EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

 Ive been seeing topics about dogs that can shut down a runner, rough and loose dogs, dogs with bottom and it got me to thinking about our dogs....

  I have noticed that they are better at shutting hogs down on years that we hunt the crap out of them. Some years we hunt less because of work, weather, and other various reasons and when we hunt them less, it seems we have more unstoppable runners.

 So how many of yall think that maybe it isn't more or less runners but rather what kind of shape your dogs are in. IMO the more we work our dogs the better they are and the more they sit at the house the more hogs get away.

They have more bottom when they are in shape and just seem to be able to out wit the hogs. I know that I myself have less drive after sitting on the couch too much. But because of this thing called life, sometimes we arent' always able to hunt the dogs as much as we would like to.

No doubt, when they're tuned up from hunting hard it's night and day... just keeping them in shape is 3/4 of it to me

You may be on to something dj we was having problems with runners a few months back but we been hunting hard and seems them runners don't get to far now that the dogs are in shape

Never have seen a dog do worse from hunting them more.

I just though I would make this posting for the guys that get down on their dogs at times. I do believe that breeding, conformation, temperment and trainability has a lot to do with making a good hunting dog, but if you have dogs that are out hunting and finding hogs but are getting outrun, sometimes its just that they aren't getting hunted enough.

 I think that before we go out and start looking for different breeds or better dogs than we already own, that we can whip the one we already have into shape.

i agree with you totally . and i've got alot of road work and conditioning to do on my dogs before i start back up .

i think i can explain how ive caught my runners with the dogs ive owned. never had "fast" dogs but ive had "quick" dogs. what we would do is take some hounds and cur crosses and be on one side of our land and we would take our cds and our rcds and sit on the other side of the place and radio in to the guys to let the dogs go and usually, not every time but usually we would see the hogs comin and we would let the rcds go and get em head on then lead the cds in to seal fates.

thats how we caught our runners, not very effective but it has worked some. i try to condition the dogs as much as i can, my cds and rcds have a weight vest and i let them run with it , road them, and take them to the lake and let them swim

I dont want to be a na sayer. but NA!  ;D i witnessed today some dogs that in my opinion are in tip top shape get smoked in two different races. it wasnt about condition or bottom in this case for sure. i dont know what would take to have stopped these two runner besides a well placed shot in the ear hole. the last two hunts i have been on we have gotten into runners the first hunt was with ROUGH dogs and todays hunt was with loose dogs both. as far as having rcd's waiting on the other side that aint gonna happen around these parts imo ;D when you get it figured out for sure let me know what I need to buy. ;D

Pack of hog dogs=sports team. Practice, exercise, rest, good nurition.

it helps to have the dogs in good working condition...but I also believe that the dogs can learn how to work a hog through experience and some bay pen training can make this happen sooner than later. Definitely not saying it is the fix but seems to increase the success rate.

I cant hunt as much as i would like due to life gettin in the way so i figure if we get burned its my fault.  Ive got a gyp thats FAST and a male thats gettin slower but if she stops it he hangs it, so i never figured it was their fault.

Guess that I'm going to have to chime in on this one,.....I've had a dog of some kind since I was 5 yrs. old....and I'll be 60 in 11 days, so I have a fair basis for speculation I think. Dogs, it seems to me, are like any other mammal, us included, they just plain don't feel good some days. Simple as that I say,.....yet we expect them to perform to perfection every time we take them out. I doubt that there's a person on here that hasn't said or felt that they just didn't want to do a stinkin' thing for a day or two.....and probably said that in the last week or two.

   As Dinah said earlier, folks will be all tore up 'cause their dogs got outrun by some hog, and be downright ready to sell 'em all and get a new pack of those infamous 'stop a runner' dogs you hear about all the time. Since we don't perform at our maximum every day.....then why would you expect your dogs to?

   I have hunted hogs with dogs for a loooong time and I do believe that if a hog wants to run,......it's going to...period! Nothing you nor your dogs can do about it. Now I'm saying this as someone that hunts hogs in the thick stuff,...all you folks from the SE know exactly what I'm talking about. It could be different in the more open country that some of y'all hunt....not sure about that. Doesn't matter how fast a dog is, it simply cannot outrun,....now I said 'outrun'....not just keep up with an 80 lb. hog in the thickets here in the South. This is my simple opinion here, garnered from a lot of time watching and listening to some kind of dog try to catch up to and stop a wild hog.

   So I would say this,....if you're dogs produce hogs regularly for you, give them a break when they get outrun,....this is supposed to be fun, .....enjoy your time out with your dogs,...I'm bettin' that they're gonna do you a good job next time out. I do agree with Miss Dinah about the fact that dogs do better when hunted regularly,....I know that I do!

DJ I agree with you. The dogs are atheletes.. The more time spent at practice( ie hunting) the better they become

You said what I was thinking, only better.  ;D

Well said firemedic... :)

Thas true

Thanks y'all ....I was once rather like some folks I see on here....I expected waaaaay too much from my dogs...but with age comes wisdom,  hopefully,  and you learn your dogs and they learn you. My two do very well for me....I like the way they hunt and they surprise me every year by getting better and better. They're both what I consider to be fast dogs....but they do get outrun .....I just scratch my head and say " that's a lucky hog, but that luck will run out one day and they'll catch him offguard and that will be it."

at the moment we are running some better than average dogs not top dogs just better than average but regularly get smoked off sometimes by some less than average sized pigs and hears some of the reasons some areas we hunt are extreamly thick   some of the areas a well hunted by people with crap dogs or pigs are in small mobs and u tend to get the first one the dogs come across so why are u missing out  ......because the pig knows his habitat  better than u learn the habitat better {mr garmin has made that easy} out smart your prey thats why its called hunting not walking your dog

X2

Dj, you spoke of unstopable runners ! I've not hunted much outside ohio so I'm not sure if you experience this or not, we currently have snow and this is how I watched this happen. Yesterday my partner and I start into about 400 acres of clearcut thicket, heading for a particular spot in the thicket we we're gonna hunt the dogs into the wind. While setting upto make this run the wind was at our back going into a different thicket. From the ridge me and the dogs were on I watched a large hog bust outta a thicket on a dead run several hundred yds away! We had been silent setting up for that hunt and I'm sure that hog smelled us from atleast a cuple hundred yds and took to runnin I put the dogs on its track when we got over there and they followed for about 1200 yds. Never saw the hog again that hogs tracks were 10 and 12 yds apart for the entire 1200 yds , probably longer because that's where I stopped. Do your hogs act like that ?

If you are asking if some of our hog cut out when they wind us. Yes they do. I know that hogs have a very good sense of smell too because one time I was sitting in a blind about 12 ft off the ground and I was facing west and the wind was north to south. I had deer walk right up to the stand that I was in and never winded me, then a large hog walked out, taking the same track as the deer and he threw his head up, winded me and was gone. Way before he ever got within shooting range.  :D Hogs where we live are very skiddish.

I agree with ya, seen that stuff too. I wasn't sure if it was like this everywhere, I feel better now ! We got burnt before we even started !!

What shape your dogs are in does not mean diddley squat to a runner. A runner is a runner we hunt no l ess then4 to 5 times a week year a round in the hill country we dont lay off you wont find dogs in better running shape and we still get out ran.  We come at then diffrent change their routs and they stub a tor eventualy and bay up we stay after him till he screws up.

Yes, there will always be hogs that get away no matter what shape your dogs are in. A dog in shape is just like a person in shape, they will have more speed, bottom, and the more you hunt them the better they can out witt a hog....IMO
We don't hunt hill country. We hunt the thicket but I can promise that you will have less hogs get away if your dogs are in better shape. A runner is a hog that will bolt as soon as it detects a dog on its track and will run like the wind until it makes a mistake or gets away, but there are dogs out there that get them stopped.

Every dog has it's day