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Early season starts soon in select areas of New York. This thread is always a favorite. Good luck, enjoy the season, and be safe.

By the way, this topic was brought to you one of our past members, good ol' growalot. She was a good gal that fed this site a whole lot of interesting topics on a regular basis. She was fun. She knew how to get under some people's skin a bit, but that kept the site lively. I wish she was here now.

So, I have my GF's daughters dog living with us for a few months till she moves into a new apt in January. I dont know squat about dog breeds so was looking for some opinions on the little guy posted below; hes definitely a mutt ,but, to me, he looks like he has some kind of hound breed in him. I thought he may be of some use squirrel hunting, What do you think?

Ran off with the UPS driver?

Great reply; Thank you Sir

Having spent my life working and training various hunting dogs I have come to the conclusion that coming up with a number one Squirrel dog is one of the most difficult things to achieve in the hunting dog world. A top Squirrel dog has to use it's eyes, ears and nose. Squirrels are tricky little buggers, they run on the ground, they climb trees and will go up one tree and jump over to another and another (Timbering), it will take some kind of dog to stay with them. That being said when it comes to hunting dogs you never know until you try. I have seen dogs that one would not look at as a hunting breed yet they were terrific for certain kinds of hunting. One of the best Coon dogs I ever saw was a non-descript Collie type farm dog. Top squirrel dogs for the most part will come from breeds that are bred especially for Squirrel hunting and tested for many generations. Cur breeds and Fiest dogs are at the top of the list and are what most serious Squirrel hunters train and use. I have trained some of my Airedales to hunt Squirrels with reasonably good success, but many do not make it because they do not have the strong treeing instinct like the breeds mentioned above or some treeing Hound breeds especially on game that is very small like a Squirrel. I have a pup right now that is going to be tested and by the end of Squirrel season I should know if he has what it takes. The number one thing is getting them in the timber where you know there are Squirrels and observe. Below is a couple of photos, the blond dog is my buddy Pete Bassani's Kemmer Cur, he came up to my place for a hunt and to pick up an Airedale, she was a real good one. The other is of my TJ he was a pretty fair squirrel dog in his own right but not in the Kemmer's class. I can say this hunting with a good squirrel dog is about as much fun as it gets. Also I posted a little video that gives a short synopsis on training, there are many others on youtube if you get serious. Good Luck Al

I have always had kind of an aggressively active life. I have always lived at the base of a very steep hill that some would call a mountain, and found that I enjoyed hiking that hill and all over the top of it, in almost all kinds of weather. However, here I am now at 80, and I find that the old body has some limits. I find myself hunting much closer to home, and a lot of the long-distance scouting has become a thing of the past. There does come a time when things just have to slow down, and in my case that slow-down has begun. I know there are a lot of guys that can keep going to a much older age, and I truly envy those people with those genes, but as Clint Eastwood used to say, "A man's gotta know his limitations".

I have purchased these at Tractor Supply and Country Max .

I don't believe fitness for hunting activities is stressed enough, and especially so when you get up in age. How many times do you hear about a hunter that keeled over in the woods? Had a guy I do some business with go down while Turkey hunting a couple of years ago. My next door neighbor keeled over while riding his AVT, they let themselves go to seed. Probably the biggest health factor is being overweight, just about every malady known will be affected by being overweight. Overweight? Many of these health problems will manifest themselves, it is just a matter of time. To name a few. High blood pressure Cardiovascular-heart Joints-osteoarthritis Sleep apnea-breathing problems Diabetes Asthma High cholesterol Stroke Fatty liver Gall bladder disease Gout Kidney disease Mental health So as far as I am concerned getting one's weight in the right range is the first order of business to get your health on the right track. Those weight charts that you see published are not far off the mark of what you should be weighing for the most part. As for exercise it too is important, but I do not think you have to work out like a pro athlete, a modest workout 20 minutes a day will do the trick. Al

Yes, Amazon has it. Al