Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / RELOADED EP251 | Traveling With Your Retriever w/ Wildrose Kennels

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RELOADED EP251 | Traveling With Your Retriever w/ Wildrose Kennels · Ducks Unlimited Podcast

• 0:03
  VO: Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, Reloaded. We bring you the best of our past episodes. Whether you're a seasoned waterfowler or curious about conservation, this series is for you. Over the years, we've had incredible guests and discussions about everything from wetland conservation to the latest waterfowl research and hunting strategies. In Reloaded, we're revisiting those conversations to keep the passion alive and the mission strong.
• 0:28
  So sit back, relax, and enjoy this reload.
• 0:35
  Chris Jennings: Joining me today is owner and operator of Wild Rose Kennels, Mike Stewart. Mike, welcome back to the show.
• 0:41
  Mike Stewart: Great to be here, Chris. Thanks for having me.
• 0:43
  Chris Jennings: And I asked Mike to join me on the show today to talk about one thing that I really enjoy doing. I know I know Mike does as well is traveling. I enjoy traveling. I also enjoy traveling with my retriever. And I know that Mike, throughout decades of of training and and owning Wild Rose, has traveled all over the world pretty much and has some really great tips for people to get their dogs to and from places safely in a variety of different ways and a variety of tips.
• 1:13
  And and and, Mike, I kinda wanted you to provide a quick little introduction. We had talked offline about you travel around in your Earth Roamer, and some people have, you know, RVs and campers and trailers and stuff. And you guys, you know, can travel around in a small little group, but everyone has their dogs, and there's different things that that you guys all do. And kind of explain that process of how and why you're traveling so much with your retrievers.
• 1:39
  Mike Stewart: I'll be glad to do that. It's one of my favorite things to do is travel my with my dog, and we call them destination dogs or overlanding with gun dogs, whatever tag you wanna put on them. And I thought it's so important. When I wrote my book years ago, I did a chapter on the destination gun dog, on how to travel with your dog. And it's it's become so popular, especially in the last few years.
• 2:02
  I started in 02/2012. It was actually the Ducks and Laminate Convention in Nashville. I got really interested out going out to an RV place, and I got bought a truck camper when I was at the convention and loaded it on the back of the truck, and I started traveling to all my gun dog trips and my shows I was doing. It was just so convenient to have all my gear there and a trailer with the dogs in the back and the guns properly stored, and you don't have to unload to go into a hotel. And, you know, think about how the little sleep I would get worried about the dogs and the guns and the quick gear out on the trucks sitting in a parking lot that I was very relieved to have my own rig traveling across the country.
• 2:40
  And then that migrated into a bigger rig, which I have now. It's a five fifty Ford self contained. There's 90 gallons of diesel, 90 gallons of water, solar powered, and basically stay off off grid for as long as fifteen days. So it's basically a a great hunting mobile hunting. People say, what is that?
• 2:59
  I said, it's a mobile hunting lodge. It's got a four wheel drive. All the rigs I've had have had four wheel drive. It just makes a great way to travel around with the dogs. And by the way, the dogs absolutely love it.
• 3:09
  They got their own little spot too.
• 3:10
  Chris Jennings: Yeah. And that's, you know, that's one thing that that I've, you know, kind of struggled with my dog now. She's she's much older. I mean, she doesn't really even do much anymore, but she you know, we had to kinda introduce her to my RV and, you know, introducing her to where she's going to lay and where she's going to sit. And for it's an older dog, so it's a little bit of a more of a process.
• 3:30
  But kind of kind of explain how you transport your dogs. And then also, you know, I know you have trailers and things like that. And and what are some of the best and safest ways to transport retrievers?
• 3:40
  Mike Stewart: Okay. We'll talk about those in sort of different dimensions. Let's start with the RV. My in my case, I was I was so into it that when I had the the Earthwormer's custom built, they build it any way you want. It has no back seat.
• 3:52
  I built a dog platform with a gun slip underneath the dogs, and then you can slide two crates in or two dog beds in at night. They can sleep sleep right behind you. They can ride right behind you with you're in the coal power on the front seats. It's it's a walk through, goes through the back. Some people put their crates in the back.
• 4:12
  We have one of our clients has a big class a. They took the kid kid bumps and put crates in them, and they anchor them down, they glow the dogs in there. Some people use toy haulers, gooseneck, bumper hitch trailers is the toy that carries, like, motorcycles and four wheelers in the back. Well, they couldn't work the whole back into dog hills. They have an indoor space full of air conditioning, heated.
• 4:37
  I mean, that's that's the luxury travel for any kind of. So you can convert these things in so many ways to carry them. One of our guys down here that does a a service dog, he took a Mercedes Sprinter and put two crates in the back and a little bulk above it of them so he can sleep, and it's totally I got solar panels on it to power all his resources when he stops. Nice little diesel engine. Think it's about 18 miles a gallon.
• 5:02
  Four wheel drive can go anywhere. So, you know, that's one dimension. But what about the other guy that has the pickup? When I travel in my truck, the enemy there is cold and heat. Not so much cold, but it drives me crazy for summer travel when we have to pull out places in Colorado.
• 5:19
  One that we're struggling with right now is the DU, expo event coming up in in June. We're gonna have eight to 10 dogs out there, and temperatures in travel time will be during the day would be a 100 degrees. How do you travel with that heat? And do not, on any circumstances, leave a dog locked in a vehicle. Even if you think I got the air conditioning engine running, what if a car truck goes dead?
• 5:42
  They don't last very long. It will it was certainly the kill your dog. Heat would build up so fast in auto, and I I just gotta throw a warning out to that. So you have to think about really the safety of the dog when you're traveling in a pickup or a van. It's best to put them inside a crate and be very mindful of the heat.
• 6:01
  Chris Jennings: Even with that, you've kind of mentioned, kind of alluded to, you know, just your average retriever owner with a pickup truck. You know, you've talked a lot about, you know, dogs injuring themselves getting in and out of the back of a truck. So if you've got your dog in a crate in the back, what's your recommendation for getting him in and out? Are you picking that dog up every time?
• 6:20
  Mike Stewart: Most of the time, especially a younger dog and an older dog, like, Deke doesn't jump anymore. He used to jump in and out of the truck. But some of our trucks are so far off the ground now that when they bail out, there's a lot of impact in the joints when they're landing on a asphalt. So you gotta be very careful with that. They bet make commercial ramps where they can go up and down.
• 6:40
  But a young puppy less than 15 of age, I do not like to see them jumping in and out of vehicles and much older dogs, they don't like to see that either. So if you choose to do it when the dogs are younger, you have to be very careful with that because the impact on those joints can cause you some severe problems.
• 6:56
  Chris Jennings: You know, one thing that that we've talked about a lot in past shows is feeding. When you're on the road, you know, when you're traveling, I mean, even for humans, your feeding schedule gets jacked up. Next thing you know, you're stocked at McDonald's, and you don't wanna eat at McDonald's. Yeah. But for, you know, a dog, it can get that same way, you know, the tactics of travel.
• 7:18
  What are you how do you maintain that consistency with feeding, and and how do you do that when you're traveling with your dog?
• 7:24
  Mike Stewart: Well, that's a really good question because we have an entire process. About two weeks before we begin our trips, we're gonna start feeding on the exact schedule that I would be likely stopping in the evening. Because dogs are all about routine. I don't know about your dog, but Dee can tell time. I've never seen a thing.
• 7:42
  Hey. You hear me traveling along, and at 02:30 when he normally eats, he likes to eat at 03:00. Boop. There's a head pops up. He knows exactly what time it is.
• 7:51
  So if I'm gonna stop at five, I've got to get him on a pre schedule. I want him popping up at 03:00, riding down the road, and we got two more hours of travel. Right? He's back to staring at me in the rearview mirror. So I'm gonna get them on a schedule.
• 8:04
  The second thing I'm gonna do is start floating the food. Dogs don't take in enough water. And when they're traveling, sometimes they're stressed, and they just don't drink enough water. So float the food, meaning you put a small amount of water in with the fluid. Don't overflood the whole pan.
• 8:18
  Put enough water in it, especially when you're hunting. They just we're gonna really get the dog on the the feeding schedule and the watering schedule with a routine. Karina makes a great product called FloraFlora. You can see it on the website. It's a probiotic.
• 8:35
  It feels it's a it just stabilizes the digestive system really well. If you'll start that about two weeks, sprinkling it on the feet, it's a little packet. And through the whole trip, use that, you really stabilize that dog's gut. That helps a lot of regularity. So we're gonna start with routine on a schedule.
• 8:54
  And people wanna know, should I stop? About the time you need to stop, three to four hours, is about the time the average dog needs to get out and relieve themselves. Be careful where you stop. Roadside, the dog can dart out in an instant before you actually know what's going on. So be careful that you've got the dog.
• 9:12
  A lot of places don't even want a off lead. Have you ever accustomed to your dog got your dog acclimated to relieving themselves on a lead? A lot of them won't do it. You gotta practice that before you go. And another little tip, a lot of times when we travel across country, we'll put, like, an orange collar on the dog with their telephone number in case we're we're auto wrecked.
• 9:33
  At least people will know who to contact. If the dog got out accidentally, which is how the door came open, the dog got out, you drove off from a, like, a service station, would someone know how to contact you? And there people would know that that is a is not a stray dog. It is somebody's dog. So that's a great great precautionary tip to put in there.
• 9:54
  Chris Jennings: Now here's a question for you. You know, I see a lot of people at truck stops or at, you know, rest areas wherever they're stopping, and they've got that bumper out and they're throwing things for the you know, but, obviously, it's in a safer area. There's not traffic or anything. But do you recommend, you know, doing some training in between travel if if you have the opportunity?
• 10:14
  Mike Stewart: Absolutely. I wouldn't use the truck stop. There's lots of things that go on at truck stops, including chicken bones that are thrown out, diesel fuel on the ground, antifreeze, the dogs will lap up and just, you know, it's deadly to a dog. There's too much stuff around there. I don't even like to use truck stops in places like that to air the dog.
• 10:32
  But traveling down the road, there's all kinds of nice places you could pull over to the side of the road and work your dog. And that's a really good thing if you're traveling back from a hunt. Say you're in the Delta and see a nice rice field out there. There's nothing no problem pulling over the side the road, walk down the little side road, get them off the main highway, pitch you out a couple of bumpers out there. I have no real problem with that.
• 10:51
  Just have to be careful about local traffic, and you have to be careful about garbage, if you will, left in the, surrounding areas. People you know, dogs jump off into it and just make a mess. It can be dang and even dangerous.
• 11:06
  Chris Jennings: Absolutely. Yeah. You wanna be careful. Well, I said truck stops, but definitely avoid the truck stops. That was a bad idea.
• 11:18
  VO: Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by Purina Pro Plan and Bird Dog Whiskey after these messages.
• 11:35
  Chris Jennings: One of the other things that we talk about with a lot of people is is the different gear that, you know and and you may keep it all consistent with the same things, but, know, there's tons of different products out there for different traveling assistance or whether it's different types of crates or anything like this. Is there anything you recommend for someone like, even if it's just a crate pad for a dog that's riding in the back of the truck in a crate, are those some of the things that you recommend to people who are taking some longer trips?
• 12:01
  Mike Stewart: Yeah. I I work it through my list of mistakes. Okay? So I didn't do. One is a pad.
• 12:07
  You know, that's the rough ride down the road. We use we use pads that insert even in our trailers to give some cushioning. I don't really like putting pads like foam or anything in there like that that can get soiled and wet, but a rubber type pad works well because, you know, they get mold and mildew and everything else. And second thing is take the dog's meds. Take plenty of meds and take too much dog food.
• 12:32
  If you're gonna be gone four days, take six days. You never know when you're break down on a truck. Dog's gonna have a problem. You're gonna get stuck in traffic or whatever it may be. You need to have enough food to eat.
• 12:43
  Way more food than you actually think you need to take with you. Because you don't really wanna switch that dog food in the middle of a trip. And that can really destabilize the gut. Next thing I wanna do is take local water. I'll take a couple of jugs of my own water just so I don't switch the water.
• 12:59
  So they're used to my water. I don't wanna use some well water at a campsite or something off the side of the road, at a truck stop or an RV I mean, a roadside park. You never know where that water's coming from. Alright? It's got any contaminants in it or not, so I worry about that.
• 13:16
  We also wanted to make sure we have a fully stocked first aid kit. Your vet can help you with that. I have one for sale at uklabs.com, and you click on a Ryder's Trading Company, have a basic little kit there that you can add some things with, with things like aspirin, Rimadyl, things to solve diarrhea, such as pep liquid Pepto Bismol. The peeled Pepto Bismol, it's a little more convenient, but it's slow acting. I use the liquid liquid Pepto Bismol if we have a little diarrhea, and I get that frequently when we start traveling dogs to get a little upset.
• 13:52
  When we get into crates, have a good crash proof crate. Make sure you've got a cover. You never know when you get in bad weather. You'd think it's pretty hot. I don't need it, but then the next thing you know, you're in a storm.
• 14:03
  And always anchor that crate, especially if it's in the back of the truck. Anchor it very, very securely in case you hit something. That crate does not become a flying object. And we all like to have our dogs riding behind us in the the back seat. If you have an impact, head on impact or rear end impact, that dog's become a become going to become a projectile.
• 14:25
  So you need to make sure that dog is anchored in something safe when you're traveling across
• 14:29
  Chris Jennings: There's a million different ways to travel, you know, on land, obviously, whether it's the RV or the truck or just the back of the truck, back of the pickup. But, you know, let's talk about air travel. You know, that's something that, you know, not a whole lot of people do, but I do know I do know some guys that fly their dog around to hunt. What are some recommendations you have for people who who may call you and say, hey. I'm gonna go on a hunt in, you know, Texas.
• 14:54
  I'm gonna fly there. You know, I wanna take my dog. What do I need to be aware of?
• 14:59
  Mike Stewart: Well, let's talk private and commercial.
• 15:01
  Chris Jennings: I would say more than likely commercial in this instance.
• 15:04
  Mike Stewart: Number one is you're gonna have to have a health certificate. Make most airlines are gonna require a health certificate that is no more than five days old before you show up with the airline. You need a flight certified crate. A lot of the crates you're running around with that are they're popular these days, they're not flight certified. So you have to check with the airline and make sure you have a flight flight certified crate.
• 15:24
  Most of the time, sell them, but they're rather expensive when you go to the airlines to do it. Prebook your flight, make sure that I really have to watch about now, there's so many connecting flights. When you're booking your flight, we'll look at the connections. How long are they gonna be pulled off that plane? How many connections you have?
• 15:44
  The more connections, the more chance you're losing your dog. And, generally, the major air carriers that I've worked with are very they're they're more worried about losing a dog. They get worse publicity of losing a dog than they do losing you. So they they're they're pretty meticulous about the dogs. I've only had a couple and we import a lot of dogs from The UK.
• 16:04
  I've only had a a couple of problems that the dogs got to the wrong location. Sometimes they would come to Memphis and end up in Philadelphia, but that's very, very rare. So generally, they they do the air carriers do a good job. Some of them even pick the dogs up from you at at cargo not cargo, at at baggage, and they carry the dog all the way through for you. You don't generally ship the dog cargo as you're flying with them.
• 16:29
  You're gonna ship them baggage, and you gotta make sure your airline does that. So some of the airplanes that fly now don't have that much baggage to pull. So some of it, you well, you may not be able to get to some of the destinations you wanna go to, such as in Canada and some of the smaller airports out West. They just don't have the capacity to carry the the dogs in in cargo. So you have to you have to prebook those things.
• 16:56
  Chris Jennings: Now And you wanna be careful flying in somewhere that's really cold too. I mean, I know I've had conversations about this with people, you know, flying into Canada. You know, you you have to be careful about, you know, where that dog is gonna be at on the plane when it's loaded on the plane because it can get very cold.
• 17:13
  Mike Stewart: Two ways to look at it. The heat will get you that happened to me in the South one time. I was out on the job on a show, and it it was too hot to fly above 85 degrees. They won't let you dog on the plane. It also had me on DUTV Way a long time ago with flew to Canada with Drake, the the former Ducks Unlimited, Miles Scott.
• 17:33
  And it was a nice going up there coming back. It was too cold, and I had to call a clown to come get him. And I they said, you'll lose your ticket. We won't refund your ticket. You gotta go, but the dog can't go.
• 17:44
  So what do you do then? Luckily, I had a client look close by. I said, come get the dog. We booked him later and sent him back. So you better have a backup plan if you're flying in the wintertime or summertime with the dog.
• 17:55
  Chris Jennings: I've heard of people trying to get, like, any calming things that people would give their dog, you know, something to get the dog kinda calmed down as it's in transit during the flight. Do you use any of that, or do you recommend anything like that?
• 18:07
  Mike Stewart: No. And if you tell the airlines you did, they won't fly.
• 18:10
  Chris Jennings: That's right. That's what I was gonna say. I wanted you to say that, but I I wasn't quite sure. But, you know, I've heard of people talking about doing that, and I know it's probably not a very good idea.
• 18:20
  Mike Stewart: And Well, the idea that that I would do is I wouldn't feed the dog that morning of the flight. You know, having going in. I'll feed him the night before. I would have a bag of food taped at the top of the crate and a bottle of water in case they get they do have a layover, get stranded, the aircraft won't go. They have some food for the dog.
• 18:37
  They have some water for the dog. I would have taped on top with feeding instructions. I would have, of course, my telephone number would be there, you know, call for this. And I would even have my vet's telephone number on the on the outside of that crate in case of emergency call this vet. I would have things like that.
• 18:54
  I would never fly a dog that was not microchipped. So you you identify your dog. How do you know it's your dog? You think the dog's separated. So that's my dog.
• 19:02
  You see, we'll prove it. Well, your microchip will prove it. And sometimes the dogs that take them out of the crates, handle them overnight, like, especially if you're flying on the longer flights, and then put them back in the crate. What if they switch them? And you left with the lab and you got a mile long when you open the gate the next morning.
• 19:20
  Chris Jennings: That
• 19:21
  Mike Stewart: that has actually happened to me coming from England. They switched the dogs in the crate. And when I got them, I didn't know them. We had the wrong dog for a while, and we actually figured it out. So I got two black males.
• 19:34
  They were not I bought the dogs. They were shipped in, but they were taken out overnighted and put back in the crate, but they switched. Bimbo wasn't Bimbo. Yeah. That that can actually happen.
• 19:47
  So all that stuff, all these little things you need to think about is what ifs. Telephone numbers, extra food, extra water, medicate instructions for medication to to be taped outside of your crate. Flying private, a lot of our clients do that. And we there's a lot of destinations you can book small planes and fly to, which is very handy. And people worry about the dogs being afraid.
• 20:11
  I've I've never seen the one bird dog in my time that was afraid to fly. Once you get them acclimated on the plane off and on, getting off and on the plane to get them on there, The floors are heated on small planes. They'll lay down and go to sleep on the planes. Or just put them in a crate in the back, just like a small crate, slide them in, they're fine. Don't worry about it.
• 20:30
  Chris Jennings: I I personally don't hang out with a lot of people that fly around on private planes, but those sound it sounds like I I can imagine most dogs are probably not too concerned just like most people would probably be, you know, a a pretty easy transition into, you know, a small private plane like that.
• 20:44
  Mike Stewart: The private planes that you run into now are some of the destinations that you go to. Like, if you're in Alaska, you gotta put them on a float plane like a like an otter or something like that to fly to the to to the lodge. When we fly our group to The Bahamas, we fly them on Ospreys and small or very loud prop planes. You know, it's only a two hour flight out of The United States into The Bahamas for fly fishing, but we take the dogs with us. So you you may not own your own airstream or Gulfstream, but but you may get into a situation where you go to our destination and they have to fly you to the next step step.
• 21:22
  So plat we we try to get our dogs acclimated to a flight for in our adventure dog workshops. We have somebody come in on an airplane and take them up, fly them around, land again just like touch and goats.
• 21:34
  Chris Jennings: Yeah. It's all just introductions. You know? It's all just like introduction to a duck boat would probably be very similar to introducing to, you know, a small plane like that. So it's all about that process.
• 21:46
  Now can you think of anything else, you know, that that people who are traveling, you know, and may just be traveling from the duck blind back home, that people should remember when they are traveling with their retriever?
• 21:58
  Mike Stewart: You need to think about if you're traveling, let's say, a duck blind and you're taking them back home, putting them in a crate or in the summertime, you're taking them from the dove field. Again, I'm gonna go back back to the the two extremes, the heat. Heat exhaustion early in the early season teal, upland in North Dakota. The fields is very, very dangerous, far more than cold, hypothermia, cold. You've gotta really watch the heat.
• 22:24
  So you got a dog that's sort of overheated and you throw him in the truck, put him in the back of the truck, you he could well die. You've gotta really keep that temperature lower on those dogs. And then in the cold, when they come back out of the duck blind, snatch that water vest off them, dry them off really good, and put them in a really good insulated crate that you know, the crate covers all what's insulated, but to keep them dry. I've seen people going down the road from the duck blind and the crate wide open, and it just bothers me a lot of how cold that dog is in the back.
• 22:54
  Chris Jennings: Oh, yeah. I mean, that can that can cause some some pretty severe damage to joints and things like that when you get that cold too, can it?
• 23:00
  Mike Stewart: Exactly. And, you know, the bottom line is traveling with the dog, the destination dog, overland experience with the dog is all about routine. Get the dog on a schedule. Dogs are creatures of habit. You get them on a schedule and just do the common sense protections such as first aid kits, insulation for your crates, keeping them, keeping the weather in mind.
• 23:21
  You'll be fine.
• 23:22
  Chris Jennings: Awesome. Well, these have been some great tips, Mike. I appreciate you joining me. And, as always, we're gonna we're gonna get you back on as soon as we can.
• 23:30
  Mike Stewart: Great. Enjoyed
• 23:31
  Chris Jennings: it. I'd like to thank my guest, Mike Stewart, the owner and operator of Wild Rose Kennels, for joining me today and talking about traveling with your retriever. I'd like to thank Clay Baird, our producer, for doing a great job of getting the podcast out to you, and I'd like to thank you, the listener, for joining us on the DU podcast and supporting Wetlands Conservation.
• 23:49
  VO: Thank you for listening to the DU sponsored by Purina Pro Plan, the official performance dog food of Ducks Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan, always advancing. Also proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. Whether you're winding down with your best friend or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly.
• 24:12
  to rate, review, and subscribe to the show and visit ducks.org/dupodcast. Opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited. Until next time, stay tuned to the Ducks.