A lab named Duke
 

Not sure If I posted this before but I was looking through some old photos and found these. Duke was a black lab my oldest brother had now I read labs are usually below 100lbs but im not sure about that. Duke was 120lbs according to the vet, and my neighbor had a yellow lab named Jack who was around the same size if not a few lbs bigger, Jack was something else but I would have to make a separate thread about him. Anytime I would grab the 10 gauge Duke would start heading for the tree line because he knew I was going to shoot some squirrels. He was the only one that survived from his litter so he was the only one that got milk we figured perhaps thats why he got that big but im no expert on labs. Duke wasnt a hunting dog either he just loved tagging along while I was shooting squirrels, never really seen the point of a dedicated squirrel dog myself.

Black Labs Matter.

There was a yellow lab near our cabin who weighed 152#. Looked like a big yellow brick

Always good to have a canine buddy along on a hunt, but you’ve not experienced all that squirrel hunting can be until you’ve hunted with a good squirrel dog.

Well the area I hunted squirrels didnt really have any vegetation or shrubby on the ground so anytime I would hit one they would be easy to find, their white belly against the leaves anyhow. Now the places around here with pines or like our deer property I could see where you would want a dog. The squirrel land was about 20-30 acres of mixed woods mostly oaks and ground was always heavily compacted leaves. Sadly the owner decided to bulldoze all of it and turn it into wood chips then planted pines, which a year later all got blew into the next county by a cat 5 hurricane :rotf:

I used to work with the hunting dogs at the kennel we had for the plantation I could tell some funny stories about them.

Thats a big dog regardless of breed haha.

Milton, when I was a kid, we had a squirrel dog (Brownie) that was a real treat to hunt over. She would scent squirrels to the side of the tree where they climbed up and then scan the tree tops for them. She could "trail" them by sight through the tree tops, all the time barking so that we could find her. Eventually the squirrel would stop in the top of a tree or go to a den. It's a wonderful way to hunt squirrels, especially for a kid -- lots of action. Back a few years ago grouse hunting in Kentucky during the late February season, I would run into squirrel hunters with mountain curs that knew how to hunt. There are still pockets of guys who breed and train squirrel dogs, but they are few and far between.

If you ever get to go with a good squirrel dog, do it(!)

Sounds a bit different to how our squirrels behave. Squirrel hunting and pretty much small game hunting is dead in my area. You should see the fox squirrel population we have down here. Last year when we was deer hunting I seen 3 white ones looked about the size of a house cat, chasing each other around a tree. We dont shoot fox squirrels here so they are pretty common except the red ones you will mostly see the white/silver ones and the black and white ones and sometimes the solid black ones. I have more fun hunting squirrels than probably anything else, for me it just feels more active plus they are pretty interesting to watch you never know what a squirrel is going to do. I have noticed pitbulls are very good at treeing squirrels I have read its because they have a high prey drive.