Listen Up, Rookies! – Advice to a First-Time Hunting Dog

by Chris Robinson

I overheard the Boss say that you are going along on the hunting trips this year. It’s about time you started pulling your weight around here. This silly puppy stuff and lazing around on the couch has gone on long enough and it’s well past when you should be doing the job you were in- tended to do, in my opinion. Not only that but it’s time to find out if all the time, effort and money the Boss has spent to prepare you for your life’s work has been worth it. Be that as it may, I feel it’s my duty, as the veteran dog in this outfit, to give you the ben- efit of my years of experience as a hunting dog and provide you with some sage advice.

I haven’t forgotten my puppy days. Woo-hoo they were fun but now is when your real life starts. It’s time to let your inner wolf come to the forefront. But you need to let the canis lupus part of your makeup out slowly and under strict control. Hunters don’t appreciate dogs that race across fields and marshes trying to catch every pheasant, quail, duck and goose in North America. They also won’t understand the fact that you didn’t have breakfast and you are starved caused you to eat any of the birds. People are really possessive about birds they’ve shot even though they never would have gotten them if you hadn’t found them and then fetched them. I realize that isn’t fair but it’s just the way things are. So, you have to humor them and go along with their desire for birds that are fit for the table. For one thing, in the interest of fairness, they may decide to share a few bits of bird meat with you once they’ve been prepared. Birds really do taste a lot better when they’ re cooked and covered with a fine wine, butter and garlic sauce. For another, not eat- ing the birds is the only way to keep your relation- ship with people peaceful and harmonious.

But, as long as we’re on the topic of food, you do have some rights. You’re working hard and you need some high octane fuel. That means your meals should be a proper athlete’s diet of around 30 percent protein and another 20 percent fat. So, don’t settle for any old “it was on sale” kibble that they might throw in a bowl and expect you to be satisfied. After all, you will have put up with their bad jokes and their inexcusable failure to let you have at least half of their meatloaf sandwiches all day. You need some decent food and that means, at minimum, a premium kibble with the entire top of the dry food covered with some nice prime cut canned food and gravy or, preferably, some ground beef that has been browned in bacon fat and enough broth on the food to make it slide down easily.

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Posted by Alex on Nov 2 2016. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.