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How do you know when it is too cold to hunt with a dog? I have a Black lab that goes on every hunt with me but i am kinda concerned about taking her in the morning. how do you know when it is too cold to take her. She has a vest that she wears and she wont be standing in water. there is a spot of dry land for her to get on

My dog is going to hunt with me this morning!

Should be fine but that also depends on the dog...some dogs have more stam/drive than others .....know what ya dog can handle or take it and find out.....I have a Yellow beotch that can handle just bout anything but have not hunted her this yr cause she cut a foot ...will be going soon though...but dont always take her depends on the hunt ...personally dont like taking her when iced over...ice will cut and she has so much drive nothing slows her down when it comes to plowing through stuff....like i said know ya dog

Mine will hunt happy as a clam with the temps in the teens, assuming that there is not an ice problem. Keep them out of the water, and out of the wind if possible.

She'll be fine.

watch the tail, if it quits moving and starts to just hang, get the he!! outta there the dog is cold.

mine hunted last year at its worst and she had a blast

just watch'm, when they getting cold you'll know, be prepared to set'm in front of a heater, or get'm some warm water to drink.

take em. they can take it alot better than you can. we never hesitated taking ours in single digits when we hunted Nebraska and SD.

when they shake and you hear icicles rattlin it is time to put them in front of the fire place and look back on what a great day you shared..if they are having fun they will adjust.. high protein and fiber...

judge jb

When it dips down in the teens I take a propane heater that just screws onto a 25 lb tank, once my dog gets wet I cut it on low and put it near her, she is older though when she was young I just hunted the $#!+ outta her she didn't have time to get cold. Different place less ducks now.

I don't know how cold is too cold, but it has never been too cold in MS to take a dog. You planning on going up north or something?

The most important thing about conditioning your dog for the cold is to make sure you're feeding a quality feed with high protein and fat content. We witnessed a dog that got hypothermic and barley made it to the vet.......dog was way too thin to start with and almost didn't make it.

We hunted 'BJ' in 10 degree weather for 3 days and she didn't even shiver - had her dog vest on and we both have 1"-thick neoprene pads (black sheet pipe insulation) in the bottom of our ground blinds.

It makes a big difference if they're in water (and wind) or not. Last Winter during the freeze-up in Mississippi, we kept a propane heater and a towel to dry her off with when she first got back in the boat - otherwise, she'd stick to the sides.

Don't take a young dog in ice - they have to be exposed to it like any other training drill or they can get in trouble real quick.