Traveling Pointing Dogs

It’s July 8 in Missouri and these pups are on the heat pad

These puppies are on the heating pad when they are only hours old.

The pups get off the pad when they get warm.

I’m far from an expert on raising puppies but I wanted to share some of the things I do with mine. I have a whelping box inside a shed that is air conditioned. There is a large pen outside that the mother can use by going through a dog door. I move her to the shed several days before she is due. My vet said there are as many pups born at 60 days as there are at 63.

I check the female often but usually they start breathing really hard a few hours before the pups start coming. Even in the summer, I plug a heat pad in for the pups. According to what I’ve read if a puppy loses 1 degree of temperature the mother will kick that pup out. In my opinion, the heating pad will help keep the puppies temperature up. I don’t know if the mothers put the pups on the pad or they go to it on their on but even if it’s 75 degrees in the shed, the puppies will be on the heat pad, in their first 2 or 3 weeks.

I get as many people as I can to come by and pet the puppies. From day one the pups are handled several times a day. If I have a litter of pups and you come by my house you have to go pet puppies. At 2 or 3 days old, either I remove the dew claws or have the vet remove them.

I weigh the pups each week to make sure that they are all growing at the same rate and I need to know their weight to worm them. I worm at 3, 4 and 6 weeks. I worm the mother and the pups.

The pups open their eyes about 10 days old but they can’t hear until they are about 3 weeks old. At 3 weeks old I start feeding the puppies. If I have a pup that is smaller than the others I let it eat first then put the others in with it. When I start feeding the pups I play a gun conditioning CD from Masters Voice. I feed the puppies twice a day so they hear this CD twice a day, starting a 3 weeks old until they go home with their new owners. Also, at 3 weeks old I put collars on the pups with about 18 inches of small rope dragging. They drag each other around with these ropes and it helps teach them to lead.

My vet gave me a recipe for a mix that is close to mothers milk. The recipe is as follows:
* One can evaporated milk
* One can of water
* One table spoon of plain yogurt
* One egg yolk (egg whites are supposed to be bad for dogs)
* One tablespoon Karo syrup or honey

At about 4 weeks old I start mixing dry dog food in with the milk. I let the dry food soak in the milk for 15 minutes or so then heat it to luke warm. I have the milk in a pint jar and I pick the feed pan up and drop it, then pour the milk in. The pups learn to come to the sound of the pan hitting the floor. I also throw pans and buckets into the shed. I want the pups to know that when I’m around there will be noise.

According to the weather I start taking them outside to play. I raise pigeons and once the pups get used to being outside I put a young pigeon, that can’t fly, down in front of them. When they get too aggressive for the young pigeons I start letting pigeons fly from my hand. Until the pups get used to this I make sure that the pigeons wings don’t hit the ground as they fly away. If the wings don’t hit the ground they make very little noise flying away.

I also, take a handful of dry dog food and throw it in the grass. As the pups come into the area where it is I tell them to “look close”. This teaches them to use their nose and the “look close” can be used hunting dead later on, or hunt an area where you think singles may be.

I take the pups on walks and have pigeons in a bird bag. As we walk along the pups will be inspecting every thing then they get tired. When they slow down a little I toss a pigeon out where they can see it. That gets them fired up again.

At about 6 weeks old and after all of the pups are chasing the fly away pigeons I put some pigeons to sleep by putting their head under their wing and straightening their legs out. I put them down on the wing their head is under then cover them with grass. I get the whole litter to go for a walk. The first few times I may have to walk the pups right over the pigeons but it’s not long before they find them from scent. By the time these pups go home with their new owners they are bird crazy.

I like for the owners to leave the puppies until they are at least 8 weeks old and it doesn’t hurt to leave them up to 10 weeks. This gives them an opportunity to learn to be dogs. After 10 weeks old they need to be separated.

This is not the only way to raise pups it’s just my way but I have been fortunate to be able to raise well adjusted puppies that really like people. Today I had calls from two people wanting to buy a pup and they both had bought pups from me in the last 5 or 6 years. They were ready to start another one of my pups. That’s really satisfying.

Teasing the puppies with a pigeon.

The puppies like pigeons.

Puppies with pigeons.

Lucky

Lucky backing Dolly

Lucky

Lucky was born May, 31, 2004. He was a left over pup. At the end of 10 weeks I had 2 pups left. Lucky and a female. In September I got a call from Vince Dye. He worked with my neighbors, Dave and Debbie Hatton. He was looking for a puppy and bought the female, Katie. He really liked Katie and called several times to thank me for selling her to him. We got together to work pups then started hunting together.

I had worked both pups on pigeons and had started whoa breaking them. Both pups were pointing pigeons but Lucky thought after pointing he should do something else. I would walk in and he would circle the release trap and point from the other side. He did this over and over. I would pick him up and put him back in the original spot. I don’t know how many times I put him back but it was a lot. Finally, he figured out all he was supposed to do was stand still after he pointed.

They were 5 months old when quail season opened. I had several dogs and Lucky didn’t get to point the first part of the season then Vince invited me to go with him on some private land he had permission to hunt. He had a short hair female, Roxy, that was a real good bird dog and Katie. Katie had already pointed some wild quail but Lucky just hadn’t been in the right place, yet.

Vince had some really good places to hunt and we were in a lot of quail. All of our dogs would back and after several backs Lucky pointed a quail. He liked that even better than honoring. He really started hitting the brush looking for birds. When we killed a bird in front of Lucky or Katie they retrieved to hand.

We were hunting close to a gravel road and Roxy crossed the road and went on point about 5 yards off of the gravel. Katie and Lucky both honored. Vince and I were about 150 yards from the road. I took a series of pictures as we got closer. Before we got close a truck drove down the road between us and the dogs. Not a dog moved. Vince went in front of Roxie and a single quail flushed.

Lucky became a big runner but with the Garmin GPS I knew where he was. He pointed a lot of birds and most of the time he found them quite a ways from me. I knew, if the birds held he would hold. When he was young he had lots of style but as he aged his tail wasn’t as high and if it took me a long time to get there he would sometimes be lying down.

One time I was hunting walk-in in Kansas and his GPS collar quit just a little ways from the truck. He came by me and then he was lost. I made a big circle in the walk-in property calling him as I went. I hadn’t seen him in 30 to 45 minutes and was getting really concerned. I came back close to where I saw him last and he was about 20 yards farther on point. He had a covey of quail in front of him. I may be wrong but I believe that he was on point the whole time.

Each time I have hunted him this season I wondered if it was the last. He still runs good and finds birds but an eleven year old dog that has worked as hard as he has is on borrowed time. He’s still one of the dogs I take to guide with. I know he’s not going to get excited and run through the field flushing all of the birds.

I guided with him 2 days in a row and that was too much. I guided on a Friday morning, for about 3 hours, then came back Saturday afternoon and he made it for about 2 1/2 hours. He pointed a covey of quail and when the hunters shot one he retrieved it then laid down. I thought I could lead him out of the field but he wouldn’t even stand. Roy Branson and I carried him to the truck.

Last Saturday I guided again and it was 75 degrees when I turned Dolly and Lucky loose. They only had to work for about an hour and I had a lot of water with me. We also hunted along a creek with water in it but he was really tired when we finished.

That was my last guiding trip of the season and I wanted him to get as many trips as he could. But he is finally retired. May be semi-retired. That was his last guiding trip although I will still use him for short hunts. Nothing longer than an hour and it will have to be cool. He has been a good one and I’m going to miss having him to use as I have in the past.

Lucky

Lucky

Lucky pointing a pigeon.