I don’t know if there’s a magic number dog wise for me to make it a good or bad hunt. I most definitely do this because I love to watch the magic dogs seem to be able to do. Everything from finding hogs when it’s crazy hot and insanely dry to extremely cold and wet or maybe even ice or snow on the ground. I don’t know if it fascinates me more to watch them grub a cold trail out or watch them run a hot track so hard and fast that it’s like they aren’t even working a track because somebody told them which bush the hog was under. I get the same joy watching the magic of a good old dog as I do seeing the light come on for a promising young dog. I love to watch the art of a dog or dogs that have the sense to size hogs up and know when to back up and how much to stretching one out that isn’t a threat to hurting them. I love to see the tenacity that they pursue a runner with and the effort they put into being able to get ahold of the back end and hang on until it squats. I love to walk up to a bay and see a respectable size hog literally sitting to protect their back side. I love to see dogs outsmart hogs and cheat the hogs so to speak. I love to know and see that a dog is going to stay at a bay until we catch the hog or I tell them it’s good enough, let’s go to the house. I love a catch dog that can think on their feet and the athletic ability to adapt. That’s amazing to me how quick they can do it. I love watching a dog that knows what the handler wants and knows that if the bay breaks what’s expected of them, go on with the bay dogs or give chase for 150ish yards and come back if it isn’t stopped.
We had a hunt recently that was by most people’s standards not good, even my nephew said “well that pretty much sucked”. I didn’t think so though. My dogs are soft and out of shape. They are doing good to get hunted once every two weeks. A young dog trashed on a skunk first thing. We got there and knew by the actions of the other dogs something wasn’t right and it wasn’t. Corrected him and loaded up and cast another spot. Immediately they left and about 6-700 yards later were bayed. Hogs broke and in a 150-200 yards they had about a 50-60 pound hog/gazelle cross stretched. That doesn’t sound too impressive until you factor in the terrain they went through to smoke this rascal. He tapped two ridiculous briar thickets and was about to dive into another when they put the whoa on him. These thickets might have 15 yards of clear ground between them. The other factor is that the dogs have been laid up on the couch eating bon bons more than they’ve been hunting. The dogs relayed before the hog took its last breath. In short order we had a split bay about 175 yards apart. The hog the old gyp and a pup were baying broke. The old gyp took it about .5 and we toned her back. The pup decided to go to the other bay. When the old gyp got back we headed to the other dogs. They were caught but just before we got there with the catch dogs it drug them off. The briar thicket they were in is one that you can’t even crawl through. It’s just curtains of briars and vines. I could totally see how bay dogs could get drug off. It’s in a creek bottom that hasn’t been tended to in several years so the places that aren’t thicket or woods is grown up in 6-10’ weeds. As you are driving over the weeds you have to cover your nose with your shirt because of all the dust and pollen being knocked off and it just makes your eyes burn. They tried to leave and bay again but we were ringing wet ourselves and I toned them back in. I didn’t see a reason to stroke them out. That wasn’t a dream hunt for sure but it was a good hunt in my eyes. The dogs did some really good things for what they had to deal with, being out of shape, extremely thick cover for running hogs to use, crazy scenting conditions, etc. They didn’t quit at any point, I told them to. I thought it was impressive and I was proud of them. Maybe nobody else would be but I feed them and I was lol. This to me was a good hunt because I felt like my dogs did what I expect of them or what I’ve bred them to do.
I’m glad you started this conversation. I thought maybe everyone had retired, especially when nobody tried to keep WOW not to fall under that young ladies spell to get hitched!
I definitely subscribe to a bad day of hunting being better than a good day working! I’m that weirdo who finds joy in a dry run. Just enjoy being in the woods.
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I prefer hogs that challenge the dogs as well. Hogs that jump around a couple times before they’ll take a bay. I find hunts where the dogs do good work and only catch a hog or 2 more fun than catching 7 or 8 uneducated hogs.
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I don’t get riled up about young dogs trashing a little. I’ve learned to appreciate the process & like a young dog that can take some correction and don’t shut down for the rest of the hunt.
I’m schooling three 8 month old pups now. I’m enjoying watching them learn & their enthusiasm. They are doing the wrong thing the right way right now. I had to let a skunk “ bite them” the other day.
After messing with those pups learning to handle , I loaded my old dog up and took him out solo a few weeks back. Been seeing solo boar sign on a place and those pups aren’t ready for that. Dropped him on a fresh wallow. He took the track .75 and bayed the boar in a nasty creek bottom. I tried to ease in and get a shot on him but it was too thick & it was gettin hot fast. Rather than risking a busted bay or him catching out, I toned him out, loaded up and went home. We will get him another time. Had a blast doing this. Appreciate the user friendly, broke, good handling old dog more as I get older!
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