The Science of Stop

Holding style - when a dog is holding longer for a time period measured in minutes, not seconds holding style them becomes an issue of importance to some guys, me for one. If they chew the ears off a pig, there will not be any handle bars for them to continue to hold with. Some people seem associate shredded and mangled pigs with hardness in there dogs. I guess the case could be made argued but it really just gives the impression the dogs are not holding but rather fighting and shaking and provoking further fighting and unrest from a pig till they have no ears left. This can be the result of more than 2 dogs on a pig or can be just the nature of the dogs you are using. If there are no bay dogs bitting or barking or exciting the boar and keeping it stirred up, this will all work the catch dogs and pig to settle down and just hold and relax a little while doing so if the catch dogs are of this type nature. This is not breed specific, I've seen all types of cd's even pits settle and just calmly walk in circles with a big boar they are holding. Some dogs like the stag are bred not for holding but ripping and shredding but hold pigs cleanly when you don't have more than 2 on the ground at once.
   What you see when you catch pigs with just a couple cd's and nothing else (be it cur cd's or bulls, or rcd's) is a furious battle in the first few seconds that quickly deesculates and eventually turns into dog and pig seemingly walking around calmly. A screaming pig usually doesn't settle eventhough it won't fight hard after initial hook up. I've had people tell me they thought I was full of crap saying big boars and cd's will often be calmly and silently walking around together in a very relaxed manner when caught for a while. I get a confession saying something like dogs had pigs bayed a 1400 yards out. We were headed to bay and seen a big boar walking in front of us. All we had was 2 catch dogs with us. We decided to cut the catch dogs to the boar and get him and then go on to the bay. Then there worst fears come true. The boar outrun our cd's and took them 1000 yards off, crossed a creek we couldn't get across etc. They spend a whole looking at the Garmin trying to figure out how to get to the two catch dogs. They have shown treed for a while. They know they are caught and what they are caught on and they are panicked cause they can't get there. After much time getting finally they find a place to cross. Dogs haven't moved. Reality is setting in and they are preparing for what they gonna find when they get to the dogs. They get close, kill the ranger and hear nothing and dogs are not coming to them. Still haven't moved really. Walk to the collars and find in their light 2 catch dogs calmly walking around with 1 big boar. Nothing injured and boar isn't shredded. Then have them tell me about their hunt and what transpired and have them tell me they thought I was full of crap till they seen that.
   With the new sense of confedence with the catch dogs and them thinking maybe there was something to what I say, now they get the feeling they can use these dogs like this again. So one hot summer night one of the guys is gonna do some request work in an upscale neighborhood in town by immulating my style of hunting and was gonna use just catch dogs so as not to make a big distribution in the neighborhood. The pigs are located in a backyard and see the hunters first and start heading down the cliff and into the brush. Some apprehensive conversations takes and one of the dogs is released well the other guy releases his and in the direction the pigs were last seen the dogs ran and disappear. Close to a mile later dogs stop, show treed etc. How do we get there set in again. Decision was made to take this road to that road and maybe they will be close to the catch. I think I was told 500 or 600 yards was about the closest they could get to these dogs. The dogs start moving a little on the Garmin but still won't leave that area. They walk to the dogs and to the spot they were treed for so long and nothing. No piglet no nothing. One of the dogs is acting funny. On the way back to the truck the dog stops walking and won't move. Then it's entire body contracts and locks up. We'll I knew the dog and knew the condition in which it lived. Kept very well but in a small 10 x 15 type space. No exercise except on the occasion it gets to run 50 yards to a bay, etc etc. In this guy's story, before he ever got to the dog locking up I knew what was about to happen and where this story was about to go. He didn't recognize what was wrong with the dog when he first got to it, he didn't take water with him to the dog etc etc. Story ended up that they carried the dog the rest of the way out, set in the guys barn for a couple days and got no better and then he took it to the vet. (I find all this out after the dog is released from the vet by the way) what's the vet do for the dog? Exactly what I told him was wrong with the dog when he got half way through his story. Vet rehydrate he dog and puts a warming blanket on the dog to bring it's temperature back up to normal.
   The unfit dog was allowed to over exert itself, no we dealing with a build of lactic acid in the body and no water to rehydrate the dog and cool it down upon arrival to the dog, time was spent getting dog out and to the truck in which time the dogs body locked up. This adds enormous mystery for the two guys to what's going on with this dog. At this point I'm told the dog just ran down a pig the day before and did great. As the mystery deepens to them, it becomes more and more certain to me what caused this. Dog lived to catch again but none of this should have or would have happened if he would have fully listened to me. This half azzing things about killed his dog and ruined his confedence hunting like this again.
   Why did this happen and exactly what happened. Once it happens, how do you midagate it. What do you do going forward? The guy was told all of this prior to this ever happening. He thought what I do with my dogs was unnecessary and me just being weird. I told him why I do what I do. Which to which I would explain of him what I was avoiding you doing this. When it happened to him, it wasn't well I didn't prepare my dogs for such hunting or arm myself with the knowledge in how to hunt dogs like this and hunt this style, he didn't have actually have the right dog for the job either, just kinda making do with a boarder lined dogs ability to do that kinda work.
   So to answere the question as to how, why, and then what. Initial cause was lack of fitness and conditioning of the dog to perform such work. It stayed in a small kennel all the time with the exception of being snapped to the back of a ranger and then being allowed to run 50 yards to a bay every now and then.
   2, the day before he uses the cd to run down a pig not mentioned in this story. Now we have a build up of lactic acid in the muscles that has not been allowed to flush itself out yet before the next hunt. Next hunt we have a race which the dog was not fast enough for, was turned loose way to late with to much ground to cover on already running pigs that had reached cover. Not so much cover a good rcd couldn't have run a pig down quickly and caught but enough to slow one a little. So now we have just allowed a dog to run a mile with already high levels of lactic acid build up in the body. Further complicating things was the dog was brought no water. Then we have a failure to realize the shape the dog is in and why and can't at least get some fluids in the dog before it locks up. After the dog is back home, the reason for the dogs condition is still not known to the owner who allows the dogs condition to further decline getting fluids in the dog to rehydrate it and to flush out the substantial over load of lactic acid.
   Root cause for this dogs sad story = lack of understanding about they type of dog he has and it's requirments to perform certain tasks. I wouldn't be the least bit scared of using this dog for myself but got to get the dog fit enough to perform the work multiple times a day for a few times a week.
   Oh the other dog was fine but the guy thought he had a finder holder dog and was no where near such a dog