I’ve had to learn some mental tricks to help me avoid buying every cool piece of gear that I come across. Usually, I can dissuade myself from a purchase by asking myself, ‘How many extra fish/ducks/deer/turkeys will this put in my freezer this year?’ Usually, the answer is, ‘Probably none.’ But every now and then you make a purchase that really does put game in your freezer. For me, the “most productive” money I’ve ever spent on duck hunting was on an eight-week-old Labrador Retriever named Amos Moses.
Ole Amos wasn’t cheap, and I’m still paying for dog food and vet bills, but he has put a lot of cripples on my game strap that would have been lost if not for his keen nose, 4Lo capabilities, and extreme “can-do” attitude. I have hunted with a lot of good people, but Amos is at this point probably my favorite hunting companion. He never runs late, he never has to work that morning, he’s always in a good mood, and he never tries to claim he shot a duck that I obviously hit. If only he’d buy breakfast for once…
If you have a duck dog, or if you’re looking at getting a duck dog (and you should totally get a duck dog) then you need a platform stand for that duck dog. In this article, we’re going to explain why that’s so, discuss common shortcomings in dog platforms, and look at some old favorites and exciting newcomers on the stand market. The goal is to put your buddy in a stand that will be safe and comfortable for him, and easy to use for you.
Why Your Dog Needs A Duck Hunting Stand
First off, you may not need a dog platform. I only put Amos on a stand once last year, and that was only because he was hunting with new faces on opening day. I brought the stand as “insurance” against an excited young dog, but it was completely unnecessary. The Mobile-Tensaw stayed very dry for most of the season, so Amos and I spent most of the season on dry ground, with him calmly sitting next to me.
If you hunt a lot of dry creek or beaver pond banks, a stand may just be extra weight. Likewise, if you spend 100% of your time hunting out of a boat or permanent stand, a blind probably isn’t necessary.
But most waterfowlers will benefit from a platform. Even if your dog is a big, burly, thick-haired brute like mine, they won’t enjoy and don’t deserve to sit with their butts in cold water or mud all morning. Prolonged soaking while remaining stationary isn’t just uncomfortable, on cold days it can be harmful to your #1 hunting bud. Unfortunately, dogs are short compared to people, and can’t wear waders. Water that you can comfortably sit or stand in with waders on is usually too deep for your buddy to be comfortable in. Sometimes you get lucky and can park a dog on a dry hummock of grass or a fallen tree, but it’s inconvenient at best to let terrain dictate where you can hunt. Most of the time, you have to let the birds dictate where you set up, and having a stand means that you can make a dry place for your dog to sit wherever you need to.
Comfort and safety aside, your dog will perform better from a platform. Getting up in the air, even just a little bit, can give your dog a better chance to see what’s going on. Being elevated is especially important if birds start hitting the water in fog, or in conditions where grass, lily pads, or other “junk” obscures the water. The better he can mark a fallen bird, the easier a time he’ll have with the retrieve.
Being on a stand, as mentioned, is also an obedience aid. A young or excitable dog is less likely to break the “place” command if he’s up off the ground. It’s also hard for them to “creep” out of position over the course of a hunt. If you’ve suffered through a hunt spoiled by your dog knocking over coffee, following you around as you set decoys, or deciding to move as birds worked, a platform may be worth its weight for you and your bud.
Common Issues With Duck Dog Platforms
Most dog platforms, like most treestands, are awesome when they’re set up. But like treestands, transporting them to your hunting spot and getting them ready for business can be a major pain. Steel models are worthless. Aluminum is not just lighter, but also resistant to corrosion. You also want something that packs as small as possible. Decoys and companions take up enough room in small boats, and if you’re slogging in waders you’ll quickly lose your cool with designs that hang up on brush.
Some sort of folding design is usually necessary, but hinges and pins can introduce their own frustrations. Manual dexterity and mental clarity are usually not particularly high at 3am on a 20 degree day, so it’s important that the stand be as easy to use as possible. Any design where it’s possible to lose the pins is worthless, obviously, but it’s also important that it be difficult to set the stand up in a manner where it doesn’t lock into place and can collapse once your dog goes to jump up on it. Finally, if the stand can’t easily be adjusted for uneven ground, it deserves to stay on the store shelves.
You also want a stand that can be used wherever you need to use it. Free standing platforms usually have a limit to both how low you can place them and how high. Most models get unstable with the legs fully extended, especially if you have a big dog perched on top of it. This is an issue if you hunt areas where you’re pushing the capabilities of your waders. If your stand doesn’t go low enough, it can also prevent you from being able to tuck your dog down into brush and grass, making it difficult to camouflage him. Tree mounted platforms can be awesome for timber hunters, but they’re useless in many marshes and flooded fields.
Popular Dog Stands For Duck Hunting
If you hunt with a dog, a good stand is essential. I did a good bit of research when I bought Amos’ stand, which is one of the more popular models on the market. In this section, I’ll share what I like and what I dislike, and talk about why I’ll probably end up buying a second stand to complement it.
Mo’marsh Dog Stands
When you start shopping for dog platforms, it’s impossible to miss the ones made by Mo’Marsh. Mo’Marsh actually makes four dog stands currently: the Final Stand, The Invisilab, Field House, and the Ramp Stand. I ended up buying their Final Stand for Amos. Their Field House blind is very short and designed for field hunting, which we don’t do. Their ramp stand is meant primarily to either be attached to a tree trunk or strapped to a boat. While we hunt a lot of timber, we also hunt some marsh and I wanted a “do-all” stand.
I almost purchased their Invisilab, and if I had it to do over again I’d go with that model for one simple reason. The Invisilab incorporates a blind onto a platform stand, and while you can modify the Invisilab to make the blind detachable, you cannot purchase and add that blind to the Final Stand. I didn’t initially think I’d want a blind, but after a couple of seasons, I’ve realized that when you need one, you really need it. Especially when your wife chose a white dog.
Other than that, the blind has worked well. Amos is a pretty lean eighty pounds, but the stand holds up well to his weight and is, if anything, a bit bigger than it really needs to be. All four legs can be independently adjusted, and the pull cable that releases the leg pins is easy to use and hasn’t given me any issue.
While the dog platform is surprisingly light given its dimensions, it’s bulky to carry in if you’re walking. It comes with a shoulder strap, but I’ve found it unsatisfactory, and I’m yet to find a good way to get backpack straps on it. Even if I did, the stand is wide and tall enough that I imagine it would snag a lot walking through the woods.
Ultimately, while the dog platform works a charm once you’re at the honey hole, transportation is a bit of an issue, especially if you have a long walk without the benefit of a road. This describes most of our hunts, so Amos and I are still on the market for something a little easier to carry deep into the swamp.
Rixey Dog Stand
This off-season, while shopping around for a better stand to carry into remote places, I came across a new design that caught my attention. To learn more about it, I picked up the phone and called Todd Ezzi, avid duck hunter and the owner of Rixey Dog Stands. Todd apparently had the same issue I’m currently having with stands, and decided to take matters into his own hands to solve it.
“I was in the middle of Bayou Meto,” he explained during our call, “in a walk-in area called Government Cypress, and I was about a mile back in there. I’ve always tried to walk and get away from people as much as I can when I’m hunting. It’s a little bit harder now with mud motors, but there’s still some places where you can make it happen. And I was back there carrying a traditional dog stand. It was just my dog and myself, and I was standing by the tree thinking, ‘There’s got to be a better way to build a dog stand that’s collapsible and easier to carry in.’ And so when we got back from hunting, I went out to the shop, and started welding and cutting, and I made my first prototype. I showed it to some friends, and they were all impressed with it. So then I showed it to some engineering buddies that helped me tweak it and redesign it a couple times until we got to the product that we have now. So it was one of those inventions that sprang from necessity; the need to have something that was portable and easy to get in and out of the woods.”
What makes the Rixey dog platform so interesting is just how compact and lightweight it is.
“The stand ships in a 6x10x25 inch box,” Todd says. “So that tells you how compact it packs up. The current model weighs only eight pounds, and we’re experimenting with a lighter prototype that is only five pounds. The standard is already lighter than most stands on the market, but what really makes it stand out is its size. You can clip it to the outside of a backpack, or even put it inside a backpack or a decoy bag. There are a lot of really great dog stands already on the market, but there’s just not one that small, something that you can stick under the truck seat or in a boat box.”
All well and good, but as I mentioned, Amos is a pretty big dog. I asked Todd if he thought it’d hold up to big, bullish, male retrievers.
“We advertise a 120 lb weight limit,” he told me confidently. “It’s strong enough and has enough room to hunt a big Chesapeake or Labrador Retriever off of it, absolutely. We’ve tested it to 350 lbs, actually. And it sets up quickly too. It’s super user-friendly, you can set it up in about 15 seconds.”
Final Thoughts On Dog Platforms For Duck Hunting
While the Final Stand dog platform has been good to Amos and me, it’s hard to ignore the appeal of a stand that can fit in a backpack for those long-haul timber hunts. If you’re looking at picking up a dog stand this year, I’d encourage you to give either Mo’marsh or Rixey a good look. It’s hard to imagine, but duck season is just a few months away, and you and your dog will both need time for training sessions to get used to a new piece of gear before season starts.
