Vests on strike dogs???

liefalwepon I'm glade you asked this question cause I ponder on it constantly. I have only been hunting for a few years now and I hunt with a couple of ole school guys that do not believe in vest and only one of them has started vesting his catch dog since I started hunting with them, the other one is on his 3rd bulldog in 4 years which is another whole story.

I had a very rough strike dog that was a Parker and it did not matter what size hog he was going to try him at least once. I ran a vest on him and I don't think it hindered him at all. He did almost have a heat stroke but it was in a chest high cotton field in August at about 2pm and pushing triple digits temp. You know what got him was an big ole mean sow, I assume she either got him down on the ground or pinned him up side a pine tree cause she busted his bladder. There was not a mark on him but the vet said he was busted up inside when he opened him up.

I'm like l.h.cracker I have a bunch of different vest but the most flexible one that I have found that I run on my catch dog is the Southern Style which is now owned by HardCoreHogDogs. I have one of the suits with attached collar, chin guard and leg guards and that dog caught 50+ hogs last year with a couple being sure enough rank boars with good cutters and not a single cut through. The vest is very flexible and he can move in it. However he did almost drown last year when we turned two catch dogs to a boar on the edge of a pond and the boar swam the pond which had Lillie pads in it. When I got to him he was bobbing like a cork and had done gone under several times. The Lillie pads had him all tangled up and when I swam out there to get him they just about got me to. I was honestly pretty scarred before I got my feet back under me, thought I was a gonner also. I did have a buddy there that had the hog caught with the other catch dog that did not have a vest on. We got the hog and the dogs and myself lived to catch another one but I told my buddy when I crawled out of the water I don't care if I ever do that again.