Hello Joe,
Good question. " I have heard people on different hog hunting pages mention bay dogs and striker dogs and I would like to know the difference if there is one."
Difference between a bay dog and a strike dog? Well, they could be the same dog, or all of the dogs at the bay could be both bay and strike dogs, or at the bay, there could be 1 strike/bay dog and all the others just bay dogs.
What I mean by that is this. The terms strike dog, find dog, track dog, hood dog means---- this particular dog can go out on his own and find a hog...
The term bay dog means-----this particular dog doesn't really have the ability to find-strike-track a hog all by him self or to make it simple, he cant find a hog by him self BUTTTTTT--hes real good at going with the other dogs and helping them get the hog bayed (corraled) up once the strike dog finds the hog.
Theres all sorts of hog hunting terms, sorta depends on what part of the country your in at the time. So what you have is this:
1. Strike, find, track dog is your main dog, hes the one that's worth the most. With out him, all the other dogs are just glorified pot lickers.
2. Bay dogs- the most common type. A high percentage of all dogs will bay a hog if given the chance. Theses dogs simply get the hog stopped and bayed up once the strike dog finds the hog.
3. Catch dog/Hold dog---This is your dog used to catch the hog with. Wont let go until heck freezes over, gets killed or you take them off the hog.
4. Stop dog/nutt dog---can be any type of dog, but this hog will lock on to the privates or back ham of the boar and get him stopped from running.
5- Pack dog---This is one most people don't talk about much, But if you have a good strike dog and a dog that will pack along with him where ever he goes that is a stop or nutt dog, in my opinion, that's your second most expensive dog. There arent very many dogs that will dog it. Especailly if running with an open mouth (barking on track) dog.
Hope that help you with some definitions.
Good luck with your dogs,
Jim