Vests can provide protection to hunting dogs from briars and barbed wire, as well as keeping them warm. Photo by Carolee Boyles.

Take Max, for example. Max was a great retriever. The yellow Lab was passionate about the water and would retrieve ducks under the worst of conditions. On a cold morning in January, Max's owner downed two canvasbacks, just on the other side of his decoy spread.

Max made a typical Lab leap into the water, and retrieved the first duck flawlessly. Then he went back for the other one.

On his way back to the boat, the Lab became entangled in the lines on three of the decoys. All three lines wrapped around the rabies tag on his collar as he struggled through the frigid water. From the boat, Max's owner could only watch helplessly and call encouragement to the dog.

At last, Max reached the boat and delivered the canvasback. His owner untangled him from the lines and helped the exhausted dog into the boat. Max was a lucky dog. Had the lines wrapped around his legs, or had the distance to the boat been just a tad farther, he would have undoubtedly perished in the cold January water.

Of course, a dog doesn't have to be hunting -- or to even be a hunting dog -- to meet catastrophe in the woods.

Brutus was a giant of a German shepherd. When Brutus stood up on his hind legs and put his feet on his owner's shoulders, the dog was fully 6 feet tall.

Larry Reese was his owner and a passionate hunter of deer, turkeys and waterfowl, but on this particular day, he wasn't hunting. Reese, his 2-year-old daughter, Stacey, and Brutus were walking along a wooded creek bank. Brutus was at heel at Reese's left side, just as he had been taught, and his owner could feel the dog's cool nose now and then when Brutus nuzzled his fingers. Stacey was toddling along just ahead of the two of them.

Then Reese realized that Brutus was no longer at his side. He looked behind, but the dog had disappeared. Suddenly, he saw Brutus -- now 10 feet out in front of Stacey -- rear up to his full height, with a huge Eastern diamondback rattlesnake firmly clamped onto the end of his muzzle.

Reese grabbed his daughter and called Brutus. The dog shook the snake loose and trotted to his owner's side. Reese frantically raced Brutus to the vet, but to no avail. Several hours, and four vials of antivenin later, the big shepherd succumbed to the rattlesnake's poison. Thirty-three years have gone by, since that day when Brutus died saving Stacey's life.