leting them lose in the yard

i've always let my dogs run loose at least 2-3 hours a day. be it labs, shorthairs, or my hog dogs. it gives them the exercise they need to be able to hunt longer, gives them time to socialize with each other so they ain't playin sniff butt in woods cause the only time they get to smell each other is in the woods. i've never seen it hurt a dogs drive, that seems silly to me. either a dog is gonna hunt or it ain't regardless of how much energy they have balled up. seems to me if i haven't been able to let em out to exercise in a while that first hunt all they do is run for about the first 30 minutes. then they'd get to hunting, but when they were let out on a regular basis as soon as they hit the ground in the woods they'd go straight to work.

dogs can and do tell the difference between work and play. they're not as dumb as some people would like to think, and if they are it's cause they aren't bred very well. it's about repeated action. When i raised labs i could toss birds out of my launcher and they'd fetch em up but they also had a bit of a laid back feel to em. as soon as the shotgun came out they were all business cause they knew what they were going to do. it's no different than when you load your dogs up in the box, if they've been hunted enough they know what they're going to do.