In sub 0°F weather I have usually wrapped my wire kennel in a blanket, and filled the inside of the kennel with straw. The straw drains the water from melting snow and ice on the dog, and the hollow straw insulates really well. The dog stays warm in the worst conditions. This worked great when I had a pickup with a topper, but now I have an SUV. I tried this same method on an ice fishing trip recently and it was a disaster. Straw absolutely everywhere. I'm looking for a pad to put in the kennel that can perform somewhat similarly. Drain melting water, and insulate from below. My first thought was maybe get burlap sacks and fill them with straw. Anyone know a good product out there?

The webbing on my griffon's paws (skin between toes) has been getting cut by ice and worn down by abrasive snow that's thawed a bit then refrozen. Mushers secret works well for long outings but if I'm taking him just for a quick morning or afternoon run I don't want him tracking all that wax into the house. We've had to miss the last two weeks of rabbit season for my dogs paws to recover.

I know a lot of dog boots don't stay on well. Do you guys know of any that will stay on while a dog is running around? Anything other suggestions would also be great.

Hello everyone, I have 7 month old female english poenter, Dora. Dora and I had great start but I share ''custody'' with my younger brother, ill get back to that. And everything was going good, had ups and downs but it was normal and she really looked at me with love and respect. But I got a business opportunity and I didn't see her for 2-3 weeks. When I got back, and when I saw her, she greeted me and didn't give a damn about single command, not even recall. So I need advice on how to reconnect with her and also if you have links on maybe a book how to train a english poenter.

This might not be the best place for this but I need advice. My fiancé wants me to rehome one of my two dogs, so that he can get himself “a brand new puppy as a hunting dog”. He thinks three dogs is too many and has put his foot down on that, but again I already have two dogs so him getting a puppy means rehoming one of mine. My dogs are cocker spaniels, one is 1 year old and the other is 2 years old… He says my cockers aren’t the right breed for hunting, and are too old to train, so I’m going to have to pick which one to re-home, so that he can have his hunting dog. Am I crazy to be really upset about this?? I feel that my dogs ARE young enough to be trained, and I thought that cocker spaniels CAN, in fact, be hunting dogs?? He also claims that the training HAS to start as a young puppy, and even my 1 year old boy is too old… It all just feels a little “off” to me and has me wondering to myself, is he asking me to re-home my beloved dog just because he wants his preferred breed?? And he’s saying whatever he can to justify that and hopes I don’t know enough to question it?? That’s not cool! I want compromise but he’s adamant that the cocker spaniels are completely incapable and “it doesn’t work like that” Thoughts???? Am I being totally bamboozled here?? Is he telling the truth?

A few nights ago I went out to the wetland with my dog Pepe and he caught this guinea pig.

I’m curious has someone’s hunting dogs ever attack a raccoon? My American bully just went after one and shaked it so bad the noise I heard was horrible she has no bites but I see a scratch. I’m just curious if anyone else has ran into this and what was the next steps you took. Or did you do nothing cause there up to date on shots.

Hi all,

I have a 1 year old GSP male neutered. He has been chasing the house cat (girlfriends) and she wants it to stop. I’m worrying about correcting because I want the high prey drive but not inside. Is this trainable? Will it ruin the dog? Any tips on how to make it work?

My heeler/ausie/border collie loves hunting and sniffing down the gophers in the field around my neighborhood. I want her to follow her natural instincts and do what she wants (they’re pests around here). The issue I have is she doesn’t kill them. I don’t know what her intent is but she ends up just hurting them and leaving them be. If she is going to hunt them I’d rather her just kill them immediately rather than mess with them. I’m not even sure if this is the right thing but I’d love to hear some advice or tips! How can I get her to just it? She definitely won’t stop sniffing them down.

This years pups almost 7 months and a sister with almost 2 years... they are getting a hang of their job.. nice doggies.

Howdy; newish duck hunter here who got tired of cold trips across a pond and got a puppy… have received a lot of different advice from folks around me on how to go about making him a great dog. Here’s my dilemma: I grew up NOT having any kind of retrieval dog, and have no idea what to do/expect. I grew up with hunting dogs (hogs, squirrel, coons) but this is new territory. The advice I’ve gotten that makes the most sense is to not overwork the pup in training and don’t overwhelm him in the field, everything I’ve gotten past that has been overwhelming and I’d like to have some folks with a good bit of experience weigh in

Hi all, my wife and I recently acquired our 2 month old basset, Frankie, she’s got tons of energy and I’ve read that many people recommend waiting until 6 months to start hard training. Basically I would like to locate a rabbit dog trainer that we can send Frankie to, we have the resources and land to train her, just not the time at the moment. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

TLDR searching for a rabbit dog trainer for my basset hound

First day, but she's really getting the hang of it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/4qSGsBKo9Rw?si=sAW3VnDvW4VjpdGf

I am planning on picking up my first retriever it will be a Golden Retriever at the end of February. I am wanting to train it myself to be an obedient house dog and to retrieve ducks. I am trying to find the best training program to follow. I am thinking either SmartWorks or Cornerstone gun dog academy but I am open to any suggestions. What do y’all think?

My lil buddy’s starting to turn grey. Wish I could hunt over him for the rest of my life. Gotta feeling he’s gonna be my once in a lifetime dog

Hey guys, I am getting back into an old childhood passion of mine: squirrel hunting. I have never hunted them with a dog, but was curious if it it would be possible to train a 3ish year old mut to tree squirrels. He has some hound and presumably beagle in him and does a good job getting on scent trails on his own when out in the woods.

If this is possible, what resources should I study and how should I go about it?

Thanks for any advice!

Hey guys, I live in ky and have rabbit and quail hunted with dogs my whole life. About 5 years ago my last beagle died and I haven’t had dogs since. I am ready to start hunting again and have decided on getting squirrel dogs since there are no quail here anymore and there is tons of public ground to squirrel hunt on around me. That is my background and that brings me to my questions. Do you prefer feist or cur dogs for squirrel hunting? What are the differences in the two? If I trained a squirrel dog could I coon hunt a couple times a year with him too or would that mess them up? I have been a couple times but I don’t know much about treeing dogs. Also I have 3 kids so is one better than the other around kids? Thank you!

He's a bit confused by the result of his first successful chase.

Has anyone only done obedience training and then trained for a retriever themselves after?

treeing walker the hunter is brought now

I rescued an adorable 15 month old GSP from a place where he had 0 human interaction and was left to run wild. After months of training he has done fantastic with basic obedience and crate training. Our family needs a service dog and we are working on getting him certified as he has the perfect temperament and is eager to learn.

I don’t want to ignore his instinctive need to hunt as our walks has shown he natural. He sees birds, critters and lizards on our adventures and goes into hunt mode and when he catches a scent he’s on the trail. I went to bass pro and got him a few bumpers and rabbit scent to start off the training.

I watched a few YouTube videos on how to introduce him to this kind of training and it didn’t go so well. He wasn’t interested in the bumper or scent, instead we played Find it. I threw treats in the tall grass and he would sniff it out and showed more enthusiasm vs the scent.

I’d love for him to be able to follow his instincts as he’s on a raw diet and there’s nothing more filling than catching dinner. Any pointers (ha no pun intended) as to how we can we can achieve this goal?