Blind Ambitions

Now that duck seaosn has ended most places, guys without a dog start thinking, “Man I need a dog for next year”. If this is you, that is great, you are in for one heck of a journey.

There are some previous psotings I did on picking out a puppy and reading pedigrees that may be helpful as well as what to look for in health clearances. You cna click on the training tips icon to get to those articles.

What I wanted to discuss here is what someone needs to get their puppy started off right as far a retriever goes. You don’t need a thousand dollars worth of training gear with a young puppy. In fact if you search the net, youc an find puppy trianign kits sold at many of the dog supply places I mentioned yesterday.

Some of the things you want to make sure you have are as follows: a crate, a 4-6 ft. lead, a choke chain or pinch collar (puppy sized), small canvas puppy bumpers, a whistle, heeling stick (won’t need it right away though) and a cap gun. This will get you from the time you bring your pup home up until around six months, at which point you will need a variety of bumpers, check cords, blank pistol, and an e-collar.

In some coming articles we will look at why a dog should be crate trained, choke chain vs pinch collar, and some gear reviews will be coming soon as well, so please check back often.

This is the Avery Pro Trainer’s Bag Kit available form Mack’s Prairie Wings

http://www.mackspw.com/Item–i-AVEPROCB

Yesterday, I had to place an internet order for some new bumpers and other gear I need. I spent an hour before dawn looking at different sites to find the best deal. Being a small one man operation I have to try and save where I can. So I figured I would share some links for places I like to use to order dog training gear.

 Lion Country Supply: www.lcsupply.com

They have just about everything you can imagine for retrievers and upland dogs. Good prices, excellent quality on their house brand stuff (Better LCS brand). Ususually my first place to check when I need something. Also has good sales from time to time.

Gun Dog Supply: www.gundogsupply.com

Another large retailer with a huge selection. Prices are in line with everyone else. Probably my second choice when I need to order something.

Dixie Dog Supply: www.dixiedogsupply.com

Limited selection of stuff, but great prices and if you are an HRC member you get a discount. Mainly deals with Avery, Bumper Boy, SportDog, and Hallmark. If you are looking for something from one of the mentioned companies, this is a great place to check.

These are the places I buy most of my gear like bumpers, pinch collars, choke chains, leads, collars, vests, blank pistols, blanks, etc. I would encourage you to check these guys out when you need to pick up some new gear.

If you are looking to buy a new SportDog collar, I am now a dealer so please check out http://www.averycreek.net/SportdogE-Collars.html

Here are a couple photos taken by moose over at Moose Droppings toook last weekend while we were hunting tundra swan. I’ll post more as the week goes on, but these were some of my favorites.

I have recently had the honor of being named to the SportDog Brand Pro Staff. This is an honor for me, and I hope it will benefit SportDog as well. I have been using SportDog brand products for several years now, and truly believe there is not a better value out there as far as electronic collars go. Along with being a memeber of their Pro Staff, I am also a dealer for their products. If you visit my kennels website (www.averycreek.net) you can find out information on what products I can get and prices. I hope this is a long and mutually beneficial partnership. You cna check out information on some of their staff members here.

When trying to figure out what dog food to feed to keep your dog lena and healthy, you must learn to read a food label. Two things you want to look for on a bag of dog food is the guaranteed analysis and the ingredient list.  

The guaranteed analysis lists the minimum levels of crude protein and fat and the maximum levels of fiber and water. The guaranteed analysis can be helpful but only when coupled with an ingredient list. When you read an ingredient list, all ingredients are listed by weight. In a good quality food the first ingredient will be a meat or meat by product.

There is a very good tutorial for how to read a label at Pet Education.

The main thing I tyr to explain is that I don’t want  a food that has corn as the numbe rone ingredient or one that has corn listed several times (such as ground corn, corn gluten, corn bran). The other thing to remembr is if the main ingredient says chicken, that it is the pre processed weight of the chicken, so after processing, water loss will lower the meat weight. Chicken by product will not lose weight during processing and is a great source of protein.

Just take some time and search around for info on dog food labels and familiarize yourself with some of the information out there to help you make the best decision possible for your dog.

As I have mentioned before I feed Diamond dog food to all the dogs in my kennel.

Got in late last night after 5 days of guiding tundra swan hunters in Washington County, NC. We had a great time, and had were 100% with folks getting their bird. The weather was crazy and made it interesting, but in the end everyhting worked out. My wife killed her second tundra swan last Friday, and I took one down shortly after. I’ll be working to get some stories and pictures up about some of the hunts as soon as I can get unpacked.

I got some sad news last night, a buddy of mine lost his lab on the operating table yesterday.

As I understand, the dog had eaten some mulch and a piece had punctured her intestine. They couldn’t find anything on an X-Ray, so the decision was made to cut her open and take a look.

Once they found the mulch, the doctor removed 9 inches of intestine, and began to sew her back up. She never made it through the surgery.

I know how badly it feels to lose one, and Lil’ Bit was jsut an year and half old. I had Lil’ Bit to train her for a time, and she came into heat so she went home and we planned to get her back this spring.

Sometimes I think the world would be better if dogs outlived their owners.

You will be missed little girl: “A Little Bit of Duck Action”

So know we have stopped feeding our dog the table scraps and other treats, what do we need to do next?

Our next step is to look at what/how we feed our dog it’s daily food ration. I know many folks fill a bowl of food up and set it out for the dog to eat at it’s leisure, this is called free feeding. There are a lot of studies that show free feeding is not good for a dog because you really cannot control how much the dog eats per day. Most folks that free feed just fill the bowl up when it gets low or is empty, with no measurement.

So we decide we no longer wish to free feed our dog. The next question is to feed once or twice a day. If you google search this topic you will find evidence on both sides. Personally I like to feed two times per day, splitting their daily ration between the two feedings. For example if I have a dog that gets 4 cups per day, then they will get 2 in the AM and 2 in the PM. In our kennel feed times are 6:00Am and 8:30PM. If you wan tto begin to switch your dog over to feeding once or twice a day, you have to lay the food down, give the dog 5-10 minutes and then pick up any food left in the bowl. Eventually they will become hungry and begin to eat the entire bowl once you set it down.

The benefit of feeding once or twice per day is that you can ration the food and determine how many calories the dog takes in. If he begins to put on weight, you back off on the portions and it’s much easier to control.

If you are a very busy person and cannot commit to two set feeding times per day, then I would suggest feeding their entire daily ration one time per day, using the same method mentioned above.

If you look at the back of the bag, it will give recommended feed amounts, you cna use these for a guide to get you in the ballpark on what your dogs daily ration should be. I feed Diamond formulas to each dog in my kennel, and have had great results.

In the next part we will discuss what to look for in the ingredient list on the dog food bag.

As I posted yesterday, one of the most common health problems with dogs is their weight. People, in general, tend to feed their dogs way too much. So if you have a dog that could benefit from losing a few pounds what are the first steps to take? Number one is to cut out the table scraps and treats. Forget about giving your pup some left over mashed potatoes or the meat loaf scraps you didn’t quite finish, it is not good for them. In fact many people don’t know that their are long lists of common foods people feed their dogs that are poisonous to the dog, check out this link for information.

Secondly is cut out the treats and milk bones. They are not real healthy, in fact many are between 200-300 calories per treat, and have anywhere from 3-6 grams of fat. They offer no real nutritional value other than added calories. I know some will use the argument that they help clean teeth, but so will a Kong.

By eliminating these two things, we have already helped our dog shave some pounds and become more healthy. I know it’s tough when you sit down to eat and your pup is begging, but it is not doing him any favors sneaking him a bunch of french fries.

Next time we will look at dog foods and how we can help our pup by the food we choose to feed.

Yesterday, I got a dog in to run through an obedience program. Very nice dog, 3 years old, a little hyper, but good personality. The dog should be pretty easy to get through basic obedience, but I had a huge concern when he got out of the car, he is pretty bad overweight. I see similar dogs when I go to the vet or see people out walking with there dogs. So many dogs are overweight, and this is not good for the dog.

When a dog gets overweight it can lead to many problems, including joint problems, especially in older dogs. We, as dog owners, think it’s nice of us to provide table scraps or to give them treats several times a day, but we are not doing our pup any favors by doing this.

Be honest with yourself and detemrine if your pup needs to shed a few pounds, and over the next few days I will be posting some ways to help your dog lose weight and keep it off.