Sunday was hot, humid and a sad day for me...

Goose...it is exactly how JP described it is why and how I do it...I feel very comfortable running vests on the rough strike dogs...the vest have saved them from injury or just keeping injury to a minimum...I see the vest as giving enough protection that a minor puncture will remind the dog to protect itself from the bad end of the hog...but getting there quick is important in keeping the dogs from overheating to the point of losing one to the heat...

in this case I made the mistake of thinking my two hunting buddies had caught the dogs when they showed treed...about 20 or 30 minutes later they again showed treed about 150 yards further and were treed almost an hour total...young dogs tend to fight real hard trying to kill a hog...I believe that killing the second hog was what caused the pup to overheat to the point of no return...had I known they had one caught we would have been there pretty quick...and then we could of caught the second hog without a serious problem...

once upon a time my stomach would be in knots every time I turned out my mt curs because of worry...about injury, running too far, and even heat stress...did not run vests back then...

Now with the Garmin Alpha and the running vests I am pretty much relaxed more often than not...I do not regret the vests...I have been using them on my rough dogs now for about three years and this is my first loss to the heat...