Continued from a old conversation

[lettmroll]

T-dog
The first half of my life all the country were I lived was about 90% open because the cow kept all the under brush eat out. Even though I wished we still had that way of life, since it's gone it's taught me a few things. 1 is regardless thick coat or not, I don't need a Garmin to tell me if a dog is hustling to find a hog or if they are trying to get to a hog (actually catch up to it and stop it) that's running. A lot of times the first time I hunt with somebody they will ask if my dog's have some kind of mange. Before I answer I ask is it thick where you hunt, then I say no it's from the briars. Key places is over their eyes, down the center of the front legs, ears and some on the tail. A slick haired dog is not as noticeable but it's there if they are doing it.

[t-dog]

You just described how my Outlaw dog looks right now. The old coon hunters use to say they wouldn’t buy a dog that had  slick healthy ears. They said if it was a real coon dog and was being hunted, those ears were gonna be rough as heck, split, and notched up from briars and coons. I think my circle has had more dogs with eye injuries in the last 5 years than I’ve had the previous 25. I think it’s because of the way they push through brush on track, running it a lot more aggressively and faster.


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[lettmroll]

They must be right on the hog, running pretty much a straight track or it's happening at night.
I've had the injuries at night more, or one of my dog's that's like to run straight track. Mine the will run 40 50ft off a track I don't hardly have that trouble and most the time seem like they can get it stopped sooner

[t-dog]

I’d agree it’s most likely being right on a hog, being able to see it. I don’t night hunt anymore. It was always a pain to me I finally just decided that I was done with it. My dogs are going to take the track however they can. They definitely aren’t track straddlers unless they have to. There is a time for that as well. As far as tracking or trailing goes, I want it to be pushed as hard as possible. That being said, if your dogs are making a lot of losses because they over run their nose, the time made up by speed is lost in trying to recover it over and over. I had a bird dog/ running Walker cross years ago and he was real bad about overrunning his nose. He was fast fast but we bayed a ton of hogs behind him because he wouldn’t get bayed until he was out deep. Had he slowed down a little and paid attention to his nose a little more, he would’ve found those hogs. My dogs are typically good about using the wind to their advantage. Scent is a funny thing sometimes. There are so many variables and depending on those variables as to how a dog can move a track or when and where they can smell it. They may have straddle it or like you said, they may be a good distance off of it paralleling it. I always thought it was kind of neat how a set of good bobcat hounds worked. I’m talking about the running dogs used here in the south and southeast.  If there’s 5,6,7 or however many dogs on the ground, they usually have specific thing that they are better at. Like one may strike better and trail to a point where the next dog takes the track over and really pushes it faster and gets the cat jumped. Then there may be a swing dog that doesn’t run the track as much as it cuts corners and anticipates the cat turning. This dog isn’t running over the track, he’s cheating it and trying to take slack out of the race. The team work is pretty impressive in a good set of those dogs. These are things that I enjoy watching, the reasons I love to dog hunt. Some people are just focused on catching hogs. If they don’t catch a hog or they don’t catch one quick, or several of them then they don’t enjoy it. I’ve came home without catching anything and been as happy as if I had, just because I saw my dogs do well and try hard. How they do whatever they do is more important to me. It sounds like your dogs have an awesome drive. That’s something I really appreciate. It’s a must, especially on running type hogs.


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[Slim9797]

You just described how my Outlaw dog looks right now. The old coon hunters use to say they wouldn’t buy a dog that had  slick healthy ears. They said if it was a real coon dog and was being hunted, those ears were gonna be rough as heck, split, and notched up from briars and coons. I think my circle has had more dogs with eye injuries in the last 5 years than I’ve had the previous 25. I think it’s because of the way they push through brush on track, running it a lot more aggressively and faster.


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Them dogs and the eye injuries is nuts. King was running around like a pirate for 3 weeks after running that twig off in there.


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[lettmroll]

Thanks and for sure you have a whole world of people that look at things different. But at the end of the day as long as I'm happy with what my dog's done then, they going to have a good place to sleep and feed in the bowl every day rain or shine. There is about 3 things that is a must in a dog for me and not to be rude but I think there should be a standard on 3 things for every hunter that has dog's. Just my opinion,

[t-dog]

Dog men and women have standards. If they lack standards they likely lack good dogs unless they just go buy them. Usually those folks ruin good dogs if they buy them because they have no standards, goals, or understanding. Standards are a must and again, you’re right, as long as the man feeding them is satisfied that’s all that matters.


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[Judge peel]

I would agree with what yall said. It’s super thick in most spots I hunt if a dog won’t bust that stuff and can’t refund the hog after it crosses the deep creeks around here they have almost zero chance. I always take a started dog to the thickest spots by itself if they can go in there 800 plus and get bayed then you know you have a good dog