Cut Vest or no Cut Vest????

I use to only run collars on my bay dogs and both on my catch dog. In the hottest months we wouldn't vest the catch dog up till the hog was bayed. Then we would vest him up and walk him in and cut him loose. Coming up, my mentors never vested their bay dogs, but let me say, these dogs got the job done and stayed clear of th ivory most of the time, even in the bottoms we ran. They stopped the hogs and held them ALMOST every time without more than a break or two before we got there. All this being said, it IS up to each man individually to determine his own hunting style. I'm at the point now ( 5 hunting dogs/1 catch dog) that I really don't want to take a chance on one getting cut down for an extended period or God forbid, permenantly. It takes to long to replace them and I'm just not going to take a chance, therefore, I vest and collar ALL my dogs. It's easy enough to cut the hunt short if the dogs get too hot and if that means I can't hunt at all in late July/August then so be it.