Instead of booking a cage at a kennel, you might elect to contract with a pet sitter - a paid professional, a family member or a neighbor - to feed and walk the dog once or twice a day. That arrangement could work to your satisfaction. Then again, it might not. I remember coming home after one long weekend to find a frantic dog and several stains on the floor because my sitter thought we were returning a day earlier that we actually did.

Vacations aren't the only occasions when you'll have to alter your lifestyle to accommodate the dog. When it has to go, it has to go. Yes, an obedient pet will try its hardest to cork its bladder until you finally get around to letting it out, but sooner or later the dam must burst.

Long story short, you cannot come and go whenever you feel like it if you're going to have a happy, healthy dog.

A confession is in order here. Buffy, that springer pup I mentioned earlier, lived with us for 13 years. She was a devoted, lovable pet, but she never quite panned out as a bird dog, through no fault of her own. The trouble with Buffy was that her master and mistress were so tied up with raising two small children that they had precious little time left over for a dog. Buffy was reasonably fit from playing with our kids and the neighbors' children, but she typically didn't get more than three or four worthwhile training sessions prior to the autumn bird season. When the season arrived, she might be taken into the field on several occasions or not at all as my work schedule and family obligations allowed.

In those days, our local bird coverts were rapidly being plowed under by farmers or bulldozed by housing developers, and I did not have the wherewithal to explore licensed shooting preserves or wild habitats in distant counties. The end result was that Buffy accounted for only a handful of roosters in her career.

Fortunately, we did not make the same mistakes with Harley. To spur her development, my wife took two weeks' vacation commencing on the day we brought the new pup home. Each evening after work, I helped with Harley's basic training, and our then-grown kids augmented the lessons with plenty of play and exercise.

During the ensuing summer, I took Harley on runs at frequent intervals, and as hunting season approached I made sure she got a generous whiff of stocked birds at an area field trial location. She flushed her first rooster to the gun a week later. Since puppyhood, Harley has hunted at least a dozen days each season, and she has played the leading role in the demise of more than 250 game birds.

In my area, I would expect to pay several hundred dollars for a six- or seven-week-old purebred puppy. Naturally, prices may vary by region, by kennel and according to the demand for and the availability of the breed you desire. Unless you have your heart set on a hard-to-find breed, you can safely assume that a brand-new dog will cost more than a week's groceries but less than a full set of golf clubs.

Not-so-new dogs, and I'm speaking here of animals advertised as "started" or "finished" by their breeders, may cost considerably more, but they won't necessarily be worth it. The age-old debate over whether it's smarter to obtain a grown, trained dog or gradually mold a pup in your own image is worthy of more space than we have here. Suffice it to say I much prefer to do it myself, and not for economic reasons.

In my state, an annual dog license costs less than dinner for two at McDonald's. A canine's food bill is not excessive, either. My 48-pound pooch consumes about two cups of commercial chow per day. A smaller dog will eat less, a bigger dog more. Food is hardly a budget-buster. Normally, veterinary costs won't be, either, but you can figure on a couple of hundred bucks each year for check-ups, shots, flea and tick treatments, heart worm medicine and the occasional injury or illness. A minor operation, such as spaying a female or neutering a male (though this eliminates any chance to breed your outstanding hunter), could cost a few hundred dollars more.

Serious health problems can add up to serious money. I have friends who have spent thousands of dollars to have cancerous tumors removed from elderly dogs. When a car struck Harley at the age of 2, I did not hesitate to approve the emergency hip surgery recommended by her vet. By that time, my dog was no longer an investment or even a responsibility as much as she was a friend that I could not bear to lose.

Think long and hard about what you would do in such situations, because when you bring a hunting dog home to stay, you're on the road to some equally important, perhaps even more costly, decisions.