7 proven tips to help you pull off an epic bird hunting road trip

If you haven’t already discovered, many of the best hunting areas across the West are rich in scenery and sparse in cellular coverage. As a fellow traveler, dog owner, veterinarian and hunter, I’m happy to share a few tips I’ve gleaned over years to ensure your epic wingshooting roadtrip goes smoothly. 

Few outdoor pursuits fuel the desire for a road trip more than bird hunting. With an incredible diversity of species and habitat, there’s hardly a better way to sample all the wingshooting options this country offers than loading up the dogs and hitting the open road.

I hoard vacation days and carve out time in my clinic schedule for at least a few trips a year, so I consider myself a seasoned veteran of the road trip experience. As a fellow traveler, dog owner and hunter, I’m happy to share a few tips I’ve gleaned over years to ensure your experience goes smoothly. 

1.Research Vets Ahead of Time

After decades of learning the hard way, I’m now convinced that adequate preparation is the most reliable means of fending off Murphy’s Law. Based on my own experiences, your likelihood of encountering a disaster is inversely proportional to the amount of preparation you put into avoiding one.

While you’re pouring over details and routes of your trip, investigate the closest sporting dog-friendly veterinary and human medical clinics, and take time now (while your cell service is solid) to store their numbers and addresses in your phone, GPS or inReach. If you haven’t already discovered, many of the best hunting areas across the West are rich in scenery and sparse in cellular coverage. 

2. Make a Canine Emergency Plan

Call ahead and inquire about the clinic’s protocol for getting help outside of business hours and what kind of emergencies they’re equipped to handle. With a nationwide veterinary shortage, some clinics in rural areas are fully booked and not accepting new patients, and it’s best to find that out prior to an emergency. I've found that having this disaster plan dialed in all but guarantees you’ll never have to implement it.

While you’re at it, prepare your dog for a vet visit or injury. Many of my hunting dog clients already do a great job desensitizing their dogs to intrusive things like tailgate exams of the ears, feet, mouth and eyes. Practice your bandaging skills at home so that in the heat of the adrenaline-fueled moment both you and your dog have some familiarity with the process. Make a muzzle out of a slip lead and try it on at home so that your dog’s first encounter with restraint and safety isn’t when they’re already injured and painful in the field. 

“Based on my own experiences, your likelihood of encountering a disaster is inversely proportional to the amount of preparation you put into avoiding one.”

3. Get Your First Aid Kit Stocked

I keep a fully-armed first aid kit in my truck and travel camper at all times, and I encourage you to do the same. But the utility of these kits is limited by your knowledge and experience of its contents. Take the extra step to familiarize yourself with these supplies as well as their appropriate use. Consider purchasing a portable kit or scaling down your truck supplies into a functional field kit to deal with a major emergency or for preventing minor things, like small cuts or seeds in the ears or eyes, that could force a premature retreat to the vehicle. 

4. Build Your Hunting Dog Pharmacy Beforehand

If you’ve got a great sporting dog vet, I’ll also encourage you to work with them to stock the kit with a small volume of dog-specific (or at least dog-safe) medications in appropriate doses for their weight. Make sure you understand what they’re for and when to use (and not use) them. If you haven’t found a qualified hunting dog vet that will make these kits for you ahead of time, well, you’ve come to the right site.

5. Mind the Gut, with Probiotics

#6 I use Gunner’s Food Crate because it’s practically indestructible and impervious to the elements (it even hisses when opened after an altitude change). In a pinch, a decent dry bag stored safely in the truck offers plenty of food security and has served many forward-thinking traveling bird hunters for years. You only have to learn this the hard way once, believe me. 

Road trips mean gas station burritos and other “truckcutery,” dive diners and a host of other potential sources of gastrointestinal unrest. The same holds true for your dog. Along with the fact that the stress of travel alone can set their gut on end, hunting trips offer a bottomless buffet of nastiness to dine on and roll in. 

#7: Not only does it help put more birds in the bag by finding dogs on point in thick cover or over a hill, GPS has saved me from the gut punch and subsequent panic of misplacing a dog.

My dogs get a boost of probiotics on our adventures to ward off diarrhea brewed from a cocktail of prolonged kennel time and free-range foraging of prairie snacks. Ask your vet ahead of time about stronger medications for breakthrough cases, but I’ve been successful at preventing serious GI issues while on the road with Purina’s Fortiflora and K9 Pro from K9 Athlete. Not only does diarrhea offer a fast track to dehydration in a hunting dog, no one likes cleaning up a blowout while on the road, especially me. Ask me how I know. 

6. Feed a Commercial Performance Kibble

While I won’t use this platform to discuss the best way to feed your hunting dog, I strongly recommend a shelf-stable and readily-available performance kibble diet for extended time on the road. Not only are these foods built to withstand wild swings in ambient temperature, many of these diets can be procured locally or at least quickly drop shipped from an online vendor to your rural hotel. Harkening back to my previous diarrhea prevention advice, a road trip is a poor time to dabble in raw diets. Not only are quality ingredients hard to source and keep at cold, safe temperatures on the road, most of these diets lack the proper portfolio of amino acids and micronutrients required in a serious canine athlete. 

Also, it’s worth investing in a dust, pest and water-tight container to prevent contamination from the elements. I use Gunner’s Food Crate because it’s practically indestructible and impervious to the elements (it even hisses when opened after an altitude change). In a pinch, a decent dry bag stored safely in the truck offers plenty of food security and has served many forward-thinking traveling bird hunters for years. You only have to learn this the hard way once, believe me. 

7. Invest in Essential Tech

My dogs never hit the field without a GPS collar. While most of my mapping is done on my phone, I rely on the added security of a dedicated handheld to keep tabs on my hunting companions. Not only does it help put more birds in the bag by finding dogs on point in thick cover or over a hill, GPS has saved me from the gut punch and subsequent panic of misplacing a dog. I run the 300i and TT25s on my dogs, but If finances have been a barrier to entry, Garmin’s new Alpha10 offer a fairly robust tracking and training interface without the hefty size and expense of its high end units. I can’t overstate how critical these devices are for safety, especially in the new and unfamiliar terrain you’ll encounter on your journey. 

Above all, have fun out there. Take photographs (even when inconvenient) and document what could be a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. With all the prep work you’ve done, it’s sure to be a success.