This last Saturday my two hunting buddies (Babe and Bella) and I attended a Gundog fun-trail put on by my local Gundog and Sportsman Club see link below for pic's.
http://www.snakerivergundogclub.org/photos/Sept2004_FunTrial/index.htm The third picture down show's one of our members, a 4th year Veterinarian student giving us a class on dog dehydration and how to prevent it. It was very informative and I learned allot.
I carry water with me for the girls when I'm hunting getting them to drink is usually not a problem after they are thirsty, but getting them to drink before we go out is not always easy.
On my way home I stopped for a snack at the local quick stop, not wanting to eat in front of my girls I always get them their favorite snack, "Pork Rinds" they love the things as do I. This time I bought the Hot & Spicy ones. Shortly after leaving the store driving through the back roads of Idaho with the windows down pitching pork rinds in the back jump seat to keep the girls from licking the crumbs out of my beard and making it impossible to drive, we were also having our usual argument over who should drive me or them. All of a sudden one of those spicy hot little pork rinds flew out of my hand when I tossed it back and landed in my eye behind my glasses putting pepper in both my eyes, instantly I was blinded while traveling down the curvy 45 mph road.
"Babe" my most intelligent buddy with the greatest "cookie drive" seen the dilemma and jumped to the rescue, spying the pork rind wedged between my glasses and my eye she decided that she must get it out before we crashed. Knowing that I would be blinded by the pepper she put on an extra large glob of dog spit on her tongue and proceeded to lick the pork rind out of my eye. Bella seeing that we were in emanate danger decided she could drive better under these conditions so she jumped up front and put her paw between the spokes of the steering wheel to keep me from steering in the wrong direction. I knew we must be OK because I had only heard the gravel hit the right side of the truck once. About that time I wasn't sure whether I should hit the brakes or jump from the truck. Then it came to me, right out of the blue, "If I could soak those pork rinds in water, and feed those soaked pork rinds to my girls before the hunt maybe, I could make sure they where hydrated before we went hunting, I promised myself if I live through this I'll try that out. The next thing I know we're sitting on top of one of those small rises on those back roads with the emergency flashers blinking, I'm crying from both eyes, Babe has her head in the pork rinds and Bella's sleeping in the front seat. Boy am I glad I don't drink any more.
So soak your pork rinds and feed them to your hunting buddies, Just find a rest area before you attempt it.
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