Every hunter who goes out into the field with his dog should carry a first aid kit: both for himself and one for his dog. You never know when something will happen and being prepared is likely to decide whether the injury is taken care of or becomes a real issue. There are plenty of good first aid kits gun dogs you can buy.

Your dog is depending on you to care for him at home and out on the field. After all, this is your responsibility. In the event that your dog becomes hurt, will you be prepared to treat his wound with sanitary medical dressing? That’s the difference between being prepared and using an old shirt or rag, which can actually lead to deadly infections and make the injuries worse. It’s worth the couple extra dollars to have a first aid kit for dogs on hand.

Here are some good hunting dog supplies to look for in a good gun dogs first aid kit:

A First Aid Guide
The first aid guide will show you basic first aid for dogs for both small injuries (like wound treatment for scraps) and life-threatening injuries (like mouth-to-snout resuscitation). There should be clear instructions for the use of all items contained within the first aid kit, as well. To be best prepared for emergencies, you should read the first aid guide and learn the basics before emergencies happen. The keyword here is “emergencies” — first aid is not the replacement for regular veterinary visits.

Don’t Forget The Tweezers
Small and often forgotten, these little pincers are a Godsend when you have slivers to remove. Just like in humans, a splinter that enters a dog’s foot pad or another part of the body can bury itself in the skin and work its way deeper, eventually becoming an abscess. This abscess will become infected and could spread its infection throughout the body.

Good old Hydrogen Peroxide
Hydrogen Peroxide typically costs less than $1 per bottle and is a must have for any first aid kit (human or canine). It provides for sterilization, wound cleaning and can even help you deal with the area of a splinter before and after you are done removing it.

Remember Iodine?
Iodine is the perfect solution to use to help encourage healing on a wound. This is a bit stronger than peroxide and helps clean wound or cut more thoroughly before you dress the wound with a sterile bandage or pad.

Antibiotic Ointment
These are off-the-shelf ointments that can be used to help with bee or wasp stings, abrasions, or other small injuries.

Eyewash
A simple saline solution for washing out the eyes can make your dog’s life much easier and save his vision in some cases. When your dog gets something in his eye that he can’t get rid of on his own, use this to clean them. A quick squirt into the eye and nature will do the rest in most cases.

Trauma Pad
A trauma pad is crucial if your dog is seriously injured; it will help minimize bleeding and help keep the wound bound as well as providing assistance in transporting your dog to emergency help. When shopping for a trauma pad watch out that the sizing is correct for your dogs needs.

Gauze, Tape, and Scissors
Simple tools that, when used correctly, can greatly help your dog in times of injury. If your dog is cut, scratched, or similarly hurt, you’ll want to bandage, gauze over, then tape the wound so it is protected from infection. These three tools can do that job quickly.

Don’t ruin a great hunting dog first aid kit by not having a first aid kit for your dog! Not having one is irresponsible and dangerous, so make sure you have a nice, complete kit for your dog at all times, especially when you’re out on the field. Getting an extra one for home or other use is also a great idea.

Some believe that an electronic collar is not safe for their dogs and in fact, believe they are inhumane. Before you make that decision you should do your homework and you’ll quickly discover that they are not only effective, but they are safe and a perfectly humane tool for training your dog. One of the most important considerations is choosing the electronic collar that works best for you and for your dog. We are putting together some brief reviews that we hope will help you make a decision on which of these popular models is the best choice for you and for your dog.

Containment Systems (“Invisible Fence”)
There are two types of these perimeter-sensing collars for teaching your dog the boundaries of your yard: electric and wireless. Electric systems work with a buried line that you install to establish the perimeter of your yard. PetSafe is a good model for this application with an easy-to-use setup for both the fence and the collar receiver. PetSafe comes just about right to fit any standard-sized yard. To fit a larger area than PetSafe can handle, we recommend Innotek’s containment system.

Innotek offers the ability to expand the area that your dog can be free in up to twenty five acres and also has the ability to utilize multiple receiver collars – if you have more than one dog then this might be the system that is most effective for you. PetSafe and Innotek are both good systems if you’ve decided a hidden wire system is the route you wish to pursue.

PetSafe also makes a wireless fence that works almost like the wired system, but without the wire, and is much more advanced. It works along with a transmitter around the middle of the area you want to confine. Signals are sent to the transmitter within a radius that you can set. It’s easy to set up and is extremely versatile and portable.

BARK COLLARS
These collars are popular for dog owners who have pets that like to make a lot of noise. The most popular and widely-respected brand is the Innotek collar. It’s reasonably priced and very advanced, having sophisticated sensors to tell if it’s your dog barking or another dog. In addition, the collar can intelligently increase the intensity of the static charge to curtail continual barking. When the dog stops barking, the collar stops correcting the behavior and resets to its original setting. These collars are totally waterproof and very lightweight, suitable for any dog and almost any climate.

BEEPER COLLARS
This high tech safety device offered by Dogtra can be set to notify you if your dog goes out of your yard. This collar emits a beep that allows you to quickly and easily find your dog. The design offers a variety of settings that are geared to work up to one mile away and includes features that are even helpful to hunting dog users.

DOG TRAINING COLLARS
These are popular field training devices, whether you’re fielding, hunting, or just out in the big open spaces. The collars from TriTronics are the best, offering many system options for optimum training of your dog outdoors. They boast up to a mile range for many models and stimulation levels with twenty settings. They are waterproof and lightweight with long-life batteries for maximum use per charge and longevity. There are a lot of useful accessories as well, including holsters for the transmitter, field chargers for collar and battery packs, and even dummy collars so your dog won’t learn to only respond when the collar is in use. A comparable, less expensive, and shorter-options version of this training collar is available from SportDog as well, boasting very long ranges.

Discuss your electronic training needs with your veterinarian and your trainer and make sure that you ask for their advice. A good electronic training collar is one that is suitable for your dogs individual needs.

Dogs age at approximately 7x the rate humans do. So it’s not surprising that your dog should have a physical examination at least every seven “dog years”–that’s every year in human terms. And as your pet gets middle-aged–that’s over 40 in people years or over 6 in dog years–physicals are recommended twice a year.

“Not only do dogs get older faster than people do, but their ailments progress more quickly, too,” according to veterinary doctors.

A once-a-year physical gives your dog doctor a chance to sit down and chat with your dog about what’s changing in his/her life. More importantly, yearly physicals let your pet’s veterinarian establish what is normal in your dog, so he or she will know when something is abnormal.

A yearly physical is good preventive medicine. According to the veterinaians, “Finding and treating diseases in the early stages gives your pet a much better prognosis than discovering a full grown disease,”. Your veterinarian may observe changes in your pet that you haven’t noticed.

During the physical examination, your veterinarian will look for systemic abnormalities. During physicals the veterinarian will move from the front to the back of your dog observing any abnormalities, starting with the eyes, ears, nose, and throat and moving to the lungs, heart, and gastrointestinal tract. Always checking for new lumps or bumps as he/she moves along.”

Heartworm tests should also be done at the time of the annual physical. Heartworm is a serious disease, common everywhere mosquitoes live. The physical exam is a good time to keep up to date on vaccines. Our veterinarian also suggests checking whether your pet has worms or other parasites once a year. A simple fecal test can determine whether your de-worming protocol is working.

Between annual examinations, be on the lookout for signs that your pet is having trouble: not eating, changes in weight, vomiting, coughing, sneezing, elimination problems, or other changes in habits. Any of these may indicate the need for an extra visit to your veterinarian.

If your dog is healthy, you will find that he/she becomes more active.Engaging your healthy dog in activities is a sure way to keep him happy and healthy. The dog collars you have packed away will once again become useful, once your dog feel better.

It is very vital to take care of your Dog health in order to keep your dog healthier and happier.

A yearly physical is good preventive medicine. According to the veterinaians, “Finding and treating diseases in the early stages gives your pet a much better prognosis than discovering a full grown disease,”. Your veterinarian may observe changes in your pet that you haven’t noticed.

Also learn how to house training dogs.

Various contentions have been put forward in the dog world by some, (eg those against mixed breeds), that ‘hybrid vigor’ is allegedly not possible (for example) when breeding labadoodles (ie mixed breeding of Labradors and Poodles) as it is alleged that hybrid vigor is only possible with mixed breeding of unrelated animals (eg horse and donkey). However, that it not correct.

For example, see http://www.ermanz.govt.nz/resources/publications/pdfs/ER-IS-03-01.pdf:

“What is a hybrid?

A hybrid is an organism resulting from a cross between genetically different parents. Hybrids can arise from crosses between closely related species (interspecific hybrids) or by crosses between different types (subspecies, varieties, cultivars) within a species (intraspecific hybrids).

Hybridisation occurs naturally, but it is also widely used in selective breeding programmes for both plants and animals. The mule is an interspecific hybrid between the horse and the donkey, bred to combine some of the favourable characteristics of each parent. Intraspecific hybrids often show ‘hybrid vigour’ (heterosis), growing more vigorously and yielding more than in-bredlines.”

Hence, laberdoodles are ‘intraspecific hybrids’ (ie are within species breeding) and do show hybrid vigor.

Also, see http://www.country-wide.co.nz/article/449.html:

Another important but often forgotten principle is what happens when you interbreed the first cross (F1) progeny. In essence if you breed (F1) sires and dams together, there will be less hybrid vigour in the progeny. Like wise hybrid vigour also drops if you breed back to either of the parent breeds.

Our Labordoodle puppies are F1 generation (ie first cross between Labrador & Poodle), maximising hybrid vigor (or heterosis), and minimising inbreeding depression, etc. And have purebred parents with champion bloodlines/pedigrees.

The F1 (ie first generation) of Labradoodle puppies have more hybrid vigor than the second or so generation, are less likely to be more variable then some other generations, and also have the least inbreeding depression.

Another interesting scientific point to note about our F1 Labradoodles is that research has shown that these have increased longevity or rates of survival (eg research has shown up to 4 years longer), due to the absence of inbreeding (such as that occurring in purebred dogs). And the same research has shown that the higher the rate of inbreeding (eg in purebreds), the lower or shorter the longevity or survival rates. This relates to the term known as ‘inbreeding depression’, and which is
described in more detail at inbreeding depression and inbreeding depression.

And this may be due to the benefits from hybrid vigour, especially compared to the negative effects known as ‘inbreeding depression’ present in purebreds.

Unlike some breeders, we can guarantee the genetics of the puppies are solely Labrador/Poodle, as the parents of our Labradoodle puppies are purebred, and with pedigree papers. And this also ensures that they are definitely F1 puppies.

The term ‘hybrid vigor’ is used in various fields, such as breeding livestock, rabbits, aquaculture, plants, cats, dogs, etc.

And rather than just us giving you our opinion etc re hybrid vigor, we thought you may like to read information from other sources. So that you can make an informed choice or decision.

So, below are some relevant extracts re hybrid vigor, and links to their sources:

From MSN encarta online:

‘hy-brid vig-or

improved traits resulting from crossbreeding: the increased growth, disease resistance, or fertility seen in hybrid species.’

From Encylopedia Brittanica online:

‘Increase in such characteristics as size, growth rate, fertility, and yield of a hybrid organism over those of its parents.’

‘Plant and animal breeders exploit heterosis by mating two different purebred lines that have desirable traits. The first-generation offspring generally show, in greater measure, the desired characteristics of both parents. Since this vigour may decrease if the hybrids are actually mated together, the parental lines must be maintained and crossed for each new crop or group desired.’

From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

‘heterosis

the marked vigor or capacity for growth often exhibited by crossbred animals or plants — called also hybrid vigor’

From report by CSIRO:

“The benefits of hybrid vigor only appear in crossbred animals that have parents of completely different breeds.”

From a transcript of the Senate:

“veterinarians recognize the concept of ‘hybrid vigor,’ especially in first generation hybrids”

From United States Department of Agriculture, University of Arkansas, and County Governments Cooperating:

“The highest level of hybrid vigor is obtained from F1’s, the first cross of unrelated populations.”

“Hybrid Vigor - An increase in the performance of crossbred animals over that of purebreds, also known as heterosis.”

So, there should be little (if any) doubt that the first generation (ie F1) Labradoodles have the maximum hybrid vigor and the least inbreeding depression compared to other generations etc.

P.S. For the house train a dog tips please watch this video.