too dang hot!

[Purebreedcolt]

Hey thd just how the heck do you know if a dog has internal fat if you can't see it.  I dang sure aint going to cut them open to see or run a probe up their butts lol.  No but seriously I have never really thought about it but makes a lot of since. I was thinking about a lot of deer I have cleaned and thought man they were lean till got into the cavity and was covered in fat.  How do you judge that or is there a way to judge internal fat?

[BA-IV]

Well summer hunting is the way to go if your after big hogs cuz the tracks are always at wallows.  You take a chance with dogs and I'd sure hate to heat stroke one of mine, but I won't stop hunting for the heat. If you gotta dog that will run one over an hour at 11 am then he dang sure will run him in the cooler weather ten times as far.

[halfbreed]

you boy's are right it's too damn hot for this old fart lol . that is the last two years any way . now i used to be conditioned to work and live in the heat . my ol truck don't got no a/c and in my old house at the farm i didn't even consider turning on the window unit till august and that was just at night . but now having been here takeing care of mom she has to have that damn a/c runnin at 75 * and the heat is killing me lol . it is all bout conditioning the only dogs i was ever concerned with was the cd's because of the vest . now my old butt would out work all them young kids in the summer i had to watch them close or i'd kill em . but they would run at lunch and sit in their trucks with the a/c going and then nearly die in the afternoon . i was conditioned to the heat they weren't . the bellie fat in an animal will cause them to overheat quickly . conditioning is not hard to do . and you just have to have some smarts about you and BE READY  incase you do have a dog go down . hell get out and give em hell wish i was able to myself . i used to hunt 7 days a week 365 don't give them damn hogs a rest to multiply . just use your heads and be careful i worry more bout snakes than the heat .

[TexasHogDogs]

Well most of it is just common sence which people never really think about it .  The thing is I never keep a hog fat pup from the time he is born till the day he dies so he grows up lean and stays lean .  Once a dog becomes fat from no use are over feeding this is when it turns in to hell to get this internal fat out of them because it is around all the organs and this is what really really heats a dog up.  Once its there it is very very hard to get rid of and it takes a long time of feeding just right and with a lot of work and condition put on the dog and still you may never get rid of all of it are most of it.

The key is never own a fat dog from a puppy to a grown dog never feed table scraps.  The only time I will keep a half fat dog is when they are retired.  When you do feed get your dogs the best dog food that you can afford with good contents in it and never over feed them.  If you do all of these things here then you can rest asure you dog will never build up internal fat .

Thats why it cracks me up when I see people with these over weight dogs and it dont take but five pounds over weight and no work for a while and this fat will build up . Then these people cut back the food for a couple of weeks and the dogs belly goes down and they say man my dog is back on weight and back in shape when really he is noting but weak from now being under fed and is carrying a ass load of internal fat on the inside even tho he looks good on the outside.

Let me tell you back in the day you knew who the real dog men was in the bulldogs because you go to their yards and all of the dogs not half but all of their dogs look like rails of steel .  The best way to keep a dog is about two pounds over his working weight in this heat and that will be noting but extra eletrolites in reserve so when he needs them he can call on them you dont want a dog at his bottom weight in this heat he will dehydrate real fast so it is all in tune with knowing a little bit about dog conditioning.

Best way like I said is never keep a fat dog ever .  Two pounds over his bottom weight and keep in real working shape.  There is no way to keep a dog in peak condtion hunting him just a couple times a week no way but you can manage it so that when he does go he dont fall out in the first couple hours of hunting .  This also inturn will help the dog cool himself off a lot faster a conditon dog will cool two three times faster than a fat dog are a out of shape dog .

 

[TexasHogDogs]

Another thing that factors into this is not all 45 lbs dogs systems are the same one my be a fast burning calories type of dog and the other may be a slow burning type of dog so you have to watch these dogs and feed the accordingly to how they are .  Every dog is different and a lot of them are the same .  Keeping your eye on them and you can tell who is what .

[Purebreedcolt]

Hum guess I am doing it wrong I have always kept a puppy almost fat till they are 7 8 months then start cutting them back.  I probably keep most of my dogs a hair too fat but like you said it depends on the dog.  Ok now I have another question why do you say that organ fat is harder to get rid of than other fat.  I have not opened up one dog but on deer in drought years there won't be much if any organ fat but in years of rain there will be seems they fluxuate relatively quickly.   I feel like I have common sense on most stuff but when it comes to the inter workings of animals I can't say I am the best.  I do agree conditioning is a big part of it.  Are you saying that internal/organ fat disappears slower than external fat?  Why is this.

[TexasHogDogs]

Are you saying that internal/organ fat disappears slower than external fat?


I dont know all the fancy terms of all of this I just know from experince and doing it myself and of knowing old time dog men that done it and taught me .
Yes a lot slower from what I have seen when we were conditioning dogs.  Its just harder to get rid of than the external fat and from my and our experince it is way harder on a dog.  The external fat is going to go first then the internal but the internal seems way way harder to deal with that external I guess partly because you cannot see it .  Thats why I never let my dogs get fat that way I never really have to deal with it and know for the most part they are clean.  My dogs are pretty heat resistent they will get warmed up but they cool themselves down really faster than a lot of dogs because of this very reason.  The puppy fat am sure is a lot eaiser to get rid of than a grown dog but I just never kept a really fat pup .  Nice and healthy but not fat .

[TexasHogDogs]

Also mine wear vest in this heat .  The two hunts yesterday and day before all my dogs have vests on and the one long run we were on they bayed for atleast a hour before we could get to them none were over heated are hot hot really.   From were they stuck the hog to were they actually stopped and bayed the hog was atleast a mile are more then they were there for atleast a hour before we ever got to them.  This is in 90 degree are more .  They were a little tired but not over heated and still we looked up and the Horn dog went on another mile long run and we bayed another hog caught him and Horn was still going had to go catch him got lucky at that .  We just decided to leave it was just to hot for us not my dogs.  LOL

[TexasHogDogs]

Also there is a difference between a dog being just tired from being out of shape and not worked much latley and a dog that is tired from being out of shape and having to much internal fat in him..

A few hunts with the dog that has not much are hardly no internal fat will be back in shape and kickin ass in a few hunts are less.

 but

A dog that looks in great shape on the outside but full of internal fat it will take months to get him anywere close to the shape the dog that has hardly no internal fat .

[Purebreedcolt]

Man like you said out of sight out of mind but it makes a lot of since because the organs do get a lot of blood flow. 

[bk]

Good post!  Makes you think a little bit more about your dogs!  I have noticed over the years, especially when it gets hot, that I can change my dog food and they seem to not get as hot as they were.  What I mean by that is, changing the protein and fat intake!  I pretty much feed a 26/18 year round until it starts getting hot, then cut them back to a 21/12 or 21/10.  It seems as though they don't get nearly as hot or burnt out as they did when I was feeding the 26/18! I still hunt them the same and they seem to recover the same.  May sound crazy, but this works with my dogs!  My thinking, which may not be right, is that cutting back onthe fat intake is what is helping them! Of course, I know the more they're hunted the better shape they're getting in, but it's seems to make a difference.  Idk, what do you think?

[bk]

Good post!  Makes you think a little bit more about your dogs!  I have noticed over the years, especially when it gets hot, that I can change my dog food and they seem to not get as hot as they were.  What I mean by that is, changing the protein and fat intake!  I pretty much feed a 26/18 year round until it starts getting hot, then cut them back to a 21/12 or 21/10.  It seems as though they don't get nearly as hot or burnt out as they did when I was feeding the 26/18! I still hunt them the same and they seem to recover the same.  May sound crazy, but this works with my dogs!  My thinking, which may not be right, is that cutting back onthe fat intake is what is helping them! Of course, I know the more they're hunted the better shape they're getting in, but it's seems to make a difference.  Idk, what do you think?

I meant seem to recover better!!