Dental Disease in Hunting Dogs Leads to Poor Scenting Abilities

When six-time Champion Hard Driving Bev started missing birds, professional trainer Joe McCarl attributed the changes to an aging dog starting to lose her senses. “She became really unsure around birds,” McCarl recalled. “This was a dog that always just stuck her birds and now she either wasn’t finding birds or was really unsure of where they were when on point.” While McCarl wasn’t going to turn back the hands of time, it was possible that Bev’s scenting loss was related to a very treatable condition -- advanced dental disease.