coupled with minus zero temperatures. Those of you back east are now buried under the worst blizzard in the past decade. Ma' Nature has dropped a freezing mess across most northern states but there are still precious days left in the upland hunting season. If you are like me and my dog..."ain't nothin' goin' to stop us now"!

This morning Dewey and I left the house with false confidence into what could have been our toughest hunting conditions ever.

We awoke to darkness with heavy flakes coming down. Another 2-3" had accumulated overnight on top of a frozen crust of over two feet. Dawn broke forth without much notice. Sunshine was nowhere to be seen on this side of the globe. Wind chill danced around zero. Stepping outside a frigid blast hit me hard. It's pressure felt like a razor cut flesh wound across my exposed face. Dewey jumped forth. His inherent Texas blood makes him unafraid. Not cold, nor darkness, nor earthly beast, and he certainly doesn't let the white stuff get in his way of him finding birds. He's got a true Texas swagger but today would be a test for us both. He looked up at me and I looked down at him. He knew there was no turning back...and so did I.

Picture taken of Dewey taken 12/21/09. Hunting hard in cold conditions through proper conditioning and nutrition.

I briefly touched on some cold weather dog tips in my past posts, now lets get a little more serious about taking care of your four legged hunting partner in tough winter conditions.
The general rule of thumb is for every 10 degree drop in outside temperature increase your dog's food rations up about 6%. This is a give or take formula dependant on how hard your dog works outdoors. Time to break out the calculator and metric conversion table again! If you are wondering at what temp to start, take your hometown mean(average) temp found in the farmers almanac and go from there! Also, finding that dog fuel with the proper source of protein and fat to better support is hunt drive and recovery(see Performance Foods post) is highly important. I simply can't say this enough. Your dog's food is the key to it's well being. Buy him/her the best you can afford. Period. Besides food intake there are many other things to consider when hunting in the the bitter cold with a 4 legged steam engine whose only desire is to find the next bird or retrieve the next duck!
Thinking about proper re-hydration in the grasp of old man winter is sometimes critically forgotten! Bitter cold brings dryness to the atmosphere where a dogs breathe gets zapped and moisture is evaporated by zero humidity conditions quickly. With every breathe brings a loss of water to your dog. Much more than even that hot humid day chasing quail for you southern hunters. Getting a hard charging gun dog to drink in the stone cold is usually tough to do. Even though he is not begging for it, it certainly doesn't mean he doesn't need it! To get a dog that won't drink to come to water, grab him gently by the muzzle and spray just a few squirt of water down his throat. I don't mean cold water either but nice warm water from a bottle that has been kept tucked in your vest nearest your own heat source. This is when the training in the off season to accept a water bottle comes in handy! Keep in mind, a working dog will need at minimum 1-2 ounces of water every 20 minutes to stay properly hydrated. Keeping your dog hydrated is not the only thing that should concern you. It is also very helpful to carry some treats in your jacket pocket as well. A dog eating a small ration of treats(make then small, soft, and easily eaten) during a cold hunt will help their body produce internal heat from digestion. Keeping them watered and munching on a treat every 20 minutes or so will help ward of the dreaded early signs of hypothermia. Keep in mind, hypothermia is not only a human condition.

The beginning phases of hypothermia are excessive shaking or totally uncontrollable shivering. If your dog becomes lethargic or slows down his normal hunting "style" get your dog back to a warm truck and home immediately. Towel dry him off and wrap him in blankets or move him nearest the heater. Advanced signs of hypothermia are stumbling or "confused" dogs. If you have reached that stage, shame on you, get him into warmth ASAP and to a vet IMMEDIATELY. There is NO bird in the world worth putting your dog in harms way because he or she can't handle the conditions. Much like in the rest of life, use your best judgement and never push your gun dog further than you think. Here are a few tips to help hydrate your dog and make them ready for a cold hunt or recover quickly after.
-Supply your dog plenty of clean water: always!
-Fill water bowl and add treats as "floaters", this could make him drink more: pre hunt
-Moisten dogs nightly or morning food ration with a little more water than normal: pre hunt
-Use a hydration supplement found in most pet food stores: pre hunt & post hunt
-Take the extra time and try to force hydrate, 2oz. every 20 minutes: during the hunt
Another tip would be to start your dog on an Omega 3 & 6 fatty acid supplement to help moisturize and maintain a think outer coat during the winter months. These supplements can be used year round but especially in the winter. I recommend any of the wonderful wild salmon oil supplements available at your local pet store. These either come in convenient liquid or powder form and can be added into their food. Daily rations of fish oil do wonders for not only your dog's internal health but his coat will become thicker, shine like diamonds, and shedding will most likely decrease. My dog prefers the liquid form as a tasty, yet healthy, topping over his dry food.
Have fun hunting in the snow and be safe, not only for yourself but for your 4-legged hunting partner as well. Because if it wasn't for them, you wouldn't do very much shooting!
Best of luck out there. -Mark

Performance Dog Foods

Gun dogs were bred for generations to hunt a variety of wild game in the harshest of environments. They are canine athletes specialized by genetics to produce results in the field. Yours might be a Blue Tick Coonhound that patrols the night time woods treeing masked bandits. Or maybe you own a versatile Drahthaar that retrieves mallards from a marsh in the morning and then scouts the uplands for pheasants that afternoon. The bottom line is, all sporting breeds need quality food to fuel their inner hunting engine. These days there are many quality foods available from a wide selection of reputable manufacturers to help your dog perform to their optimum level. The gun dog owner needs to know what to look for in the ingredients to best fit his or her dogs needs.

The Guaranteed Analysis: The "GA" is information listed on every bag of food made by every company. The GA shows the minimum levels of crude protein and fat and the maximum levels of fiber and water. The term "crude" might ring the false alarm to some. Rest assured, it does NOT refer to the quality of the nutrient but to the specific method of testing. Below is an example of a GA.

Upon further inspection of this GA we can derive that this dry dog food has 90% dry matter. We find this by taking the amount of moisture(10% in this case) and subtracting from 100%. We can then take the 26% protein and divide that by the 90%. Now we find the protein level to be almost 29% of dry matter. Ok? Here's where it helps to bring a calculator into the feed store...The more moisture the dry food contains the LESS nutritious dry matter there is in the food. This will hit you in your wallet as you will need to buy more, feed more, as well as your dog eat more to derive more nutrients. BEWARE of high moisture % content dry kibble food. This is a case when "more" is not always better!

Protein and Fat are your guns dog's core fuel ingredients. Protein for their supply of amino acids to build and maintain strong muscles, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. Unused protein is also stored as fat for later use. Fat content for their daily energy supply as well as delivering building blocks for healthy skin and hair. Ok so far? Here is where is gets a little more tricky to properly supply your hunting partner with a quality food. The "digestibility" of protein and fat can vary widely depending on what sources these nutrients come from. Shown below is an Ingredients List.

All dog foods list their ingredients in order of weight. It is by far the best way for you, the knowledgeable consumer, to determine the overall quality of the food you are choosing for your gun dog. Read the entire list carefully. Some manufacturers have a trick of breaking up similar or like ingredients with different jargon or slightly different "but same" throughout the list as weights decrease. If you find yourself repeating the same word found in different ingredients you have now just deciphered the loop hole in listing ingredients by weight! Even though the first ingredient is listed as say chicken, keep on reading down the list. Group all the like ingredients together to figure out what REALLY is the primary ingredient. Now comes the even harder part. How do you determine what ingredients are the most digestible? Why is digestibility important? The easier your dog's internal systems can extract nutrients the better. They eat and absorb as much as possible in a very short window of opportunity. The better the ingredients, the more your dog absorbs before he or she removes it(aka take a poop!). Keep in mind a dog's digestive tract is not like a humans. 4-8 hours and they are processing everything. Humans on the other hand process complete from 8 hours to upwards of 4 days! There is not much time in a dog life for nutrient absorption so what they eat best be great! Until the pet food industry begins to list digestibility of ingredients, the only way is to "guesstimate" in the order in which they they appear and then make a very unscientific calculation. If the first ingredient is chicken, lamb, venison, duck, or any other whole or "meal" (meal is dehydrated protein meat source and an excellent source of highly concentrated and highly digestable protein), these are the heaviest by ingredient weight as well as the best sources of highly digestibility, quality protein. By-product or other meat based by-products are average. Remember to add up like sources on the ingredients list both positively and negatively. Also keep in mind carbohydrate sources and the quality/digestibility of them as well. For example a higher amount of brewer's rice(small fragments of rice kernels that have been separated from large kernels of milled rice) are a better source of carbo's than ground corn. Carbo's are also a secondary source of energy so finding a food with quality starches, sugars, and fiber sources not only help your energy level for your dog but also aid in digestion and intestinal fortitude.

The manufacturer has also included Feeding Instructions on every bag. I highly suggest you only use these as rough guidelines. Every dog is different and possess a different metabolism, activity level, and working environmental(such as temperature). Also take into account the dog's breed, age, and special needs. Use your common sense when it comes to following these feeding guidelines. Adjust as needed or you may end up with a very obese or very undernourished dog. Although activity level is the primary measure for concern, temperature can play a major role in the amount of energy your dog consumes during an average hunt. The rule of thumb is for every 10 degree drop in temperature(below normal average temp) figure an average 6% increase in caloric intake your dog needs to keep the fire in his engine hot and running hard. You must stoke the fire hotter during those cold December hunts when the afternoon wind chill drops off and snow flurries fill the air.

These days buzz words and marketing hoopla abound in the dog food industry. Any manufacturer that claims their product is "complete", "balanced", "100% nutritious", must resort to proving this statement on their bags. Look for the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) stamp to constitute this. Also, many dog food manufacturers claim and label bags as "premium" or "super premium". I just saw two competing brands advertising with one saying "super premium" and the other for "ultra premium". The truth be know, products labeled as premium, gourmet, super this, or ultra that, are not required to contain any different or higher quality ingredients , nor are they held to any higher standards than any other dog food brand. Strange? Yes and I agree. Beware of marketing ploys as they run rampant in the dog food business! Look at the stuff inside. That's what really counts when you and your dog need that extra mojo to push up that canyon wall for chukars or trudge that last sorghum break for ringnecks. Don't get caught up in the flashy packaging and multimillion dollar ad campaigns! It won't help your dog out in the backcountry. As the master of a canine athlete you owe it to your dog(s) to supply them with premium food. Most performance dog foods on the market today range from 28% protein/18% fat mix to a 30%/20% mix. Some foods however separate themselves from the pack by using the highest quality ingredients possible. Check them out and study them carefully!

A couple key ingredients that might help your gun dog recover quicker as well as help in the fight against aching joints and soreness is Chondriotin and Glucosumine. Many of the finer food brands add these nutrients into their foods but they are also available as supplements in either tablet or liquid form. Next time you are into see your Vet ask about how much of these your dog should receive as part of his daily allowance. They are a huge help for older dogs and those who run hard day in and day out for quicker recovery during the season.

The next time you are at the feed store take the time to investigate further the many great foods that are available to better help your faithful hunting companion fit and ready for the next hunt.

Best of luck out there, -Mark