All Day Hunters?

[ANTHONY KERR]

I run all year long hot or cold. Mine can run all day when they have to. I notice a little drop off if we hunt two or three days in a row. I seem to remember some of our best days we had great afternoons. When we go out of town to places with lots of rabbits we usually hunt till almost dark. Conformation has something to do with stamina also.
I need to work on my conformation my 12 pack abs make it tough on my legs and back. Cutting down on cold beer and fried food is right Greensprings. An all day hump through the briars and vines whips my tail now. I just love waking up with a calf cramp .

[flash]

10-4 on the leg cramps . But I have found a redneck cure for leg cramps . This spring I was umpiring a high school baseball game and it rained out . The school has an all weather track and they were still having their meet . I was watching the events and kept seeing the runners eating big dill pickles . I knew a couple of the boys so I asked why are you eating so many of those pickles ? He told me that it keeps them from getting leg cramps and that they even drink the juice sometimes . Try a few when you get home from a big adventure .

[ANTHONY KERR]

Thanks Flash, I will give it a try. After that last bout I would just about try anything.
Anthony

[mybeagles]

Sodium is what their after. Potassium is the other important factor and bananna's and rasins are excellent sources. All these are worthless if your not hydrated with enough water. Like my Commander in the military says at our end of week safety briefings, Beer is not water, Jack Daniels is not water, Gatoraide is not water, water is water. Get you a pack of water, banananna, raisins and dill pickle you will be all set.........

Diuretics like beer pull the water, and upset the sodium/potassium balance which causes cramps. Having a good supply available alows the body to put things back into balance.

[flash]

But those other beverages have some water in them and they are more fun .

[mybeagles]

How much poison do you have to put in a glass of water before the whole glass is poisoned?

[thornie]

Conditioning is a must for me. The more you hunt them and get them in shape, the better they get. Weather is a big factor, espically here in the last few days. I like to test my dogs on days that you think it's not going to be very good to run, but they seem to be able to get some up and run. I think my mind set on conditioning came from 22 yrs in the military,they run you from daylight til dark.

[Joeyman]

I hunted from 8am to 4:30 saturday. We take small 15 minute breaks here and there. that helps out. Dogs hunted strong the entire time

[Tim H]

Something I think is important and is often overlooked in conditioning is recovery time. How do they respond after stopping for a period of time, watered, fed a little and put back out into the field. When conditioning dogs, I like to take them all with me and rotate them in and out of the box for short rests after running for a few hours. How often have you driven to other hunting locations after a couple of hours and have the dog in the box for 15-20 minutes. I try to train for real situations so the dogs are comfortable with it when it happens and their bodies respond.

Most conditioning test are based not on how much you can do but how quickly your body recovers after doing it. This can give you a good feel for how well the dog is conditioned.

[flash]

Just finished cleaning rabbits from todays hunt . My old flea bag mutt put on another fine show today . We run from 8:30 - 4:00 ran 17 killed 12 . Since there was another 1" of snow this morning we only took 3 dogs they did an awesome job on the snow . The old dog was still wanting to hunt when we were ready to leave . He also done 6 retrieves for us today what a great hound it will be almost impossible to replace him if anything would ever happen to him .