BETTER WATER
hood lake. It’s the days where we
work in the soccer fields on 200-yard
long distance retrieves, or maybe
just look to exercise our dogs with-
out wanting to deal with a wet pup
when we can unintentionally get
them into trouble.
This happened to my Lab a couple
of years ago while I was on the road
and she was in the care of my wife
and young daughters. Luna (the
dog), had received plenty of exercise,
too much in fact, and not enough
water. I didn’t know this until I was
driving home and got the call that
her urine was extremely dark and my
wife was worried.
During an overnight emergency
vet stay we found out that Luna sim-
ply hadn’t had enough to drink, which
led to a fun conversation between me
and my bride. The worst part was that
Luna was near a lake multiple times
that day, but if she gets the chance
to retrieve a dummy or a ball, she’s
going to do that until she drops. She
isn’t going to take a break to drink and
cool off especially if she’s not forced
to do so.
DEHYDRATIONSIGNS
Whilewewerevisitingwiththevet-
erinarian who diagnosed Luna, he
gave usa quick rundownona test
we could doto see if ourdogwas
runninglowonH20.Hesaid,“Pinch
a bitofherlooseskinonhershoulder
bladeandthenreleaseit.If it seemstosnapbackintoplace, she’sgood.
If it slowlyreturns,sheneedsmore
water.”Healsoexplainedthata dry
nose,drymouthandgums,oreven
justa sunken-eyeballlookcanalltell
youthatyourdogis introuble.
Themainupshotofallofthisis to
considerhowwaterismadeavail-
abletoyour dogat all times.At
home,freshwaterandplentyofit,
is a must.Duringtraining,especially
whentempsarepeaking,forceyour
dogtotake breaksandmakecool
wateravailableatmultipletimesdur-
ingeachsession.Betteryet,planyour
trainingdrillsaroundthecoolerparts
ofthedayif atallfeasible,whilestill
offeringupplentytodrink.
Lastly,usecommonsense.While
weliketothinkofourduckdogs
aretough-as-nailswarriorswhocan
battlethroughanythingwithoutbat-
tinganeye,that’snotthecase.You
can’tignorebiologyandjustassume
thatsinceyourdogisa duckhunt-
ingmaniacthathe’llbeabletopower
througha two-hourtrainingsession
inthelate-summerheat.© Tony J. Petersonwildfowlmag.com September 2019 | WILDFOWL Magazine 21