shorthairman
★★★★★ Legendary Member
Hey guys, hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. My son and I had some luck shooting Prairie Chickens last night, however, we nearly had a terrible incident. We only only hunted two hours in the evening and even though the temperature was fairly cool (70ish), the humidity was terribly high. Not sure what weather you guys are experiencing up in ND, but my young shorthair nearly had some kind of heat related catastrophe. Maybe heat exhaustion or heat stroke? She fetched a bird then just laid down in the grass panting heavily. After maybe a minute she got up but was wobbly. Carried her a ways, but wasn't sure if my body heat was hurting more than just having her walk, anyway she wanted down after a couple minutes but was still wobbly. We knew there was a pond fairly close so headed that way. She laid down in the water and we splashed water all over her. Took probably 20 minutes to get her to quit breathing so heavily. In the end it all worked out, but I knew of a guy that lost a dog in an early season hunt, and I never want to experience something like that again. I've tried carrying a bottle and squirting it in their mouths, but didn't seem like they liked it. Maybe last night she would have taken it so I should just carry it on me. Anyway, just thought I would put up a reminder post for you dog owners to watch your four legged hunting partners so you don't have something like this happen to you. Shoot straight!