What Do Ya think

[three rivers catahoulas]

I think it is harder now to run and catch any game be it, hogs, bear, cat what ever, because they are ran more now then 30 years ago. But I do think the dogs we run these days are alot differant then the dogs ran 30 years ago, I think the dogs of old were smarter then the dogs of today. The dogs of the past new to come out to were they were let go and had way better homeing skills, the dogs of today are so used to us comeing to them, with the tracking collars they have lost some of the skill's they once had.

[Copper]

I'm not thirty years old But I have dogs that every time they get left overnight come right back to where I let them go. So I don't think the dogs have gotten dumber but the way most people hunt has changed.

[pete richardson]

The dogs of the past new to come out to were they were let go and had way better homeing skills,

i dont think you can loose homeing instinct in a few years---- but its something to pay attention to -


before tracking collars- a lot of dogs returned to where let go----


or were lost--


just naturally culled hard for homeing instinct -

but i dont want to quit using collars -

i think your right --

they are looseing it-- but dont think its hopeless yet lol


years ago , i had a few dogs that were such strong homers it was a pain to take them hunting any distance---lol


they went home---- 5 miles or thirty lol



sometimes they were headed home before i realized the hunt was over


when starting pups -
i dont rush in there to get them if i think they just got left behind and not likely to be hurt or hung up
-
- if i consider it safe-- away from highways and lately , just away from dogooders who cant wait to rescue them lol --

i like to give them a chance to find there way back -


i think the first few times influences them for life --

it has always amazed me how fast a dog thats good at it, can go back to where turned out - the better ones seem to find me -

[Spanky]

The question being what it is "When was it harder to catch game" I say 30 years ago it was tougher to catch game then today. First thing that comes to mind was the finances then and the reality that we could not afford the gagits and equipment like Tri tronics or Wildlife systems we have today.

So the first fact is we did not have the equipment we have today for both training and for both recovery/locating making it easier today. Trashbreaking today is soo much easier then the old "head then off with the truck and a stick" training we used to do, there for we have the ability today to train a better hound resulting in more game. We have better ability/access today for getting around then we did then. Snowmobiles, 4 wheelers, personal hunting rigs etc....Also game was not as plentiful then as it is now in our area.

As for hounds being smarter then? If your going to using homing instict as a marker for determining a smarter hound well my hounds still come out to a coat or shirt if left out so not sure how that has anything to do with putting an animal in the tree. I understand the ability to back track is also the ability to to follow up a track but I myself feel its the heart and desire to run the track to the end has more to play with then whether a hound is smarter. Just my opinion.....

[blackpaws]

30 years ago in wisconsin the old timers say that they had could drive all day and maybe find 1 track to run. now you find a track every half mile. so i would have to say it was harder 30 years ago.

[Mt Goat]

I voted that its Harder to hunt today than 30 years ago.

Today we have all to deal with all the Anits, and do gooders. The Laws are tougher, and the areas to hunt are beginning to be more developed. The seasons are more controlled and shorter today verses the past etc... etc... etc... All this make it harder to make a dog because training, and hunting are so restricted

[Nolte]

Here is my take.

It's harder to hunt now and deal with all the BS.

But it was harder to catch critters back then due to lack of them and less technology.

Back in that day, you never worried about something happening to the dogs. You'd lose them, look for awhile and if you didn't find them head home and wait for a call. The majority of the time you'd get them back. I remember my Dad and Uncles best dogs being gone half the week and them not being worried about it. Heck they used to joke they only had to feed them half the week.

Now you've got to stay on top of them or some Anti or Lowlife will take them.

[pete richardson]

harder now -- swamps have got deeper-rivers faster - brush thicker , mountains steeper -

ok the brush is only thing thats true --and thats not all bad
- between the logging and ice storm - ---it got so there was no open woods here


but , more berries and ants

seems like everybody i knew had a skidder - cant tree a bear---unless you got a tree - lol before u loggers jump me-- i logged a few years myself--

logging has slowed now -- was crazy 20 years ago-

may be more bear now -many are small-- and can run like the wind

lot of our worst clearcuts have rotted down and grown up---

should be getting easier --growing back faster than its being cut now




- ive been bear hunting 23 years and cant comment on it before that


i think we treed a few bear with dogs that couldnt catch one now--

we were able to find more big bear -- we hunted more in fall and less in summer to make up for slower dogs -

since tracking collars-- lot more bear hunters
more recreational hunters ,, not killing them - i see that as a good thing--- but may make them dog wise

bear have a college education in dogs -dont seem to find the pop up pup trainer type bear we used to -

in last few year s, they have outlawed deer baiting and killing of bear off them-- this will mean more bear - maybe??? i know it will in my area ---where theres a ton of bow hunters ---

my buddy tells me---bait means more cubs survive--

yup if u dont kill there momma -




the biggest difference tween now and 30 years ago is the BS - posted land-gates bunny huggers etc -

still plenty of woods but ive lost half the roads i used to rig from --


just lately --- price of gas and dog feed --and everything else , is going to make it harder

[PIGLET]

I think nolte hit it on the head, it's tougher hunting less technology, less roads and less smarts on my part thirty years ago. The game seems to have stayed the same depending on how good of pack, how abundent the game, and how dedicated the hunter, helps on how much game goes up..

[Mike Leonard]

Well technology is much better than 30 years ago. Yes by then we had tri-tronics and early wild life trackers but they were still pretty limited. A lot of guys couldn'y afford them and some guys never bothered if they were in remote country because they never worried much about losing a dog.
Better pickups more reliable, better ATV's, snow machines and such a lot more roads in the mountains in a lot of areas have made it easier to get around and so a lot more guys do sort of hobby hunt. I think it is different in every area. Some of the areas have been closed or restricted for some species like Colorado no hounds for bear, other states no lion hunting so it's getting harder to find decent places to hunt.

So I guess it is probably a toss up because 30 years may seem like a long time to some but really it isn't.Heck I moved to this area 28 years ago and I had already been in hounds and had hunted over a pretty good piece of the west by then. I will say it was sure a lot easier to find a lion track to run back then.
Now if you would have said 50 or 60 or more years that really would have changed the dynamics. That was before tracking systems, shock collars, personal four wheel drive vehicles were very uncommon, and snow machines were a joke. Yes it was mighty tuff then and back to the hunters of the horse and buggy days but the great hunters of that time are still some we talk about today.

[three rivers catahoulas]

the main reason I think its harder today is because every body and there brother have a pack of dogs and the game has just gotten so dog smart, at least were I hunt, Technolegy is way better, but all the technolegy in the world will stop a bear or a hog that dont want to stop and has been ran by hounds since it was a cub. I dont think all dogs have lost the homeing instinct, but a good deal of them have, and that is due to technolegy, instead of them haveing to come to us if they get way out there and we lose them, now most of the time we go to them, so they have learned that we come to them,and for the most part stay at the tree longer, not sayin there wern't dogs back then that stayed tree'd tl you came and got them though, because I would look like an idiot for sayin that, I dont think the dogs have lost any thing eles besides the homeing, but they have learned other things that make up for that.

[onalimb]

States that outlawed hounds, no cutting in the national forest, massive amount of new gates and road closures, and all timber company land raped to the dirt. Wolves, wolves, and more f$%#ing wolves!!!!
I wish it was 30 years ago.

[Tim Cook]

Not thirty years young yet so I don't know, I can only go by storys and knowing the way it use to be done. The biggest thing here is having a place to go, BIG timber companys own everything and lock it all up, foot show only behind the gates Anti's hurt us bad here in Oregon, took away our lion and bear hunting, so those two reasons would make it tougher today then thirty years ago. But as far as everything else goes we got it way easyer now days. "Old Timers" didn't have anything we do now days. I on both sides of the fence.