Freeze branding dogs

Duane@ssu

Duane@ssu

New member
Does anyone have any experience freeze branding dogs? How well did the brand take? Were you happy with the results? Would you do it again? I'm considering branding 6 or 8 dogs but want some input from others first.
 
Tattooing worked best for us, however, that was many years ago. I see the local university has switched to freeze branding on all large animals here, and it looks better.
 
What is the reason why you are thinking of the branding. My dogs are tattoo stamped, on the upper lip, and back by the stomach. less painfull for the dogs, and no infection.
 
I think that freeze branding works to cut down on theft when you are out hunting your hounds. It is a lot easier to prove ownership from a distance with the brands.

I would also get the dogs microchipped.
 
I have freeze branded both cattle and horses. It is a fairly simple process. You must figure out what you are going to use for your source of 'cold'. I prefere liquid nitrogen, but you can also use dryice and alcohal. Of course you will need an area of dark pigmented hair, because the process when done correctly kills only the part of the follicle that produces the color and leaves the white hair. If you leave the iron on to long, it kills the whole folicle and ends up looking like a hot brand. For this reason, you will need to contact someone who knows the timing(I don't for dogs). I would also recommend a good set of brass irons. Shave the area to be branded and soak with alcohol. Apply iron for given amount of time(need to keep animal still). When you remove, should be the 'footprint' of your brand with some swollen tissue surrounding it. This next step really helps with horses. The brand area will scab over in a few days; keep this area coated with a moisturizer( I use hoofalive) to keep the scab and skin soft. This really helps give a clear defined brand.
Maintain
 
Did it for years on coon dogs. It is effective at stopping theft. I made my own brands out of 3/8" thick copper sheet, you can also use brass or bronze. Copper is better but expensive. I cut out the letters on a bandsaw and attached them to all-thread rods. Not all letters work as good as we want them to, A's generally dont look right and B's usually look like a figure 8, hard to tell a g from a q, etc. Invest in an Oster electric shaver like the vets use, I have the one called the "Golden A-5." Its very important that you shave the spot to be branded down to bare skin or it wont work right on a dog. You cannot brand overtop of hair. I used dry ice and alcohol because it is cheaper and easier to get than liquid nitrogen. Nitrogen requires a special bottle called a "Dewar" to store it in, they dont carry those at Wal-mart!! Dry ice can be hard enough to get these days. You put the ice, alcohol and brands into a styrofoam cooler and when the "boiling" stops the brands are ready. You must have solid ice, alcohol and the brands together at the same time or the temperature wont be right. May take several people to hold the dog or sometimes they just lay there. Hold it on the dog for about 20 seconds{less time for nitrogen} and when the spot thaws out rub it down with a good layer of medicated vaseline. If you hold the brand too long no hair will grow back. Not long enough and the brand will be blotchy or incomplete.
We had a case here where the brand actually helped the dogs owner in court. The dog was a redbone that got stolen and but for the brand the judge said he wouldn't know one all red dog from another, or a black and tan for that matter. Walkers and blueticks can have one of a kind markings. Something about "possession being 9/10ths of the law.....Good luck. You can make alot of money freeze branding dogs at coonhunts, I probably branded 1500 dogs back in the 80's. Not sure what they charge these days. We tried tatto's and they hold up in court if it makes it that far. A good dog thief{no such thing} can remove a tatto and they really have no deterance value to keep the dog from getting picked up to start with like the visible brand that is very difficult to alter.
 
Some good info there msinc. I've done 12 dogs, homemade brass brand and liquid nitrogen. Just two of us so I got tranqualizer from the vet.
 
Thanks for all the good info.I might use nitrogen because we have it here most of the time to AI cattle.I am wanting to brand my dogs because some have been stolen around here recently.Here in cattle country a brand beats all.I don't think anyone would even steal a dog with a good brand,its to hard to hide.
 
A freezebrand will definately shut down a dog thief. They need dogs that can be sold without anyone asking questions. The biggest dog thief in our county is {believe it or not!!!} the animal control warden. Nobody ever suspected the rat for along time as driving around picking up dogs is his job. Still, the biggest thing with preventing dog theft is not letting them get away from you to start with. I realize this is about impossible with bear dogs. Tranquilizer works good but gets expensive when you have 50 dogs to brand. Right before I got out of it I was going to make a squeeze chute, like for cattle only dog size. Careful with the nitrogen, its about three times as cold as dry ice so much less time is needed.
 
Yes, the way the whole thing works is that the temperature has to be cold enough to kill the melanocytes in the skin. These are cells that actually produce the chemical melanin, which colors hair{also skin and eyes.} Once dead, the hair grows back white. If you freeze too long you will kill the follicle and no hair will grow back at all. Dry ice is -109 degrees F and liqiud nitrogen is just below -320 degrees F so as stated above the time applied is different. I remember when I first started freezebranding dogs there was more bad info out there than reliable. One of the statements I repeatedly kept hearing was that "the time to hold the brands on depended on the type of skin the dog had." "A good brander has to look at the dog and assess how long to freeze 'em." Which was probably somebody not wanting the rest of the world to catch on to just how easy the process is. There is nothing like a little "black magic" to scare away future competition!! Once I had good copper brands I just applied them for 20 seconds {with dry ice} for every dog I branded and it worked fine. I had more trouble shaving the hair off and holding the dogs still than anything. Any problems with brands I did was always related to me not getting the area shaved down to bare skin, any hair not shaved off will insulate and cause the brand to be blotchy looking. I never used liquid nitrogen because I just couldn't get the stuff but the applied time has to be much less. Never did horses or cattle either so I cant help much there. I also know that the animal must be full grown for the brand to look right when finished. One word of caution...either refrigerant is very cold and will immediately cause instant frostbite if it hits your skin. Never brand anything with small kids around that could knock over the tank or bottle. I cant believe morons from New York City haven't started freezebranding the sides of their heads yet!!!
 
I'm interested in trying this on my dogs but I also have two lemon and white dogs. mostly white. what can I do with them?
 
That is going to be a problem...freeze branding {done correctly} wont do anything to white hair. You can only have a brand show up on the lemon color or hair other than white. I wouldn't recommend leaving the brand extra time to kill the white hair. This will work and be readable but it looks like a hot brand when finished and the humane society people will squeal like a pig and you might even get a fine. Not worth the hassle to me. I had a dog with a fresh freezebrand trail onto a Navy base once and the navy folks called the county dog catcher who picked up the dog and fined me for cruelty to animals. I had to have the local veterinarian call him and explain about freeze brands to get me off the hook!! Not until the vet likened it to freezing off a wart did the dogcatcher finally back up. They use paint on mostly white deer dogs in Virginia. Of course its not permanent but usefull to get a dog returned by someone other than a thief. Severe, how long do you hold on the liquid nitrogen for your dogs???
 
How much dry ice and alcohol should be used to brand one dog? Can I just drop more dry ice in the same alcohol to brand a second dog?

Thanks
 
Yes, the key is to have dry ice, alcohol and the brands all together in the cooler at the same time and done "boiling." Easier to show than describe but first you pour the alcohol in the styrofoam cooler, then add the dry ice carefully. It will "boil" at first but as the alcohol equalizes in temperature the boiling will slow way down to almost nothing. Then add the brands and again they will boil real hard for a few minutes. Now as long as the spot on the dog is shaved to bare skin you are ready to go. Hold the dog real still and press the brand in firm but not too hard contact with the dog and keep it there for 20 seconds. It will actually freeze solid the dogs hide in the area. It will turn red and swell some too. When the hide thaws out in a few seconds apply the vaseline and in about a month or so it will grow back in white. To answer your original question, I had a buddy with a device that made small one pound cakes from a bottle of CO2, about two of them would do a dog or two. When I went to big hunts and did alot of dogs I would get 5 pounds from the ice company. The thing to watch out for is when you have no free dry ice left in the alcohol. When that happens there is a chance that the solution is no longer cold enough.Good luck.
 
Thanks for all the info. I'll start with my dogs and see how that turns out, then move on to my horses.

I assume the reason it takes longer on a horse is because the skin is thicker and the hair folicle is deeper. If anyone has branded horses using dry ice and alcohol, exactly how long did you hold it to the horse?

Thanks
 
Wifey's grandfather is a horsemen. He sells, trains and boards them. In fact, her whole [beeep] family is ate with with the worthless things. Surely he knows somebody that I can get the info from. All I have ever seen horse people do is talk about them, so it shouldn't be hard. Will advise.
 
I freeze brand horses and cattle but have not attempted to do the dogs (yet). Actually I don't have too many requests for dogs but something to keep in mind, the dogs must have short hair for the design to be visible, otherwise the long hair will lay over and distort it, making it look like a blob of white hair. Course you could keep the area shaved and the design would then show up. Better than nothing I suppose!

I use liquid nitrogen for my coolant because it is readily available in my area. On horses, I generally apply the iron for about 12 seconds. I use firm even pressure as if you press to hard, the skin can 'wrinkle' around the iron making an uneven design.

I'll be glad to answer any questions

Thanks!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top