MADE ANOTHER HUNT TODAY

[The Old Man]

  Struck  a decent track, 3 of my dogs, about a half mile later things really sped up, at a mile they came bayed. Had a decent boar probably 150 lbs and he provided some anti-catch training for one of my older young dogs. He was bayed in a root ball hole from a big blowdown tree. Way before we got to them he was baying hard "without" a mouthful of pork, If this hog would have had more tooth OL'Curly may not have still been with us. He got a 5 inch vertical cut right in the center of his chest just below where his neck ties in, just skin deep, a 3 inch horizontal cut right in the center of his ribs that did get into the meat but not the cavity, and a pretty good cut in the hindquarter muscle. We went on from there and got into some shoats, mashed a few of them. Hope he has gotten wiser, I've seen some that do and some that don't.
Adam's pups missed out on that, his young female that is older had took another track "very independent" and his pup had went with her they were out of communication alot so don't really know what they were doing, pretty sure they were running hogs as we had casted them right into a big bunch of deer and they didn't pay them any attention.
  We were forever getting into their country and they appeared to be trying to go home, so we rode 4 miles out and drove way around and found them on a road that led to Adam's house.

[WayOutWest]

Well you gotta hope that education takes. But some just get mad and want to get even. Looks like you are getting a decent start this year.

[t-dog]

Sounds like Ole Curly was just about able to step right out of his suit. Those size boars seem to be the ones that get dogs. They size them up and think they are small enough to handle only to find out that rascal forged in fire. Hopefully he’ll do a better interview next time before he makes a decision. Stay after them, your off to a real good start it sounds like.


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[The Old Man]

   Some Everett Weems, of Plott fame wisdom on the subject of rough dogs. He once told me bear dogs were the easiest performance dogs to breed and raise, I asked how so? He said those with more guts than brains the bear would kill them, those that quit and come out I kill them that just leaves the good ones left to breed. I think that can apply to hog dogs as well, it seems very logical, I want one that's rough enough to succeed but with enough intelligence and agility to survive. That's why most of use a catchdog, or a gun. What he described was a natural culling process, rough enough to eat but smart enough to survive without severe injury. Right back to the wolves instinct.
  I am aware that one can just get caught in a bad position now and again.

[The Old Man]

  Update on the bulldog, it was his first trip with us muleback. He didn't try to catch a mule haha, I didn't think he would as I'd exposed him at home, also had a collar on him set on cowboy high with my finger on the button, he followed off leash extremely well with very little correction, and still caught hard. I did send him once to a bay in the briars amongst the shoat excursion we had, from about 40 yds and it broke before he got in there and he did run with the dogs awhile until he caught a shoat on his own, he is an open trailing bulldog haha. I had taken the collar off of him so it wouldn't get torn up. I'll have break him to come back if a hog breaks on the way in.  He got lots of exercise though, we rode 13.8 miles besides the little extra he got running with the baydogs. So far so good for Ol'Blue.

[t-dog]

Old man, hogs know the difference between hounds and bulldogs. That bulldog was just trying to disguise himself as a hound so that the hogs might not be quite as scared, kind of a camouflage.

That’s pretty sound advice about the natural selection. Now and then you get those bay busters that don’t quit the hog but aren’t fully vested in catching and they are gonna try every hog. If a person isn’t paying attention those type will slip past you. Usually they get the better dogs hammered or worse. People that sit back and wait, that won’t leave the buggy to watch their dogs work might not realize this is going on. Sometimes you can watch the garmin and see what has happened.


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[The Old Man]

  I have pondered the bay busting with Curly, he's been part of 5 or 6 hog bays recently and has yet to flush a hog, not counting those shoats squirreling around in the briars. I've been paying attention because it's been different, I think maybe he has caught solid and hard for awhile and when he turns loose they just aren't running off. A couple of times when we were a long time getting there he would be baying but the hogs ears would be all marked up. If they were close we'd hear a squeal and or grunting he'd still be caught. Whatever is going on I would rather he'd back up and bark at a standing hog. And if he tries the wrong hog he will add data to the natural culling process.


  A long time ago I was hunting a pair of Plotts together and they began to wreck a few hogs, I was aggravated with them and had decided I couldn't hunt them together. One evening a fellow came by and told me he had saw some hogs cross close to home, so I grabbed them and turned them out where he told me they'd been. They ran over a good ways and bayed, I was walking to them listening to the music and got to a big field and was able to see them a couple hundred yards away, there were 3 hogs backed up to an old wooden lot with the 2 dogs about 6-8 feet away just bowed down baying, the dogs weren't picking at the hogs at all. Very rare thing to bay one where you could see it and 75 ft behind the old lot there was a brushy draw.  I was just easing along there listening and watching when, with no apparent cause one of the hogs broke, the dogs ran up beside the hog each got an ear and after the hog stopped they each switched to a front leg just above the hogs elbow and were jerking on it. I saw they weren't catching unless the hog ran, and they somehow had learned how to quickly cripple one. Those they had wrecked had been broke down in the front end.
  Hunted in Texas with a dog that gutted every hog we bayed, under the flank in the soft part of the underbelly.   All that to say that dogs under use sometimes learn odd or uncommon things.

[t-dog]

Oldman I have seen exactly what you’re talking about in those scenarios. Sometimes it takes a little bit for those dogs that are teetering on the line of catch or don’t catch to learn to size up and know when to when. My Outlaw dog is one of those. I love what he decided to be but it definitely took some convincing. I think he was a lot the same as his daddy was. They don’t go in looking to catch but they bay tight, not trying to catch but not giving any  save either. A lot of those boars would rush them naturally, but they didn’t have any back up so they would just catch. Sometimes it would work out in their favor and sometimes it was a bad outcome for them. Outlaw learned and has really gotten good about using stock sense. His daddy never learned it. He stayed on injured reserve as much as he was healthy to hunt and eventually naturally culled. Outlaws uncle was the worst kind of dog for my liking. He tried every hog. I saw him get cut by every hog we bayed in a day and not catch a single one. He wasn’t getting close and then rushed, he was literally wading into the brush and forcing an attempt. I watched him get Outlaws littermate brother killed because he was counterfeit and tried a boar in almost knee deep creek water. He got cut and backed up but Outlaws brother committed and was left solo. He didn’t make it to the vet. Outlaws uncle had 11 substantial cuts from that me hunt, his last one with me. The dog that died was 10 times the dog he was. I noticed the better stock sense my dogs have the more baying I get to watch. It makes hunting a lot more fun to me because I’m way more about watching the dogs work than I am about catching a hog. I’d say I consider each hunt a training session more than a hunt. I try to do the things to help my dogs get better each time.


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[NLAhunter]

Sounds like bulldog is gonna work out for you

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[The Old Man]

  I think so, was pretty fortunate, I guess. You can't just get a pound bulldog for a catchdog with a great amount of success anymore and so far other than wishing he was bigger, I like him. He is far better than no catchdog. I just got spoiled to the 80-90 lb catchdogs that were still athletic, they just keep their feet on the ground better and more easily handle bigger hogs. Not an absolute must but still a plus.

[Cajun]

Y'all have been getting some good hunts in. Sounds like you have more hogs then you used to have. I believe it was one of the Plott boys that said that the bears  kill the plotts that are too rough and he kills the ones that are not rough enough. Ole Everett sure did produce a good strain of bear hounds.