EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

I want to just kinda vent and get input from the board on this one... I normally don't have a hard time trying figure out how to handle certain situations, but this is starting to be the a big pain. We were out at our honey hole, and working the dogs like we normally do. First sign of the feral was before we even got inside the gates. So we let the dogs off to check it out and get the scent... We start walking the trail like we normally do, about 1000yrds from where we got on the 300lber. Dogs were stoping to take care of their bizz and such, and catching a drink before the hunt was on. I had Fred, the new strike dog I just got from Jimmy Creed, and my newly started pack. Also with us was Soka, and Jane from blakebh's pack. We were about 300yrds down this trail when a boar, about same size or bigger than the  300lber we got out there, ran 100yrds in front of us across the road. We started jogging to it, and waited for the CD (Baus) to see it, and let him loose. The Boar spotted us and the dogs on his rear end and took off, and the chase was on! They got out 250yrds and broke, then started fighting and broke again. I don't think Baus was able to get to them fast enough or that hog would have been caught. We had the dogs 400 out and heading towards them when we checked the garmin and the dogs were sitting. So we were like "cool, get there" and start a jog to the "fight"... Lol little did we realize that the Game Warden had a hold of my dogs and was waiting on us on the trail. We said hi, what's seems to be the problem...? Turns out... We have permission to run the property on one side, but don't with the land owner on the other side... We THOUGHT we did, and that was my first mistake. BUT, all the time the GW was writing us tickets, Fred and Soka were out 5-600 yrds out with this big boar still, and not only did we have em on the garmin, but u could hear them opening up. Two of us got our tickets and went to the bay, and they had started running again on the property we couldn't go on, so I had to call em off. They came to me and we tucked our tails and packed up.

Our biggest dilemma as doggers, I think, is getting the surrounding landowners to understand that we are trying to help out people that need our services, and its free. Our dogs our broken off of cattle and deer, and we are just trying to help. I know that most will say you can not guarantee that, but we work hard to keep them off those kinds of tracks and animals.  We at least would like to establish an understanding with other landowners that we would like to get our dogs off their land with out a ticket or trouble. There is an obvious problem with pigs out there, and we are working with the surrounding landowners to help with the problem. We are actually working directly with the Children's home in Boles to get keep the hogs from coming up on the property close the were the children are playing. So what to do? And IMO, have been doing a good job because there have been no recent sign found near the homes since we started making our presence known.  So we are stuck between a rock and a hard place with a ticket to boot!

All in all, we didn't get the boar that was being chased, we got tickets, and now we are gona have hell being able to run that land out there without getting on the other piece of property. I thought about driving down to the other landowners house and making formal apology and letting him know it was a misunderstanding, and that had we known that we actually didn't have permission we wouldn't have been there in the first place.  What to do? Any suggestions would be helpful...

Sounds like you already know what the answer is. ;)


I had a similar occurrence a few years back.  Landowner calls me in to do hog removal. I contact the next door neighbor, who happens to be a real estate developer. They give me permission to hunt.  We make a few hunts out there and caught hogs each time. Then one day we get back to the trucks and find some notes on the trucks, saying if we are caught out there again, our trucks will be towed, and we will be charged with trespass.  All I could think is WTF....

   A few minutes later, a truck comes blazing up the drive. I take an EPIC ass chewing by the rancher that has the place leased...  I end up getting his phone number in the course of my ass chewing.  When we left the place, I gave him a little time to cool off, then I called him up. Explained that I was under the impression the landowner had contacted him about us being out there, and that I would have contacted him myself if I knew who he was. I never got rude with him, and stayed calm and polite the entire time. Next thing I know, not only am I continuing to hunt that place, but the rancher is now getting me access to his friends grain fields, as well as other ranch land in the region.

    Hopefully something similar will happen in your case.

You already know what to do. Just be nice and go see the landowner.

That's a tough one. I think I would go apologize and have a talk with Him. If He still had a problem with it?  You might have to find a new place to hunt. I know that due to deer season I cannot run my dogs till Feb. 1st. That could be your problem?
Good luck

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you know, I pray that you are right. The game warden in this case was as nice as he could be to us, inspite having to write us a ticket, and talked with said landowner. He seems to think there is no way in hell that he will let us run on his land because he think it is inhumane what we do... so that is my biggest set back at this point in time with all other landowners. The GW also, after speaking with us, said that he might have some places that may need our help and will ask around. He also said, if we get into a place where there is land with posted signs, that we can give him a call to try and help if he can. People do not understand that my partners and myself do not want to torture or be inhumane to these animals, and nor do we like to trespass. When our dogs catch a hog we want them off asap as to not harm our catch. Then we can either sell it or slaughter it. Either way, we'd like to get them out alive, and do not like to see any animal tortured. Thanks for the thoughts man.

ryan i dnt if it was dale or not that wrote u the ticket, but he is a stand up guy and do what he can to help u out.

I've spoken with both, and it sucks to meet Gary on those terms. I had left him a voicemail before that, and he remembered it. He is going to keep our contact info and give to anyone asking for feral removal help. He understood what we were doing, and knew we were in the middle of the chase, but he had to do his job per the landowner. He was deff empathetic, and let two of us four go to get the dogs off of the hog since they had no help. I'm jsut really lucky that our two dogs that stayed on him (Soka and Fred) didn't get hurt in the process, and cam e to me when I called them off. I would have been way more upset then if he hadn't and they got hurt. There is a ranch behind my house that is high fence, and Gary let us know the guys name after coming by my house to chat. He is having problems with feral, and I am going to go talk with him as soon as I can figure out how to get in touch. We really have a great chance to become some of the surrounding lanwoners' care takers if they would understand that we are trying to help protect their land from swine and intruders.