# Dog Hunting Too Hard?



## twinkielk15 (Jan 17, 2011)

A friend and I hunt chukar together quite frequently with our dogs. I have a Brittany and he has a German Shorthair. Both dogs hunt very well but have undeniably different styles. My Britt is slow and methodical and a little more timid while his Shorthair is "balls to the wall" out of the gate. We were talking after a hunt yesterday where she had considerable damage to her paws with both front pads cut badly. Both dogs were on the same terrain and hunted the same amount of time. She covered more ground and obviously put more strain on her feet because of how quickly she moves. My question is whether anyone else has had this experience and if so, is there a way to make her slow down and not injure herself? My Britt was a little tender in the feet when we were done but nothing serious whereas she's laid up for a week or better. Any ideas?


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

The best way to toughen a dogs feet is to hunt a lot but sometimes it just wont matter--a hard charging dog is going to blow pads. You can use boots or some miracle ointment but those are stop gaps. Some dogs have harder pads than others but conditioning is a large part of it. I think dark colored pads are tougher.

I would never want to take the run out of a chukar dog. A dog that covers more ground will find more birds. It's hard to find a true big runnin dog so I would say your friend is lucky in that regard--just needs more time conditioning, meaning hunting. I battle torn pads all season, they are usually torn up and sore Sunday night and by the time Saturday comes around they are good enough to hunt. 

Just curious, but between your brit and his shorthair, what dog finds the most birds?


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## twinkielk15 (Jan 17, 2011)

Thanks for the advice. They are about equal but she tends to flush more while my Britt is probably the better pointer. I would say that mine finds slightly more but he's also spent more time on chukar than she has. She's a hell of a pheasant dog, though.


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