Leaving your non-hunting dog at home

[hunting_mom]

I have a malamute/wolf cross who is our darling family pet. He loves going for walks, camping and driving around town. I am hoping to get a hunting dog this spring/summer and I know I'll feel awful leaving him behind and taking my new buddy with me. I'm also worried it will bring his jealous side out.
I will take both out for romps in the bush, its easy to do here, the bush is right outside my door. I can hear the grouse whomping from my bedroom window. I just know it will break his heart every time I don't take him with us. I'm almost thinking of not getting a hunting dog until he's passed on. Who knows, maybe when I take them both for walks, I will find out that my first baby will be fine while hunting. He is not gun shy at all. I have gone grouse hunting with him before and he was fine, no help at all but not in the way.
BTW, he is a great arctic hare hunter, he can catch them all by himself and eat them all by himself too, he won't share!! LOL I think he has caught grouse himself before but thought the feathers were too much trouble. From what I hear, the grouse up here act differently than down south. They seem to be much more wary down south.

[ME]

One thing you can do to ease the anxiety when you leave the Wolfdog is give him something to do. I have a kong in which I place a pigs ear that have cut in to pieces that are slightly larger than the opening. The dog has to work to get them out. He will throw that thing around for hours until the pieces come out. He loves it... I give him this as I leave to go to work. Now the dog looks forward to me leaving cause he knows it's treat and toy time. If you do something like this then he will be distracted for a while and once he does stop playing with it he will just wait for you to return. Probably he will just sleep like he does when you aren't around. Being that far north how do you connect to the web.

And yes the grouse down here are much more spooky than up in Canada. I saw a show where the guy was hunting them with a bow. He would shoot and miss the bird would run 20 ft and he would go get his arrow and shoot at them again. I have seen dumb grouse down here also but maybe one in 50 is that dumb down here.

[hunting_mom]

Yes, the grouse up here do seem to be lacking brains but they ARE everywhere so whatever they're doing, its working. :roll: Chase, my wolfdog would prefer a moose leg but I ran out of those last October. I dropped my first moose last October, a very tasty spike fork. Chase's favourite sport for days was trying to get the marrow out. I split a couple for him and he was in heaven.

[hunting_mom]

I hope I'm doing this right.

[Joe C.]

I've heard of this new dog treat that is a plasctic ball that you fill with peanut butter and then freeze. They say it occupys the dog for hours. Don't know who makes it though, but you can probably find it online.

[AlbertaVizsla]

I have a Vizsla who's 2 and a lab that's 4 and incredibly gun shy. I can't ever take the lab with me when I'm out training the V. I always feel bad when I leave him behind and he always gives me that look with his big sad eyes... But it hasn't ever caused any jealousy or behavior problems. Everytime the Vizsla and I get home he's just as happy to see us.

[PastorAdam]

I just want to see a picture of the wolf dog!!!