How fit are your hounds?

[GutEmNH]

How often do you gies run your dogs to keep them in shape?

[Brady Davis]

Mine are only young pups but they get out everyday for both playtime and running. ABout the only days my hounds won't get out is if I'm out of town for a few days on business. I see too many hounds that get out once a week, put in a box and then dumped down a track....doesn't seem fair to the dogs.

[live to hunt]

About 10 miles per day during the week and 50 to 75 on weekends.

[Coyote]

During the summer I try to exercise my dogs 8-12 miles per day. This time of the year they get out for some longer runs but not as often. I like to let them recuperate after a hard couple days of hunting.

[BuckNAze]

FAT!

[Emily]

I have two fenced in the yard and they run and play with each other as much as they like. I road them about once a week--usually five miles, sometimes much more, and they hunt about once a week, depending on season, weather, etc. Mine are very fit and fast and have a huge amount of stamina.

[BuckNAze]

Havent got the snow this winter so they havent been ran much. When spring and summer come around mine are as fit as the next guys I think. They usually get ran about 3 times a week, a lot of times more but its only one race after work or something. During the weekend we'll have 2 or 3 races a day, depending on how long the races last, sometimes up to 8 miles then it can be a one race day. We have lots of bears though so that time of year is pretty fun!

[Mike Leonard]

Interesting. Back in the days when I use to chase bears I had a circuit up behind my place that I would run the hounds on in the evenings. It was nine miles and I would vary the speed and part of it had some gravel on it so it worked on their feet a bit. Back in those days Obe Cory and I corresponded a good bit and he too would road his dogs a pretty good ways to keep them in shape for Idaho bears. I think it helped these dogs stay fit and keep them mentally unwound during these times and they seemed to do pretty good.Nothing worse than cutting loose on that first hot bear rig of the season and end up with a bunch of foot sore or foot blown dogs at the end of the day and you are out of business for a few weeks at least.

Now days my dogs usually accompany me on horseback and even if not on the trail they have to cover a lot of ground so they stay pretty legged up and even at home I have a large area they can excercise in and stay unwound.

The biggest probelm with these endurance atheltes is the down season , and you can't just tie them up and let them grow old, you have to keep the nutrition, excercise and worming cycles even. I see a lot of folks when season is over they are pretty lax with the old pooches until next season rolls around. Course these are the folks that never do too good anyway but then again those dogs deserve better.

[GutEmNH]

Thank you Mike

[rzhounds]

I've been hunting none stop since September, and I bet my dogs have only had 15 days off total in 4 months, so I'd say mine are in pretty good shape, and I dang sure have some dirty tough footed ones right now. Hunting that many days will tell a guy how tough his dogs are, I do no that!!!! They might be trashy junk suckers, and not 8,9,and 10 years old like I heard from someone u have to have to catch game hahaha(I about fell over with laughter when I heard that) but they dang sure hold up in bad conditions and get stuff caught when I need them too. I do know one thing I'm having fun and really enjoying myself.

I hope everyone is having a great new year, and enjoying your time in the hills with your hounds, thats what it is all about..
RZ

[ZeluvaRIP69er]

My dad used to rode them everyday of the week! Sometimes he went for walks with them, othertimes we rode them, take them to a pond, have some fun (you can do that with hounds ya know) and rode them a bit more, then go home.

Anywhere from 6-12 miles everyday, takes us a few hours.

Right now though... My dogs are pleasently plump! LOL. remember, I do not feed them, a friend is... A lot of people feed their dogs way way WAY too much...

My dogs are happy, I am just looking forward to roding the cellulites right off them when I get a chance LOL! I would rather my dogs be fat then too skinny when I trust someone to feed them for me!

So if anyone sees pix of our dogs, please understand why they are so plump and rolly polly lol

[sourdough]

I keep mine in top shape even if not hunting. Having the edge off them and keeping them legged up is the most important thing a guy can do and one of the only things we have control over. There is no set distance a person should road their dogs I try to do 3-6 miles a day with them but if a person only has time for 1 mile they will stay in good shape as far as feet and nails. One thing I can say is if your dogs have long nails before you start to road them on a regular basis you should do some nail work before you begin to road them,it will help their feet. I believe that long nails places their feet in a position that causes them to step wrong and can cause injury to their pads. Nail care on dogs is as important as hoof care is to a horse you don't step on a bare footed horse and work the hell out of the with out doing foot care first.

sourdough

[ZeluvaRIP69er]

I keep mine in top shape even if not hunting. Having the edge off them and keeping them legged up is the most important thing a guy can do and one of the only things we have control over. There is no set distance a person should road their dogs I try to do 3-6 miles a day with them but if a person only has time for 1 mile they will stay in good shape as far as feet and nails. One thing I can say is if your dogs have long nails before you start to road them on a regular basis you should do some nail work before you begin to road them,it will help their feet. I believe that long nails places their feet in a position that causes them to step wrong and can cause injury to their pads. Nail care on dogs is as important as hoof care is to a horse you don't step on a bare footed horse and work the hell out of the with out doing foot care first.

sourdough

Good point on the nails Sour!

I read it can cause severe ankle problems in them...

You can always tell if a guy really hunts or rodes his dogs if he shows them to you and the have Wolverines claws stickin out there 4 feet lol. Or if they cut them at a gas station down the rode so it looked like they did something, most people can recognize freshly trimmed nails on dogs lol