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  That's a lot of hog action, sure helps keep young dogs focused.

Went out to my usual public spot, I went to an area I’d been staying out of for a while. We get in the woods and start finding were the hogs had been busy diggin up acorns. The dogs trailed out a couple times without stopping anything, they got scattered leaving me to collect them up. One dog left the reservation and crossed a county road, he had a close call with a pick up.

I get them going in the direction I originally wanted to travel and I’m seeing more sign. I start thinking about sitting down to take five, when all at once the dogs throw their heads up and dive into a thicket of this bamboo grass (that’s 6/7’ tall) along a creek we’ve been following. I hear one of them catch. From where I was standing I see the brush shaking violently, I’m thinking we’re gonna put hands on this one, it gets quiet and I see a nice black boar bust a move out the back door.

The dogs come out in pursuit, but alas he had too much speed and head start for them to catch up to him again.


The day before the storm hit, me and a buddy went to the new private spot. First time there, owner shows us a couple places and leaves us to it. We walk up a hill and two of the dogs trail out and get bayed about 1/2 mile away. We drive the buggy to them and they got a young boar in a creek. My Dan and Hondo had his ears locked up with the rest of them supporting the cause. We pick up and find an area of hardwoods and dump them, in short order they move out and split. We hear a bacon bit getting stretched and the others got the sow.

We go to the sow, and Dan has her on the ear with the others cheering him on. We get her hobbled then the other dogs fresh from their adventure arrive and tell the sow how they feel about her. One of my buddies better dogs relayed and trailed all the way across the section and is bayed next to the hi way, we get there and send one of his rough curs and me Pete dog. Wrong choice, he was too much for them to hold and breaks, never to be seen again that day.

It’s dark now and we make a couple more drops and get into a couple of family groups resulting in a couple bacon bits getting picked up and other dogs getting scattered and bayed a long ways off. We got them all back to the truck about 10:30 and called it.

That is all.

So you’re copying me now old man? I feel like I’ve made it if the legends are copying me! Lol just kidding of course. I decided the same thing about the chin flap. I like the leg flaps. My old vests had a ton of influence on my thought process. I looked at them and where all the punishment was taken on them. Those old leg flaps took a good bit. I like the three overlapping flaps better than the one solid one. They same to restrict reach less and I haven’t had near as many cuts in what would be our arm pit area with that third flap being inside. I don’t think the vests need to be as layered as a lot of them are. When a dog gets cut, the skin cut and the muscle cut usually aren’t in the exact same spot, you have to roll the hide around to find the muscle cut. That’s how you know what direction the hog was slinging his head. Sometimes that can tell you if the dog was at fault or just got cut, mainly the bay dogs. The skin rolls 9 out of ten times when the hog hits the dog is the reason for the cuts not aligning. The vest does the same thing. I’ve had a vest cut through numerous times but can count on one how many of those times the dog received any damage. So fewer layers is less weight, especially when wet which means the dog doesn’t have to work as hard. I haven’t investigated it, but I’d bet one pound to a dog is like 5-7 for a person. So that light weight vest to us is heavier to that dog and in the southern heat, everything is a factor.


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We need the moisture too. Ours looks like snow but isn’t soft. It’s like we got sleet over the snow and it has created a layer of ice over the snow.


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I’ve done it both ways, in the past I kept dogs outdoors regardless how cold it got. Maybe I’m soft in my older years, we have a side room that can accommodate the few dogs we have, so we use it. I have been soaking their food too, learned that from an old coon hunting friend, he pretty much said the same thing regarding dogs staying hydrated.

Our local forecast shows we will be above freezing on Tuesday, I plan on taking them out if that’s the case. We have a layer of soft snow on top of the crusty ice from yesterday. We need any kind of moisture in the ground we can get here.

Man, y'all blaming me for the weather when it's Mother nature off her meds again.

 My vest is made the same way, with a cut collar attached and a chin flap, I don't adjust the cut collar real tight. It is just layered kevlar so it is light, flexible, and doesn't hold very much water. When I ordered it the chin flap was debatable but I figured if I didn't like it I'd just cut it off. I didn't find it to be a problem.

That’s very sound advice. When we are playing summer baseball tournaments, I tell my boy to find shade, not A/C between games. That warm wet feed helps and I believe it helps in the summer too. I soak it earlier and nt as hot of water in the summer. It will be cool from sitting inside by the time I feed. An old dog man told me years ago that dogs never drink enough water no matter the season. In the summer they need more for hydration when being hunted and in the winter they don’t usually drink as much because they don’t want t drink the cold water when temps are cold.


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Old man I don’t think a whole bunch of people think a whole bunch of people think about that mobility issue. I run a tracking collar on my catch dogs the whole hunt, but I put the body of the collar on top of the dogs neck and under the cut vest. I think about it like this, if that box is on the underside then that dog can’t tuck his chin and bend like he might need to. I mean put your fist or a tennis ball under your chin and try to look at your toes without bending at the waist. Then put it on the back of your neck and do it and see which makes it easiest. They can pick their heads up as high and backwards as they need to and not be hampered by it with it on the top of the neck. I don’t run full length vests. My vests are altered and only have two back straps. They angle back towards the belly the lower they get on the sides. I leave the back strap that is furthest back a tad loose so that they can flex easy and I don’t restrict their breathing any. The modified vest also lets more heat out. The only strap that is snug is the one over the shoulder to keep the vest from gaulding them. I have several opinions about cut vests if y’all can imagine me having an opinion about anything. Mobility and heat are my two biggest concerns.


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  Until Friday I had been very happy with him, catching and handling as well. Friday I did get to bring back to me when the hog broke twice, I'd left the collar on him and bumped him back to me while calling him. I don't like to have a tracking collar on my catchdog, for one I'm a tight wad and don't want a collar damaged and secondly that is just something else to hamper their mobility and flexibility so I break them to come back after a little ways when I holler at them.
  I hope he gets over the location issue too, even though he is smaller than I like, that only matters if there aren't any baydogs to help him once he hits the hog, and sometimes due to split races, there may be only one mild baydog that has a big hog bayed.