Running Hogs

[cward]

i think you can have a dog with a ton of bottom and be able to hunt any size tract of land as long as that particular dog or dogs has a good handle. i like all my dogs to have a great handle to them. it really makes the hunting easier and creates less headaches. sometimes i cant get the dogs due to property boundraries and i have to call them off a hog. or sometimes  the dog and hog are in a very rough and dangerous spot where i cant get too so im able to call them off. just becasue you can call a dog off a hog does not mean that particular dog or dogs doesnt have bottom/drive it means they have a great handle and that im the one in control.....thats why i like curs....now hounds theres no way i  ever could truley devlope a concrete handle on them.

 i first started working dogs on  catching wild cattle and i had to have a handle or else i wouldnt ever get jobs and i figured out now that i get more invites to hunt on more property because i have dogs that have handle on them.


and ive been hearing alot about people needing diffrent dogs for diffrent types of hogs. i dont believe in that. i beleive that the dog should adapt itself to the hog at hand. a finshed dog should know how much pressure to apply to the hog to keep that hog stopped. wrather it be working the hog to a disadvantage and catching it or backing up and baying in a thick area. these dogs arent easy to come by and alot of times dogs dont get enough exposure or woods time to truely develop this style thats why i like starting dogs off on cows at first to get them alot of work and plus for me to honestly judge the dog. i like a dog that has more than one trick in its bag.....catching, loose baying, or keepin the hog spinning doing whatever it takes to stop the hog.

do football teams use diffrent quaterbacks every game becasue they face a diffrent defense......no they adapt and find a way to expose and attack the weak spots of the defense.

Where you been all my life!LOL
Good post!
I have hunted just about all over Texas! I caught hogs every where I went!
The hogs are no badder and don't run any worse than alot of the place's I hunt!I get out ran but I catch way more than I get out ran! I would say 95% of the time we catch hogs!

[Cutter Bay Kennels]

I would say the part about hounds not having a good handle on them is a general statement. I have seen hounds that did have a great handle though.   

You just have to look in the right place.   

[southtexasdogger]

X2  CWARD,

I run the same set of lead dogs rather Im hunting 15000 acres or 15 acres.
I can call my lead dogs off a bay or if they get on another property I can call them back and load up and go elsewhere. And they have TONS of bottom.
We do get outrun as well at times,If you have never been outrun than you have'nt hunting hogs long enough.
I do have several young dogs that will run a pig anywhere and everywhere,It is my responsability to use these dogs where they are less likely to end up on another property until I feel they have a good enough handle.

A situation happened last night where my (loose)strike dogs bayed at 600 yrds out we went to them on foot,leading 3 walkin catch dogs. When we got to the bay we found a bunch of hogs(20+++) bayed in a washout with several pigs.
You guys that run those real rough dogs would have been digging graves for them.
After about 10mins of hogs rallying the hogs finally broke and they bayed a BIG Toothy boar with a set of dog killers in a drainage ditch 240 yrs out.
One bulldog took a real bad kickin and 1 strike dog had his leg butchered up pretty nasty,This strike dog is a LOOSE bay dog.
My point is if I would have had rough dogs on the ground during this situation I would not have any dogs left this morning.

I have hounds with great handles













I

[cward]

I would say the part about hounds not having a good handle on them is a general statement. I have seen hounds that did have a great handle though.   

You just have to look in the right place.   

I have seen his hounds and they have a good handle!!
They DO NOT trash not even on a hog!JK 

[craig]

property owners, boundarys, posted,leased, keep out, just moved to the country bought 10 acres and dont want nobody on my place...  these are the things that have made me rethink hog hunting.   shure i want to catch hogs like everyone else.  but it shure aint worth getting shot, or getting dogs shot.   we have some crazy folks in these woods up here and there not the hog hunters.  

i have had those dogs with tremendous bottom.  and thats what every internet hog hunter dreams about.

 some of these ranches are 20,000 acres but most places are 100 acres or less but it never fails you are gona be over on the neighbor that dont want you there every time.  i want my dogs to do what needs to be done to stop that hog, if it can be done in a reasonable distance, say  2 miles .  if it goes on any longer i would just as soon my dogs quit and come in,  yeh culls to most folks.  

but i beleave a hog that has been dogged alot, and has become a runner, will be tough to stop no matter what kinda dogs you have.
example: Dirty Creek rough country known for big running hogs, i can go down with my curs and catch hogs 5 out of 10 trips, and be in and out in 4 or 5 hrs. i rarley catch the big hogs cause they dump the dogs off on a set of sows.
but a guy that hunts that area alot with plotts will dump out at dark and spend all night following his dogs and most of the time he goes home and comes back after daylight , this only happens when his dogs get hooked up on one of those runners.

 everyone has  different expectations of hog hunting some just want to kill hogs, but to me its more rewarding seeing one of my dogs find its first hog and improve with every hunt.  

[slick]

in my area we have quite a dingo/wild dog problem. because of this our pigs are always up for a fight, a dingo /wild dog would probably walk away for an easier meal rather than risk being turned into a pin cushion. I ran into a shoat yesterday that wanted a piece of me and it would of only been 40-50lb.
do you have other species in your area that are perhaps making your pigs more inclined to stop and fight or turn and bolt?

[craig]

no other predators in our area, a few cats, the coyotes arent a problem.

[Reuben]

do football teams use diffrent quaterbacks every game becasue they face a diffrent defense......no they adapt and find a way to expose and attack the weak spots of the defense.

I agree with part of this quote but will add that for a football team to be successful it needs different type players to make a great team and need a good coach or handler.

Gritty mtn curs with a few 1/4 pit mtn curs will catch lots of hogs.


I like gritty dogs with lots of hunt and grit. These dogs do best in open country or open woods. That is why I like hunting in January thru March when the weeds are down. These type of dogs need to run for hours on a hog if needed but will stop a hog when they get the chance.

I tried breeding the right dog for many years and sometimes I thought I needed lots of grit and then other times I thought I needed loose baying dogs.


I now think that enough grit to want to stop a hog is probably best and then back up and bay. The dog must want to keep the hog stopped and some of this is natural and some of this is learned and probably learned faster if done right in a bay pen and or hunted as often as possible. Some dogs have the inclination to push the hogs instead of trying to stop them. I believe some of these traits are natural whether it is to push a hog or stop it, kind of like a natural retrieve from a well bred hunting lab. Most is natural and part of it is trained.


I think that a hog dog needs to be very gritty and do all it can to stop a hog but then back up and bay loose enough to keep the hog stopped.

My observation is that when a hog figures out that evey time it tries to run that the dogs will bite then it will be less inclined to run and if the dogs are content to not pressure the hog then more than likely the hog will stay bayed.

The type of dogs I raised tended to only back up and bay if it was a bad boar or if they were tired of being caught.

If I have to pick rough or loose I will have to pick rough...

[Jared H.]

I agree with craig, even though most people would say its a cull, if a dog can't stop a hog within a couple of miles I'd rather them come on back.  I've had a dog that would run forever with a running hog and after a while it seems you spend more time hunting your dog than anything else. Also like he said they always end up exactly where you don't want them to be.  A older  guy I work with that has been doing this along time told me that if his dog can't stop it within 30 or 45 minutes he wants the dog to come back and find one they can stop.

[Reuben]

RUNNING HOGS.... Hogs are smart, I believe that most cur dogs can outrun a hog. The problem is that the hogs always go straight to the thickest part of the brush or woods to shake off the dogs. The dogs can not run in these thickets like a hog can. They will go to the biggest rose hedge to hide in or the biggest dew berry patch to hide in. This makes it hard to catch hogs because most dogs can't or won't go in, but some will and usually these are the type of dogs that will not quit.

Then you have the big old boars that have figured out to run thru a herd of shoats and sows to shake off the dogs. Sometimes these boars will run thru a herd of cattle or several herds of cattle.... All of the above mentioned sometimes makes us question the dogs we run whether they are rough or loose baying dogs because sometimes the loose baying dogs can't stop a running hog and a rough dog puts too much pressure and makes the hog break. All of the before mentioned sometimes will make us question what we believe but when it all lines up right and we catch hogs it makes it all worth it.

[jwdeltx]

 I took my three walker /cat crosses this morning and killed the rooter that ( was) plowing up the hay field. This is the norm for these dogs ,can’t explain why when squeak, one of the males gets cut regular. It’s rare for a hog to run more than a couple hundred yards when they bay them. When I run them with other dogs hogs will break , there’s been hunts were they bayed for an hour or more before I could get to them or find them. They are litter mates and seem to have a system !!