Tools...Toys...or Recreational Pets?

[KevinN]

But I wouldn't walk away from the sport. Just go through a grieving period, lol....and I suspect it will always be like that.

[Mike]

All of the "pet" owners that I've been around over the years are the first ones to hang it up when something bad happens.

[Bowtech99]

I wouldn't quit the sport, and I'd prolly start back huntin in a couple weeks.

I dont hunt because i have too, or need too. I enjoy my dogs, and i enjoy the hunt.also enjoy the fellowship with my friends when they go. But I am close to my dogs, i spend alot of time with them and develop a dog/owner relationship. I dont have a huge pack, or a couple packs. I have 5 dogs that i hunt with. Only hunt 2-3 at a time. but Im close with my dogs, raised em all up from pups. I've never lost a dog, so i really dont know how i would react. Knowin me, if i get to bay and one of mines down, forget tiein hog, im gonna shoot it if i can, pull other dogs off and tote my buddy out to the hill.

One of mine got killed, i just lost a huntin buddy. . . call me a pansy, but its all good everybodys different. 

[Nash]

Guess to categorize my own beliefs. 

Tools. And nothing more while they are being utilized.  Anything more than that I feel starts getting into the pet aspect.  And that's where the emotional level kicks in.  Never have wanted to fall into that category for fear of being susceptible to favoritism on something more than raw ability and drive VS a more attractive personality.  They get petted when they accomplish goals not for laying around and lickin their rears.

I do however believe in the pet aspect being applicable in a working dogs life........When it gets Retired!  Its earned everything and achieved all the goals.  Wanna lay around with the kids and wife and get petted all day ....no problem ......... Work till the boss says Good Enough and the porch is yours. 

Am just like the rest.. dont like losing one....but have several more behind and beside to take its place and continue hunting. 

This pretty much sums it up for me also.  My hunting dogs are strictly tools.  The only time they come out of the kennels is when we hunt, and upon returning home they go right back.  My sons take turns feeding, and there are times where I don't even see the dogs for a week or so.  I don't pet them, don't play with them...they are for work.  Been doing it that way for a very long time and they nor myself have ever seemed to have any complaints.

         X2

[Fixitlouie]

In our yard a little of all three depends on the dogs but yltimatly hog hunting is a hobby fun for me. Have tools pets and toys that all hunt and catche hogs

x2. I dont make my living with my dogs...i make fun.

from me.....who else. tapatalk

[TColt]

I really like this discussion and there are some great posts. Good topic!

I rais all puppies like pets. Not in the house and all that, but still like pets. They get to run free until they get to the point they are leaving off in the bottoms in the mornings and stayin gone for hours at a time, then they get put up in a kennel. They get to get out most days and have some supervised play time when I'm feeding cows, or working in the shop, or whatever, but only when Im staying at the house. When they are around six months or so, they can go on a chain to open the kennels up for a bitch thats in heat or more puppies.

All my cur dogs are strictly tools as soon as they start hitting the woods. I have one 5 yr old cur dog, that Ive had for four years, let come with me when Im out of town and she gets to sleep with me when Im not staying at home, but she is still strictly a tool in the woods. She is a loose loose dog and never gets hurt, so I feel like I can get more attached to her and not be too worried about the heart brake.

My catch dogs are pets when at home, one is always outside, one is inside at night because my girlfriend feels safer with him in the house. They are tools when in the woods. I get extremely attached to them, but not until I see that they will lay it all out on the line for me. I think that is what makes me like the cd's so much, because if I could really help it, I wouldn't show any emotion to them because they are a heart brake waiting to happen. But the fact that that dog will stand in its own guts for me, just really makes me love the number 2 out of them lol.

When in the woods, my cd are tools. Even though they are pets at home, I can separate the working dog from the pet dog when hunting. And I ask a lot more of my catch dogs than most people do, like going to bays half a mile away, or being a rcd. Had my male, the one that stays inside, get a nick this past fall and it cut the vein in his shoulder. He about bled out on the hog, we broke him off, tied the hog, carried him out and got him to the vet. He wasn't conscious at this point and didn't really think he would make it, went back to the woods, got the hog out and went and caught the next pigs that the cur dogs already had bayed up. Luckily they got him fixed up and he made it.

So yes, I can keep hunting when something happens to a dog, even if they are a pet. I know its part of the job, and I go in with realistic expectations no matter how I feel about the dog.

I don't think having the dogs as pets clouds my judgment, because they really have to prove themselves before I like them that much. Its just hard for me to get attached to a number 2ty performing animal, weather it be a horse or dog or whatever. Its the performance that makes me so attached to them. In fact, a dog I like a lot because of their personality, can make me despise them for poor performance.

I had a cur dog that I really like, but he was still just a tool. He was a tool to the point that I couldn't even get him to take a T-bone steak out of my hand. I would have to toss it on the ground to him, or he wouldn't eat it, no matter what I was trying to give him. I cried like a baby when that dog got killed.

 So I think its really the performance that gets me so attached to the dogs. I don't know, maybe Im way off base here compared to most people. But I don't have any animals that don't serve a functional purpose. If they can't do their job, they can't be a pet either.

[halfbreed]

  I agree tcolt if you get a pup it has to be very well socialized and allowed to get all the attention it wants , I do go so far as to bring pups in the house to do this and as a result you get dogs that handle extremely well without much work or effort . they learn to understand commands at a whisper [ most times ]  lol

[TColt]

Another example of how I feel...

I had a catch dog bitch that I raised in the house, sleeping with me, whole nine yards on the pet thing. Put her in the woods, she was doing good, finding pigs pretty good, catching good, but she got killed at 14 mo old. I don't see a dog completely proving themselves at that point in the life, and when she got killed, I didn't bat an eye, shed a tear, or loose any sleep what so ever.

I guess I just don't get the "pet" feelings towards an animal unless they are just a badass at what they are supposed to do, and they prove it to me.

[BigFool]

My dogs are tools and by no means the sharpest ones in the shed either, but if you want complete a job you need to have the necessary tools to do so. So with that being said if your are a plumber and are fixing a leaking pipe and break a pipe wrench do you quit or finish the job?  That's why my dogs are tools, I am the one to finish not quit in the middle. But also my thoughts are a tool is only as good as the craftsman using the tool, and using the tool properly and for which it was intended for makes the tool more useful. Many people will use a knife as a screw driver and WHAT usually happens to it? You break the tip off is the knife no good not necessarily but it won't ever be as efficient as it was before when it was used properly.

What got  me into this sport was the love and passion for dogs but not just any dogs the ones that had the same love, passion, will, and determination that I do for life and hating pigs!!!!!!!!!!!

[laurendaniel1995]

Toys