Question for Dewey

[pegleg]

i have only had one or two dogs that i didn't appreciate. and both were older dogs from but to me i will not fight with a dog forever its either my way in a few months time or its my answer. i 've seen dogs so wild you could never get them to be reliable. this is typically when a dog hasn't had any interaction with people from birth and they act just like a damn coyote. you can work with them and develop some kind of relationship but it sure isn't a third of a well socialized dog. but what i was really referring to is hounds that have been hunted and handled that have never been taught to handle and those dogs that hunt so deep they are for all intents and purposes lost before they ever strike a track. my dogs are always within a half mile or so of me if not much closer until we hit a track period. if im riding up this ridge you don't go running down the canyon or whatever three or four ridges away to hunt on your own in a different direction. if a hound or whatever becomes lost they all learn to trail a horse even stag hounds are quit capable of following the swath of scent a few horses and pack of hounds leaves for hours in most conditions and if that dog hasn't realized somethings wrong by then ?

[al baldwin]

The hound I said I could never break from going hunting on is own was skinner/s grand sire, on his dame/s side. What I was referring to was you could not turn him loose around the house & trust him to stay, turn your back and he may be gone hunting. He only had about 100 feet from the house to the woods, & actually treed a couple bobcat within a couple hundred yards from the place. In the woods he actually handled well, ever bit as hard hunting hound as skinner, treed numerous bobcat by himself. A tree dog but chewed at the tree, not something I like in a hound, did not have the disposition skinner had. Could be a little tighter mouth than I like at times, but a game catcher, that would check a deer or coyote, after a lot of butt kickings. Hard to let a hound like that go. But I did at 8 years old sold him, at that time, by the time one reached eight I had younger hounds taking there place. The person who bought him kept him until he passed at 14 and they hunted him until he passed. Turned him loose one night to go hunting, he disappeared, found him a few days later curled up in the hay barn.
David I too will not let my hounds run loose at night, or in the day if I am not at home. My wife will let them loose when I am not home sometimes, I give her heck, but she seems to ignore me. These hounds are spoiled a little, friend Tom says dogs at my place are staying at the Holiday Inn. Al

[scrubrunner]

David, I know I am answering a question you ask several post back but I fox and deer hunted most of my life with the coyote wild type hounds described and know a lot of hunters who still do. I was just a taxi cab to the woods for them, when turned out I couldn't catch them till they were ready to be caught, have hid behind a bush and tackled or ran one down and have left hounds in the woods a many a time. There is a world of people out there that think if you put a handle on a dog as described in the above post it will ruin it as a hunting dog. Go figure. I just didn't know it was possible to train a running walker to stop running and come load up until I saw a man's dogs do it one night several years ago. I knew if he could do it, I could do it. As y'all know I discovered it makes hunting with hounds so much more enjoyable when you can call or tone and they come. I had one deer hound when turned out if you didn't hear him in 20 to 30 minutes you better crank your truck up turn on your telemetry box and get to the beep because he was running somewhere. I hated him but he produced too much game to do away with. Than I got the collars and put a handle on him and it also changed the way he hunted, he didn't get out of pocket near as bad, still produced more game than any other hound in my hunting party and could be called off a race with just a little shock. It always took a little shock for him if he was running. Just an example of an uncontrolable hound becoming a pleasure to hunt with by just having a minimum of a handle on.