do you loan out your dogs to your friends?

[bigboarstopper]

Do you loan out your dogs to your friends? Recently one of my hunting partners and long time friend has been has been borrowing a dog or two. He has recently got laid off, gotten rid of almost all his dogs and now lives with his mother. He asked again this last week and I eventually told him no. I have loaned out a dog or two in the past. My dogs like him and hes good to them. Sometimes if my dogs escape the yard they will end up at his house. However, when I loan the dogs out to him im up all night regreting it. I wonder what might go wrong. I question his judgement at times and his few dogs are poor at best. Unless he borrows my dogs its a 100% guarantee that it will be a dry run. I have another friend that I will loan a dog or two. Its very rare that he asks but I know that my dogs are backed up by a good pack and in the end my dogs will be better hunters. I see my dogs as unreplaceable these days. My long time friend and hunting partner is obviously upset. He has nothing to do all day. Work is scarce. Now since I wont let him take my dogs hes kinda mad and hurt. If he borrows my dogs and needs to take them to the ER vet I know I have to pay the bill. He has no tracking system. Lastly I think my dogs will pick up bad habits from him and his dogs. Any advice? I think this problem between us may end our friendship.

[Mike Leonard]

NEVER EVER!

Dogs are not tools to be loaned out. Dogs cannot bond with a person without a good deal of time and you are taking a real chance and ruining your dogs, losing your dogs, and you will lose your friend along the way.


Don't do it!

[Ike]

I think Mike has just about covered the issue........nothing to gain but hard feelings if you care about those hounds!

ike

[FullCryHounds]

I would have no problem loaning any of my dogs to only one man. He is the guy that taught me everything I know about running dogs. But, he's now retired. I've yet to run dogs with anyone else since then that I would trust unconditionally with my dogs. So my answer is, no, don't loan them out to anyone. I've had guys ask me and without hesitation I tell them I don't loan out my dogs to anyone.

[Ankle Express]

General rule of thumb: Never ever loan, even your best friend, your truck or your wife. They'll throw a rod in her for sure.

Somewhere between the truck and the wife should cover your dogs too.

[drew]

I do agree with Mike and Ike, but there is one couple that i wouldnt even hesitate one bit to let them hunt my dogs. Not that they would ever want to, but i've hunted with them enough to know that if somthing unfortunate happened, then it was just in the cards and there isnt anything that i would have done any different myself. If I lost a dog in the woods, he would be the first one up there helping find it. But thats just me, and i believe it is different for everyone.

[bearhntwi]

I've let two different guys run my dogs when I wasn't able to,i've hunted dogs for others when they've asked me to.It can be a touchy thing.The dog can get killed no matter who's runnin it,shit happens.

[bigboarstopper]

Lots of good replys. Looks 50/50 on the dog loaning so far. Seems the only exception for most folks to loan their dogs out is to their mentor. Thanks to all for the advice.

[bearsnva]

[quote][/quote]
If you wouldn't let your wife go with the dogs with them or him,that is the end of the story. Think about it? Think about it? End of story.

[dan kluthe]

Hot D!!, Ankle Express, you sure expressed your statement clearly. Agree. NO loan. I started coon hunting with a buddy and his dad years ago and learned real quick that their 'trade' dogs would never allow a person to develop a good dog. Good dogs'll dumb down but they won't smart-up the sorry dog.

[Nolte]

I think it really depends on the dog. I've got a couple buddies that can take any dog they want out of my yard. They won't but they could if they wanted. I know if anything happened it wouldn't be because of anything different I would have done.

I've got some other dogs that I would lend out or let someone else I knew run them. They wouldn't be anything special, but just a fairly solid dog that might get someone else started or fill in if they were really down on dogs. Most likely I wouldnt' be hunting them as much anyway. The risk is worth it to me to have them running a bit more and if something happened I wouldn't be out much. Most times this only works if you've already got the dog straightened out or it is good and broke. If I see it's starting to learn some bad habits I'll take it back.

[Cold Track]

I have a friend who is also a member of this forum JC Call, who is the only other person I will truly trust with my dogs. He's welcome to take them anytime anywhere because we hunt the same, the dogs know us both, and i know he will go above and beyond to bring them home. I'm sure he thinks the same as we both take each others dogs along when the other can't go and put them on game. Better to get them on something than sit in their pen when you can't go. But as I said,he's the only one I trust with them.

[J.C. Call]

Our deal is more of a "I'm hunting tommorrow, do you want me to take a dog or two?" Not a "Hey can I take your dogs tommorrow?" Big difference. And it works out good for us and the dogs. Thanks for the vote of confidence Randy.

[Big Mike]

Thats a tuff one. I have and will lend out some of my dogs to friends, but I wont lend my best ones. If you lend one you have to be willing to accept the worst if it happens.

Years ago a was going bear hunting for a week or two. A buddy wanted me to take one of his dogs. He had paid $3500 for the dog (it was a dam good one too)but wasnt going to have anytime to hunt him. I didnt need the dogs help but i said sure but if he gets killed don't blame me. Well I took him and while chasing a bear a was driving my 4-wheeler way too fast and rolled it breaking my arm and tearing my calf muscle. I had to go to the hospital while the guys I was hunting with stayed to gather the dogs. The bear won that chase and all dogs were found except you guess it the one my buddy had me take. I looked for that dog for a week and never found it. I felt like sh$$!! This guy like all of us didnt have $3500 to spend on another and it was the only dog he had that could catch anything. My buddy ended up finding the dog 3-4 weeks later, somebody stole his tracking collar then dumped him out alive and well, he found the dog just by stupid luck. I will never take someone elses dog again!!

I lent a dog to a buddy a mine this last winter. He has really good lion dogs but they arnt good tree dogs. Where he hunts there arnt many trees so tree dogs arent important to him. He was going to mexico to hunt for a couple of months for lions and Jags. Knowing that jags and mexico were envolved I had to be willing to accept the worst which was pretty likely. He felt he had lost a couple of lions the in the river bottoms in big trees in the previous hunts down there. He wanted a good tree dog and I had a good tree/lion dog I could spare. He said for the first lion or two he caught my dog didnt go with his, tree or help in anyway. She was shell shocked from the new surroundings, dogs and ect. Like Mike said above "bonding" the dog had no bond with him or his dogs. After about a month she settled in and started to help him out some. The dog survived the trip fine but now that i think of it I still havnt got her back. Figure I'll let him feed her for another month or two until I can hunt again LOL

Anyways just 2 stories about lending dogs, probably not worth doing in the long run

[Hi Tech]

This is a good topic. I have a couple of close friends that help me with my hounds and we breed and start dogs for each other. I do not lend my best hounds to no one! My pack dogs and the dogs we are getting started, I have and do still. I accept the fact that something could happen to them. I trust the few to take care of and handle them with the best care. JMO!