EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Need to brand 6 dogs is it worth the trouble to get semen tank or just cooler and ice? Man I can see it now Big white S on those dark brindle Plotts !

Dry ice and alcohol alot more economical and same result

Liquid nitrogen works really nice but its such a pain to get.... dry ice and alcohol work good if you have good help and someone to hold the dog down firmly while you apply it..... plus once you pull the iron off do not reapply it for weeks, I have a friend who has AA instead of A on the right ear... I told him the dog is a proud member of Alcoholics Anonymous ;D

i think he was askin if he could just put it in a cooler or need a special container i was wondering too ??

thats the pain to get the special container for transport but in all reality dry ice and alcohol only take a few more seconds to apply

I was thinking i would pull all those semen straws out and brand my dogs while they were AIn cows at the ranch. But my luck the Jerseys and Long horns on neibours would clean up and give it away. BTW Noelle you still feeding my GSP and Arrowbar when you get some of them off colored brindles on the ground let me know.

shep amira will be poppin some out in a few days

Yep she's missin u badly too lol

Dreams do come true!! I wish yall would move a little closer.Send me pics Arrowbar ,Are you down Raymondville or some where in the valley Noelle?

Na bout an hr north of houston

Ive been using the dry ice, but the last run i did, didnt turn out that well. got a buddy says he knows where a container is, so im gonna try the liquid N. this go around. Got a bunch im gonna do here in a week or two.
 I think those containers are around $400.

The first time i tried it, they came out pretty good 10 lbs of dry ice to 1 gal. of alchohol.  last time was 5 lbs of ice to 1/2 gal. alchohol. maybe i just didnt get it cold enough?

I've never used the nitrogen? Heard it's the same pretty much

me neither but wanted to try it and see what the difference was, if any. aint gonna cost me nothin so i figured i would try it.

Ya mite as well.., throw my brand on one them plots lol. Any word on the gsp pups?

Picking them up sat.  Sent u PM. 

Ok, hope they get there and u like them, had 12 half birdog half bmc pups yesterday lol high hopes for them!!! my pup that I kept out of the gsps was bayin a cat today at 6wks lol looks promising

Dang, thats a big litter. Im very interested to see how that cross turns out.
Cant wait to get them little boogers started to see how they are gonna do. Im bout to run out of room. Lol. Got a bear dog on trial now.

ya theres a pile of em i posted pics... all chocolate except 3 black... was surprised at the color lol

   

You can rent a Small AI container for a month and do a bunch of dogs, there ar e different size containers as well, we had a AI program on the ranch and i just poured some out into a large open mouth plastic thermos and dipped the brand in it, dry ice sucks as it takes to long to hold it on the dog, the nitrogen is way faster and not that hard to find, google AI breeders and they might even be going by your place and will sell you a gallon or 2 of the liquid, dry ice will get you bitten by the dog as its a lot slower, any cattle auction barn will know who is a roving AI breeder you can buy some liquid nitrogen from i would bet.  Lots of welding gas places sell liquid nitrogen, look online for them in your area, they prob have a cheap overnight contianer you could throw away after you use it branding dogs.

X2. From above Nitro is alot quicker than the ice method. I like to use nitro on light colored dogs due to having to kill the hair folicle. Ice works ok on darker dogs since you don't have to burn em in deep. But the longer it takes to burn em the better chance your gonna have for a messed up brand when they start kickin around.

How long do you have to keep the iron on the dog with the nitrogen compared to dry ice? I an wanting to do some but I don't want to screw it up.

X 2, and how long to burn the hair off, ive got a few light, and white dogs.
My buddy went and got a container filled today, bUT said we would have to pour it in somethin that the brand wouldn't fit down in the container. What would be the best thing to use? Said it cost $20 to fill it, bUT I dont know how much that would be and what size cooler or whatever to pour it into, to cover the brand.
Planning on branding several in the morning.

I have seen them go for 8-12 seconds on liquid either method make sure the iron gets so cold that thier is frost all the way up the handle or at least two feet from the brand if you use a longer brand iron.

X2 about the frost. You can get a styrophoam cooler to put nitro in temporarily while branding. The length of time varies for type of brand..brass..steel..and also thickness of skin for each dog. On average I use brass 2in with nitro leave brand in nitro until it quits boilng and gets a good frost halfway up handle. I burn em round 8sec for dark dogs and 13 to 18 sec for light dogs. As soon as you let off the burn the indention of brand will raise on skin and then disappear. Make sure you get all the hair shaved in spot and keep it good and moist with non isopropal alcohol.   Tip for first timers...get some buddies to help hold dog down and duct tape feet and mouth. Have buddies lay across dog while doing burn NO MOVEMENT. Rock brand in 360 circle. If I can help anybody further just pm me. Its a great tool coupled with tags and tattoos. Good Luck.

above post had some good information, yes get friends to help hold and have them hold tight, muzzle the dog to prevent any accidents and speaking of accidents wear old clothes because a lot of dogs will piss everywhere

Talked to Dextar and a few others. We are going to have a branding party! They are talking about bringing this dog and that brand and food or beer. I'm sure we will go hunting. This may last all weekend.My fear is  branding a couple of young dogs I got and them not turning out and me spending more time on them because they got my brand on em.

brand them and cull those that dont make it, brand some more and cull what you have to, its the modern cycle.

Amen on that Shep:

We ran into that issue as well on slappin iron on some youngsters before they proved up or if you end up not liking them. Lil akward if you ever get rid of em and someone else having a dog with your brand. I only brand the ones that cut mustard and aint gonna get cut later. Also just FYI to everybody. I would not hunt your dogs till the brands scab up and heal. Learned that the hard was as well. The scabs will rip and cause a deformed brand.  

On fire brands I use to spray WD-40 on them once in a while they would peel very good. Heck I use to keep the leather that peeled off. still got a stack of em some where.

I have seen some lion dogs that look like nascars with three or four brands on them...

You Lion hunters might just be trading dogs among each other. Since there arnt many of you. Have to be careful and not get same brand twice on one dog.I got one from out there got a big ole C on her ear.He said she would quit a bear and bay a hog. So far no bears. And will bay a hog.

Branded a bunch of mine this morning. I think im gonna build me some kind of table where I can strap them down.  My helper wasn't much help, dont know how they gonna turn out. I think the dark dogs will be alright, but not sure about the lighter ones. Having trouble gettin the whole brand too.  Think im gonna modify the one o have or get a smaller one. 
    The liquid N. Is much faster.

What kind of brand did you use on them, now you see why that dry ice sucks, too slow on a wiggling aligator with scrachty dew claws, table is a good idea and welding gloves and a experiened helper!!!!  At least you have some done now, keep it up and save a dog from a theif or dying a horrible death because somebody thought nobody owned him or cared.  Hope they show up great, you can always brand the other side with better helper and restraints.