Don’t forget about the spandex wearing, granola eating, anti hunting, city slicking yuppies out there. Most of them think hunting a dog is cruel and mean and I have heard plenty of stories of berry pickers like that picking up hounds thinking they are “rescuing” them. Heck a few years back I had the law knocking on my door and said they had a “cruelty” complaint about me starving my dogs. It was the end of Sept. and they had a full training season and part of kill season under there belt and were in tip top hunting shape at the time, but to some berry picker they looked starved. So I am sure there are a few each year that disappear to the hands of jerk offs like that also?!?!
Another thing to think about, if we could come up whith a way to regester brands on are dogs,is it could aid whith the guy's who buy or sell. The bad part if everyone jumps on the wagon here and brands there dogs it would hurt the dog jockies
If you are a computer savy person you could make a business out of this yourself. Its kind of the mentality of if you build it they will come.
I'm new to hunting with Big Game Hounds, but I think in most club or Houndsmen groups dont they keep a record of Brands and who owns them etc... if not they should.
If you build a web-site, after you get registered Kennels, and Houndsmen to join, you send out a quarterly print of all the registered Brands you have on record so far to Members and Houndmen Clubs, and also make it available to people on line to print out. Charge a small fee for your hassel and to cover your costs.
At first it would be slow, but put an ad in the Full Cry and on the internet forums, call all the Houndsmen clubs around the country, etc.. etc... etc... I'm sure it would go.
You could go so far as registering all the individual dogs under a certain Houndsmens Brand. Keep a file of pictures that show each dog and where the Brand is. Then if a dog is sold it can be made on record that the dog was sold and you could transfer that dog with that brand over to another persons Profile or if they dont change or add another Brand, you can keep it on the original Houndsmans Brand but drop it down like a family tree. Also offer an viewable, online Profile data base that each houndsmen can list their own dogs with pictures of their dogs and of their Brands etc... etc... etc... If and when a dog comes up missing, Lost or Stolen you post that dog and all information on who the owner is, where it came up missing or how it got Stolen etc... for all to view. If and when a dog is Stolen or Lost a picture of that dog along with other dogs could go out in a emergency mailing to all the Houndsmen Clubs and Registery Members, around the country.
I'm sure there are a hundred other ideas too. You could keep it real simple or you could go in depth. BUT the basic idea of having a Brand registery of any kind is a good one.
Larry Lowell
Last edited by Mt Goat on Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved
body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, Shouting !!!
" ...HOLY SHIT....WHAT A RIDE...!!!!!! " ..........-George Carlin-
mt goat,
I thought about that but am not really into stepping on the toes of local and state livestock boards.... I know they have more money in thier acounts than I do. So I contacted my state board to see if they could assist me in this.
I dont know how a dog Brand would step on the toes of the Livestock people. They are completely seperate. This idea of registering Dogs with Brands, would be more than just a local, state type registery, it would be a Nation wide Registery, and for Dogs, not livestock. Livestock guys have their own rules they deal with. We're taking about dogs. If your worried about some back lash, just make sure, you clearly state that these Registered Freeze Brands are ONLY for registering Dogs andin no way cross over in anyway with the livestock industry. Most people now already have a Brand they use, it would be better to register that Brand. When you start getting guy that have and or use the same Brand they will have to modify it a bit, or change it completely.
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved
body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, Shouting !!!
" ...HOLY SHIT....WHAT A RIDE...!!!!!! " ..........-George Carlin-
My brand is the same brand ,I brand my cattle with, I just told the Cattlemens asst that I had also made a freeze brand, because most of the dairymen freeze brand around here.. I had a guy here not to long ago try and tell me , he hot branded his dogs, LOL he must have some real good dogs, because mine would never let me tuch them again, matter of fact I think they would bite me every time they got the chance if I did that.
"Good question. What I never understood is that we actually have a place on a dog's perm. record where you can list a brand. But I'm not sure any of that information is saved? It might appear on a dog's papers, I'm not sure. But if we have it, it should be archived somewhere. That would be cool.
I'll recommend the forum idea to the staff and see what they think. You're right, if it helps recover one dog, it's worth it."
This is what my response was from the UKC. They also told me that there is a place on the paper registration applications for identification marks.
Given the governments long and proud history of screwing up everything they touch, I think it would be better not to involve the government, at either the state or federal level. I do think that a privately owned regestry is a good idea.
So I got Mr. Kellum at the UKC to start a thread that people can use to place a photo of thier brand. This can out a lot as people who are looking at perspective hound can see if it has a brand and then check it out on the link and see if that brand matches anyones, then ask the owner of such brand about the dog (as sometimes its a dog that was sold or given away to someone) but at least who ever put the brand on the dog can say who they sold/gave it too and perhaps give the perspective buyer some feedback on the dog such as history and why it was good enough to get thier brand in the first place. Please check the link out. I will place a picture of my brand on it when I get home tonight (its a left facing arrow with a bar underneath it).
I've been following this thread and have to say that there are some very good and interesting ideas being thought through. There is nothing that will keep a dog thief from stealing a dog so all we can do is do everything we can to deter them and help recover our dogs. I believe the best two things a guy can do is freeze brand your dogs and micro-chip them. Freeze branding may deter some thieves due to the visual brand and micro-chipping is by far the best means to recover a dog these days since every shelter and vet are now using chips to verify and ID dogs that come in.
I've had dogs picked up and hauled 100 miles away and dropped off at a shelter by some dogooder. Without a chip, I would have never got that dog back.
Most guys don't think of chipping thier dog until after he's missing. You can get it done at some shelters for around $15.
Dean Hendrickson
Pine, CO.
Rocky Mountain Wildlife Studios
rmwildlifestudios.com
