You will learn how to evaluate your hound and determine which elements give the dog its best opportunity to perform well. Mike talks about:

• How to evaluate your chances without wishful thinking

• Why a dog’s competitive window should not be taken for granted

• How to conduct a SWOT analysis for your dog and yourself

• How to choose hunts that fit your dog’s strengths

• Why studying other dogs and handlers matters

• How journals expose performance patterns

• How environmental factors affect a dog

• What it takes to be a world-beater

• How to recognize low blood sugar and other health concerns

• What emergency tools you should carry

This episode’s topics include competition coon hunting, competition coon hunting strategies, coonhound training, competition coonhound training, how to win coon hunts, coon hunting tips, coonhound handling, coonhound obedience training, coonhound recall training, coonhound competition, training a competitive coonhound, coon dog training journal, coon hunting safety, hunting dog hypoglycemia, coonhound health, PKC, UKC, ProSport, competition hunt rules, and coonhound conditioning.

What makes this episode unique is that it’s the result of Mike’s discussions with grouse hunters and guides, online research, and collaboration with AI to create and present it.

Ruffed grouse hunting appears simple but can be very challenging. This introductory overview includes critical lessons for beginners:

• How forest age affects ruffed grouse habitat
• How to identify food, security cover, and travel corridors
• Why internal habitat transitions are often better than obvious field edges
• How to scout with aerial imagery, timber harvest information, and spring drumming
• Where to look during the early, middle and late portions of the season
• How to hunt logging roads, skid trails, alder runs and regenerating cuts
• How to manage pointing and flushing dogs for success
• How to handle running grouse and birds that refuse to hold
• Common shooting mistakes and how to improve your gun mount
• Using field notes and mapping tools to develop a repeatable grouse-hunting system

This episode’s topics include ruffed grouse hunting, grouse hunting for beginners, Northwoods grouse habitat, hunting ruffed grouse with dogs, pointing dogs, flushing dogs, upland bird hunting, shotgun selection, aspen habitat, public land grouse hunting, hunting safety, wingshooting tips, and bird dog handling.

A traditional Southern dove shoot brings friends and families together to celebrate hunting, dogs, food, drink, and the kick-off of another hunting season. A good shoot always has a social side! For many Southern hunters, the meal before or the party after the hunt can be as important as the shoot itself. A few don’t even bother to uncase their guns.

This episode discusses the things a guest can do to get invited back to a shoot in the future, as well as what behaviors to avoid. It touches on the role retrieving dogs can play and why it’s important that your dog is in good shape and the early-season heat is treated with respect. Mike also shares recipes for turning harvested birds into something worth gathering around the table to enjoy.

If you've attended dove shoots all your life, most of this will sound very familiar. If you've never attended a traditional Southern dove shoot, Mike explains why some people regard the first dove hunt of the season as a holiday celebration rather than simply another day in the field.

On YouTube, Mike includes a slideshow, mostly of pics from past shoots with his Labs and Drahthaars, as well as a buddy’s Griffon.

This episode's topics include southern dove hunting traditions, mourning dove hunting, plantation shoots, hunting safety tips, opening day dove shoots, sunflower & corn dove fields, dove hunting with retrievers, wingshooting & shotguns, dove hunting etiquette, motion decoys, Southern hunting culture, hunting camps & field gatherings, wild game cooking, dove recipes, grilling, and the traditions surrounding the beginning of hunting season.

From Treeing Walker Coonhounds to Labrador Retrievers, Deutsch Drahthaars, Beagles, Vizslas, and other working and sporting dogs—as well as more than a few mutts, Mike shares stories and lessons from his mid-life crisis that led to a lifestyle spent around dogs with drive and personality. He talks about learning from pro trainers and working with sporting dogs. He also explains why taking in abandoned dogs has been such a rewarding part of his life and why true dog ownership means accepting the joy, the pain, and the financial consequences that come with it.

This episode’s topics include hunting dogs, dog training, hunt tests, competition coonhunting, field trials, sporting breeds, rescue dogs, bird dogs, retrievers, hounds, rabbit dogs, coonhounds, and the bond between people and dogs.

He traces his vanlife experiences over the past 15 years as he moved from a Sportsmobile to a Ram ProMaster that was so unreliable he barely mentions it, then to a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Revel he rented, and ultimately to a Ford Transit Trail he built out.

Rather than discussing van life in a romanticized way, Mike looks at the practical realities of using a camper van for hunting and outdoor adventure. He explains the decisions behind his newest van’s layout, and talks about features he likes, things he would change, and how years of experience shaped the philosophy behind his Ford Transit Trail build.

Mike recalls his first experiences duck and raccoon hunting in the Mississippi Delta, the remarkable Treeing Walker Coonhound named Molly who changed his perspective on dogs, and the hard lessons he learned from his first versatile hunting dog, a Vizsla named Dixie Belle The Naughty Rebel.

The conversation also explores vanlife, upland bird dogs, retrievers, dog training, competition coonhounds, and the development of Mike's camper van into a rolling hunting camp. Along the way, Mike explains why he's launching a podcast for new hunters, dog enthusiasts, outdoor travelers, and vanlifers who want to share in the lifestyle without feeling intimidated, judged or pressured.

In this pilot episode:

• A midlife crisis led to the Mississippi Delta

• The coonhound that sparked an obsession with hunting dogs and the Vizsla, Labradors, Walkers, English Pointers, Beagles, Deutsch Drahthaars, English Setter, Bluetick, and rescue mutts that followed

• Talking about genetics, breeding, and selecting your first puppy

• Competition coonhunting and campaigning coonhounds, retrievers, and pointing dogs in field trials, hunt tests, and "money hunts"

• Traveling North America with hunting dogs and a camper van--the realities of vanlife in a Sportsmobile, Sprinter, Ram, or Transit conversion

• What listeners can expect from The Hunting Dog Roadshow

On The Hunting Dog Roadshow: A Van, A Man, And His Dogs, Mike Reed leaves his hunting camp in the Mississippi Delta and travels North America sharing stories of vanlife and the hunting dog world. For hunters, dog lovers, and anyone drawn to the open road, this show brings you inside the lifestyle behind great hunting dogs and memorable road trip adventures.