Way back before we had Garmins, back when we first got tracking collars that we could afford, I hunted in TN with one of my closest friends for hog and bear, back then we were eat up with bear hunting, thought that was the big thing. Back then bear weren't very plentiful in eastern TN and for that matter neither were the hogs. We would set out leading dogs at daylight and make a tour of whatever territory we thought we might find a track in. This might be an all day ordeal or we might get lucky and find a track that they could run before it was too late in the day. We would turn loose on it and most of the time they would leave out if the track was hot enough or if not, they would trail it until they finally jumped it. We might be in hearing but quite a bit of the time we weren't. We didn't have radios for a long time, so we just headed out in the direction they went. My buddy Cletis had a couple of Plotts back then that had no quit in them, I hated to turn them loose actually, for sure hated to on a cold track, because I knew what was in store for us.....long hours of trying to beep them and get a line on where they were. They would run a hog or bear until it finally gave out or swam the river or the lake. I've been right there when they ran a hog for hours and hours, and these dogs weren't slow at all, in fact they were very fast, but the hogs back then knew to run, those that didn't were dead. Cletis and I have spent many a night driving from you 'beeping' point to another trying to locate them. Most of the time they would be picked up by another hunter the next day, mlies from where the race started,....sometimes still running the hog or bear. Oh the miles we've walked following those dogs and later on trying to get a faint beep on them, only to finally give it up at 2 or 3 AM and go to his house for a little sleep. That broke me from wanting a dog with a lot of 'bottom'....it's nice to talk about and maybe even brag about a little, but most folks nowadays have a different idea of what we called heart or staying power. My dogs now will stay with a hog all day if they can see it, but if it gets way out in front of them or the track gets too faint, they'll give it up and come right back their backtrack to where the race started.....and I REALLY like that about them....they have just as much heart as any dog, but they know when to quit and come on back,.....so we can find another one.
