Question for Dewey

[scrubrunner]

I don't see a debate here, just people who use their hounds differently with different needs. I can't hunt mine from home anymore I have to haul them 25 to 40 miles to hunt. They live together (9) in a 100'x50' pen, plenty of room to exercise and play so I don't turn them loose here anymore except pups, only when I'm home. They are trained to hunt when turned loose and to come when I call, that's about all the handle I need on one anymore. I understand that the way Pegleg and some of you others get to hunt the necessity and advantage of such training. Wish I could hunt like that. I think some of us got the impression that some of y'alls hounds ran loose 24-7 whether you were home or not and never left the place. I couldn't trust any of mine to do that. David, it's just good to have something interesting to discuss, it's been kind of dead on here recently!

[twist]

David, let me know when you come to visit so i can educate my hounds lol. I have learned to nevsr say never about hounds they will make yku a liar lol. Mark if yoy want to cull earl let me know ill take him even if he lays on my couch lol. Andy

[david]

So, Ok I got somewhere that I can type with more than two thumbs. I can use all of them.
This thread is so fascinating to me. I wish I had more time to study it because I think each person reveals themselves so strongly.

It is full of surprises, so to speak.

I am surprised at what I see at Dewey's. Pegleg is surprised that I am surprised at what I see there. Then I am so surprised that Pegleg is surprised that I am surprised at what I see there. Then Al is so surprised that I am suprised at Pegleg being surprised at me being surprised by what I saw at Deweys. Then I am just beyond belief that some people think pretty much everyone has their hounds lounging around un-contained and not watched. I am beyond beleif because in 30 some years of doing this I had never seen it even once until a year ago. And I find it hard to imagine that some who have their hounds lounging around their yard un-attended feel that anyone who doesn't have hounds lounging around their yard has half coyote wild crazy uncontrolable dogs. Because everyone knows dogs that aren't lounging around their owners yard are out of this world unruly and cant possibly be controlled. I mean, how would you ever get a dog like that out of the woods?!?

Then comes what may be my all time favorite quote regarding me and my gifts.

Guys I don't think David really meant just staying home. Which is why I asked because it kinda sounds like that but I think he had a deeper meaning .

Pegleg, I have been laughing out loud about this all day with delight. I thank you so much for your faith in my intellectual ability. It means a lot to know you believe I cant possibly be that dumb. When you figure out the meaning of my parables, let me in on it would you please. It would be nice for me to be able to think I am as smart as you used to think I was... UNTIL NOW

C'mon now, meditate on this guys and gals: STAY HOME

There are so many really great posts here. I doubt I can possibly comment on all of them, but will try to tackle a couple of them if I can.

[david]

David, spoke with Robin today he thinks skinner was a great grand son of Banjo. Has papers on hunter some place if he finds. Al

Doubt there was ever a hound who was any harder going hound than the old skinner hound, Al

David
Back in those days and today...The answer would be no...My dogs were kept on a chain and only released when they went hunting,... You could never sell me on the notion my dog wouldn't wander off and go hunting, still can't!

I hunted 52 weeks a year back then ...

David, that was a lot of years ago and a lot of hard learned lessons ago. we didn't have much for e collars then and the switch was still the most reliable correcting tool available to us. The Cricket female out of Banjo and Rainbow was as hard a headed dog I have ever owned. I couldn't turn my back on her for a minute and she would be gone and not coming back till you ran her down for the most part.

David, I think you will enjoy the trip down memory lane.

...Mindy at a bear tree, possibly well before one year old and all by herself did we make the tree before my plotts arrived....This was my turning point in hounds and the end of plotts....The second is my Kate dog, a sister to Mindy from an earlier litter treed on a coast bear alone ... sow and cub and had them both treed alone at 11 months of age, ....The last is a littermate sister to the cricket dog from Banjo and Rainbow named Minnie that belonged to Bill Bailey

Thank you guys. I was needing to gauge what was being said by something I knew. I have figured out on some threads that I talk for pages about something and then realize the people I am talking with are talking about a completely different animal.

The above mentioned dogs were descendants of the two dogs that trained me. Banjo and Rainbow.

I did not train them. They trained me.

And Mike talks about their pups and grand pups doing it alone at 11 months, but they would do it alone at 7 months, and never waiver in fear or lack of confidence.

They were the foundation for my understanding of hounds. Everything about them was powerful. Their strengths were powerful, which made their weaknesses powerful because their strengths were their weaknesses. Because of them I can spot the things I DONT want in a dog from a mile away. Often just in a photograph. And because of them I can spot the things I DO want in a dog faster than a lot of people are able to do.

Was surprised, you were so surprised...
Those two dogs you owned were straight from competition coon hounds who probably had been bred for generations for one purpose. Any time they were free cast they were to get gone & not be seen until they treed a coon.
...recall one if turned loose he was going hunting, could not break him from it...Al

They were not what we want today from the stock of great bobcat dogs you and I desire. Yet their blood and the blood of others like them have shown up in some top bobcat dogs.

And because of these dogs coupled with the fact that I have never seen hounds lounging around someones house un-attended, I, like Mike, just would never have done it. And like Mike, I probably will not unless I live far away from the closest road, rail road,or neighbor.

[david]

BUT...
I like the idea. It appeals to me greatly. It was just a beautiful thing for me to see. It brought pleasure to me to see good bobcat dogs lounging around a yard UN-confined, and not thinking about hunting. It would bring even more pleasure to me if it were my own dogs doing that.

And that is why I asked Dewey to explain it and am thankful for Pegleg and others who went to great lengths to explain it to me and to any one who wants to read it.

[david]

AND, by the way... It is completely possible to have dogs that would not lounge around your yard, without you being there, handle well and be under voice command.

I was blessed to have a couple training conversations with a government hunter that changed my hunting forever. He could call hard headed hounds off a screaming hot bobcat track if they were close enough to hear him.

And so can I...

And all this before remote training devices.

In fact I think the first time I could afford to by a used and un-reliable shock collar was around 1990.

And I dont beleive I ever have owned a real nice tri tronics now that I think of it. It just was never that much of my training program. I probably would buy one now though, If I did it again. I cant run down a dog from behind like I used to do.

[david]

I know it don't mean a lot coming from somebody you don't know but i am glad you take your time to put together these types of posts. Just a few words of encouragement to keep doing what you do.

I join you oneguy828 in your thanking everyone for the great posting and the sharing of knowledge. It sure is amazing to me. I often still pinch myself because I cant beleive bobcat hunters are so freely sharing their knowledge. The young men on here cant know how hard it was to find people that would talk so freely about it years ago.

Enjoy this topic ... can recall many times waking up to hounds treed were they had got loose in the night and had a fox treed or coon ...

Me too! Thanks for helping me know I was not alone in having dogs that would leave and go hunting.

We keep our Hounds in Kennels not so much for fear they may leave and go Hunting ( in AR the US Hwy is less than 100 yards from the Kennels) but to keep them secure from Thieves......oh well that did not work out so well!

Carey, I cant tell you how sad I feel when I think about some of these things. Then I hear the news and It is hard to fathom how people could carry on and even want to live when their motives are so purely evil. I cant see how they could be happy that way. I am sad for them and everyone around them as well. May truth and justice find their way.

David, it's just good to have something interesting to discuss, it's been kind of dead on here recently!

Scrubrunner, I just gotta say you are really a good writer. I dont even know if you realize it. Your writing is so descriptive and always pulls me in. I also feel you somehow project yourself into others to see how they are really feeling inside, and you speak to that. I also want to say what a tremendous honor it was to ride around with you in your pickup in your home state and get to know you a little. Any one who has you as a friend or relative is blessed indeed.

Thanks again to you and anyone who came to my rescue when I was feeling outnumbered. If I know what I believe, I can stand alone. But sometimes I question what I believe if I am the only one believing it. I start to think I must be crazy. Was feeling that a little at the beginning of this thread. Thanks

[david]

I am aso blessed to be able to leave my pups run loose for first part of their youth. Andy

David, a few years ago befor highway traffic got too bad you could have come to my house and seen hounds that looked content and layed back laying all around my yard, BUT that was because they had went off that night and ran their aces off and came dragging in about 9 am and conked out there for the next 12 hours, to do it all over again.

...That dog should of been on between 75-100 cats at that age [turned 2 years old] if i have done my part.
... somehow they just know what they were put on earth to do.

I've started all mine by letting them run loose on the ranch, Sat on the porch of the cabin many of night and watched them work their way across the meadow and off into the canyon many of evenings ,with them knowing I'd be on my way with one quick chop or long bawl...

Up until just a few years ago all our dogs stayed out. We had no pen except a 5 X 8 or so with a barrel in it for when a jip was in heat. Sometimes as many as a dozen running dogs had hide outs and sleeping holes all over our place. Like scrubrunner said they would slip off in the evenings and go run at night but all would be back in by 8 or 9 the next morning. Fell asleep many a summer night with the windows up on our house and hearing those dogs after a coyote or fox. Pups were born outside and sometimes not seen until they could crawl out from under a section of the barn where the jips always seem to go have them. We could hunt several miles from home with no tracking collars and if we left a dog out on a hunt they knew their way home for miles. A couple loud pats on the tail gate of the truck when you were ready to go hunting and dogs would be knocking down loading up. Hunters all over our area were the same way. Drive up at their house and hounds would come out to meet you...

I hunted 52 weeks a year back then ...

Just a little compilation for my own enjoyment.

These are the way things are not (for me)

But if they ever get that way, I will have hounds again.

[david]

" bobcat hunting is as easy as treeing coons with a bobcat dog". Take care. Dewey

Thank you Dewey for taking the time to answer my question.

To all the Dewey haters out there, I see you . Don't you dare learn something from Dewey. What will you tell all your friends if that accidentally happened? I know, just don't tell them, so you don't get kicked out of the club.

What if you read this whole thing and could not find a way to hate him any better? Hopefully it was not a waste of time for you and you found something to pull out of context.

[pegleg]

sweet hell i've written two responses and lost both to bgh logging me out. i give up if i feel like it i'll try again later.

[pegleg]

heres the short version david how do you hunt i mean like a typical day? have you ever hunted or used other types of dogs as anything other then pets? i thought about it but with out going into great detail its hard to clearly explain. but we always have different types of dogs around for different purposes. hounds,stags,pointers ,retrievers, cattle dogs and several bully breeds. and the multi purpose type dogs but oddly i haven't found one i really liked in that category. however my hounds are used to hold or push cattle. they don't "work " cattle like the cattle dogs but they sure help in the right instance. they aren't allowed in the pens or alleys because they cause havoc. but in the right circumstance they are great. the cattle dogs can put a cat or bear up a tree with the best of them. they all pretty much travel with me and know when its their job or not. they are dogs after all. if a dog knows what to do and what not to do its not much of a change to teach them when and when not to. its just like you said calling dogs off a hot bobcat track is nothing more then exerting your authority over when to run and when not to.

[david]

Pegleg, I cant tell you how many times that has happened to me. But only if I agonized great drops of blood and only if the spirit of God fell on me with inspiration of the moment that could never in a million years be re-produced. And only if I had struggled with it for half a day, and then it was gone.

I am so sorry that happened to you.

I learned that if I 1) put the response on a word document, then I can copy and paste it to the bgh response form. OR 2) Highlight your whole message, right click, choose "copy". If something happens to your post and it gets lost, it should still be there when you right click and choose "paste".

I hope you will get up the energy to do it again. We will look forward to it.

[david]

Oh you did it already. that was fast!

[pegleg]

no it was half fast. the first two were pools of blood and of great depth.

[david]

have you ever hunted or used other types of dogs as anything other then pets? hounds,stags,pointers ,retrievers, cattle dogs and several bully breeds. and the multi purpose type dogs .

Pegleg, you have lived a life that I could only dream of. My parents were pastors, and sadly, don't understand hunting or guns. I have no idea how I came to live and breath hunting, but it has been in my blood since a baby. I found a christmas card they sent when I was one year old and they were already comparing me to Daniel Boone. I have no idea why. There is not one member of my immediate or extended family that I ever met who hunted. My only hope of explaining it is that I grew up on an Indian reservation, so hunting was a way of life for those around me, but I was never taken hunting.

I love working dogs of any kind. I am in some kind of heaven watching any good working or hunting breed do its job.

But no, I have never had any of them but hounds and curs. When I discovered hounds, I basically gave up everything else I did. I used to love bow hunting and was actually accomplished as a trapper. All of that faded away when I found hounds. I am a musicain also and recorded 7 albums. But give me a dog, and forget about it.

My dogs handle as good as any I have ever hunted with, and I have never had one so hard that I could not have voice control of him. And I dont need a shock collar to accomplish this. They are great, but as you know dogs have been trained for centuries without them. I have heard of dogs that can not be trained and can not be under voice control. I always wanted to find one and own it, because I just cant beleive it until one defeats me. So I am never understanding when you imply stuff about wild dogs that cant be controlled. What are these dogs???