Dear Wayne,
I appreciate you taking the time to write. Things are going fairly
well considering im getting ready to move. Finding a Find/Strike dog,
and loosing good uns'. Yep, you said a mouthful when you said you
"don't know how good you have it till you loose them". I guess you can
tell from my writings on here and in other hunting magazines, that I've
lost some too. 9 strike/find dogs to be exact in since 1/26/97, which
is only 2 short years. All what I consider "good un's", two were
exceptional. I know its been real hard on my kennel quality and
exceptionally hard on my heart. But, a person has got to expect
losses when he raises a good number of dogs, and hunts hogs, I know I am
trying to learn to accept it. Its hard to understand sometimes tho.
In regards to finding a good find/strike dog. There are lots and lots
of dogs out there that are advertised as find/strike dogs for sale. I
advertised a good young walker/bluetick hound a couple of years back
that was just to open for me, but he was well on his way to being
exceptional that i sold. I hear about them in hog hunter circles and
read about them and see the advertisements. Im sure there are some
dandies in that category and that a good number of the folks are
truthful and honest in their add or thoughts. But its been my
experience, that only a few are truly exceptional ones. This is why I
believe this..... I might be wrong, and apologize if I am. Hardly
anyone that I've ever known has ever sold their best dog, and if they
did, it was for a true premium price. If I was in search of finding me
a strike dog, I would find someone with a good reputation, that owns
pretty good dogs and either call him or just go by and see what he has
and then try to go with him on a hunt or ask him to bring his dogs on a
hunt. . He might not even have a dog for sale, but yet you might
catch him at a weak moment. So many people who go buy a strike dog get
real disappoiinted the very first time they take it out. The reason,
they are excited that they have bought this "sure nuff good un" they
usually have told someone they have paid X amount of dollars for him and
the seller said this, this and that about him. Only the first time they
take him out, he doesnt do squat... If I paid a bunch of money for a
dog and he stood under my feet or couldnt find one when I knew they were
there, I would be upset to and want my money back today!!! But I also
understand that its new territory, new owners, new everything to the dog
including new lookin huntin buddies. Most folks would say that doesnt
matter, if a hog dog is a hog dog, it doesnt make any difference. Well
they might be right, but I just know, that Ive got to give the dog the
benifit of the doubt until my trial period is over, I owe him that.
I cant ever remember buying a advertised dog, all of them that I
have bought were from my questioning and answering a person I was
talking to. I've bought pups that way tho. Thats just me.
I believe this, and its strikly my opinion, (which is wrong sometime
haha) Most folks that I have hunted with on THEIR hunts usually turn
several dogs out at a time. They might end up finding a hog which we
catch. The problem with this is as far as buying one of these dogs is
not the fact that they were on a bayed up hog, or went out in search of
the hog with other dogs. The problem is THE DOG DIDN'T DO IT BY
HIMSELF!
I think everyone that hog hunts and catches hogs has good dogs. If
they weren't good, they wouldn't be catching anything. But the
exceptional ones, which are much more rare will do it all them selves,
without another dog turned loose until he finds one. Kinda like High
School Football players, every town has a football team with at least
one or two "good" players that every one talks about and you read in
the local paper about, but only a few towns have stand out exceptional
players that will be given a scholarship by a college and even a smaller
percentage of the college players will ever be drafted by the pros.
I had a man from Florida one time I went to visit basically tell me
this same scenario on a dog I had seen on a video about the worlds
championship in coon hunting. I remembered this dogs name
distinctively and the owner. The video I saw about the coon hunt was
where each registry World Champion was invited to come together for a
super hunt. The world champs from what I remember that attended were
the UKC, AKC, PKC, NKC etc... There was about 6 dogs. This
particular dog was one of the world champs. He didn't win this super
hunt but was one of the finalist. To make a long story short, This
Florida man wanted to buy him one of the best coon dogs in the country
and had the finances to do it and called the fella who owned this world
champion dog. After the discussion and a HUGE MANY THOUSAND dollar
price tag was agreed on, they set the hunt. The Florida mans only
request was that he bring the dog down to his ranch to show him and he
wanted the man to come down and hunt him for at least 3 nights. The
fella asked him if he had any coon dogs, and he mentioned an old walker
gyp that was over her prime but would still tree one sometime. Which
was the truth, I personally saw the gyp. The world champion dog owner
brought his dog down, and met the buyer, it was getting dark, so they
thought it was about time to hit the woods. They went outside, loaded
the champion dog and the Florida man went to get in the truck. The dog
seller said "we're forgetting the gyp, I'll load her up" the buyer
said NO, she's staying right here, I want to see your dog work and not
mine. The seller tried real hard to talk him into bringing the gyp,
but to no avail. Well, they hunted 3 nights and never treed a single
coon, not one. The champion dog would not leave their feet basically and
go find a coon. The man made excuse after excuse, until right
before
he was getting ready to leave. He said " Ya know, I knew we weren't
gonna ever tree a coon from the first night", the buyer said "you did?"
the seller said "yep, because my dog wont hunt at all without another
dog, if i could have just talked you into unloading that old gyp, I
would have shown you more coons than you could shake a stick at, but
with out her, I knew it was a lost cause from the start"...
Those might not be the exact words that were said, but since it was 2
or 3 years ago when it was told to me, the basic meaning is the same.
Some dogs don't hunt very well with out other dogs. Is this true all
the time? Of course not, but it does happen quite a bit.
I just like a dog that will do it themselves, I cant stand one that
hangs around and wants me to help him do the hunting. I want to be able
to go to a spot, turn a dog or two loose and sit and listen for them to
bay. Guess Im getting lazy in my old age. I want a dog to be
able
to wind one off the 4 wheeler or out of the back of the truck if ive got
a lot of area to cover. In a bay dog (one that is turned to a barking
dog) I want that dog to be listening for a dog to bay and go to him
should I unsnap him off the chain or turn him out of the crate. I guess
you could say, I want a dog to FIND THE HOG and not ME FIND THE HOG FOR
HIM by walking thru the woods, or roading him for miles, or turning him
out on a hog that is with in seeing distance, or one that crosses the
road in front of the truck 30 seconds ago. Do I ever catch any like
that? Sure I do, I think we all do. But those hogs are like icing
on
a cake. The hard part is making the cake, in this case, its making the
dog.
Hope you find the right ingredients for the dog your looking for. If I
hear about one, I will send you an email.
Good Hunting,
Jim