Dove Hunting Dogs

[GrizwalD]

Same for a yellow lab?

i beg to differ cuz aint had no problem wif my yellow does just fine

My yellows are both the same way.... they do fine...

[hillhunter]

guys i gt to see one die saturday... it was not pretty to say the least. on top of that it was not that hot over here either. The dog was basically not in hunting shape and I feel thats what caused it. The guy brought the dog out and by 4:30 it was overheated and had only retrieved about 5 birds. She was fine one minute then the next she was cramping and losing control of her biles, and could not move.. not pretty. Conditioning is the key.. this dog primarily stayed inside and was not well trained. Talking about mid 80's heat, medium humidity and not that much work for a good dog.
I had a chocolate lab that I kept outside and worked with all the time whether it was 65 or 95 and he hunted with me on almost all my hunts. I kept plenty of water for him and payed attention to him and he did fine. I think the key here is conditioning. Some of you guys on here would never try to go play a professional football game or run a marathon without being in shape, so dont ask your dogs to do it.
With this being said I have never seen this happen before but you can bet if I ever do get another dog (mine died three years ago when he was 10 1/2 from cancer), I will never put him in a situation where it is even close to possible for it to happen. I could barely stand to watch it happen to someone else's dog much less my own.

[Unkljohn]

I saw it happen years ago. Poorly trained dog, the owner just let him run wild and get every bird that he saw fall. He lasted maybe an hour and a half.

[pstone]

Common sense is the key. PLENTY of water, SHADE is a must, and if the action is real fast, don't send him for every bird. Hunting a dog in heat, you have to put the dog first, and the hunting second. Period. If you know you can't do that, don't take him. Like other said they have to be conditioned, and aclimated to working in theheat, and that ain't gonna happen with 2 bumpers twice a week... And it does not matter what color they are, they ALL get hot.