a car pulled in front of me on the highway, i couldn't stop

10-14-212 mins read

It was nighttime in Moultrie, Georgia, but still daylight when I was hit in a 2020 Toyota Tundra riding down the road. The guy turned right in front of me and the four dogs I had riding along in their GUNNER kennels.

   BACK TO PACK NEWS

 Words by Gary Linnenkohl | As Told By GUNNER

“Thanks for saving my dogs’ lives with your kennels. I had more than $40,000 worth of dogs in that kennel.”

I had four of my English Cocker Spaniels in your GUNNER G1™ Large dog crate, worth probably $40-to-50,000 all in, when I was hit by this driver outside a town just north of Thomasville. I had a Ranch Hand on the front of the truck at the time and after this wreck it was all bent up, it looked like a pretzel. 

 

My truck was totaled, but the dogs are completely fine. I got banged up more than they did – my shoulder, my knees, and my back were all messed up. I have hunting season coming up too, but it’s okay… we’re used to playing hurt down in the SEC, ha.

The crate was in the bed of the Tundra, and though I didn’t have it strapped down at the time, that kennel did not move with the weight of the Large crate combined with the weight of the four cockers.

My dogs being unharmed was very important to me, because I have been breeding cockers for about 7 or 8 years now. 

One of my dogs, Parker, was in the accident. He’s the dog that started it all for me. He’s one of the largest ones at 38 lb. I’d bet he has about 500,000 miles in a truck, traveling over the years.

I first bought my first GUNNER kennel about four years ago and own several of them now of all sizes. 

I also run a private quail hunting business and have a timber business, and I usually have at least three dogs on me at any time as I’m out every day managing land. I deliver a lot of dogs to Texas and Pennsylvania, and I can tell you that these GUNNERs are cheaper than insurance. 

I used to hunt with labs until I made the switch to cockers about a decade ago. They are huntable, and for me easier to get around with. I never kept more than a couple labs before, and now I keep four or five cockers on at a time in the truck. They hunt wide open, and so hard that they give out faster, so you need more on hand. But they are great inside dogs too.

Thank you to GUNNER for saving my dogs’ lives with your kennels. It’s much appreciated. 

"Quail hunting has changed so much in the last 40 years . We have had to adjust to the change and we have from our early release program our feeding program. Also the introduction of the flushing dog had changed things. I started with labs in 1984 after my close friend got shot and killed guiding flushing birds for clients. I decided to try it and have specialized in it ever since. About 10 years ago the English Cocker (Spaniel) caught my eye and I started using them to flush with. We have some of the best blooded field Cockers in the country that we flush and retrieve with. Our hunting is 2nd to none."