but with bay dogs you got to travel on a bad hog and with rough dogs you dont most times IMO
Sometimes, but i've seen more rough dogs bust bays and push hogs further. Unless they flat out catch it, which goes back to cut up and/or dead dogs, a hog will usually find a place to bay... just my experiences.
I think the key to bad running hogs is bottom, bottom, bottom.
my dogs have plenty of bottom. They are well fed and watered. We run a boar for 4 hrs the last hunt and he would only bay for 15 seconds here and there. The pig flat out would not stop. He swam 8 times in 4 hours. The dogs were getting to the point where they knew he wasn't gonna stop. My hard-headed butt kept thinkin he was gonna get to a place where he would be forced to take a good bay. He just never did. Couple of my dogs got clipped on the hind leg. So you know they were baying him good, he was charging them so they turned to run and he cut in the backside. They didn't won't to give up, neither did I. There comes a time where a man's got to call his dogs out. They were flat beat. We caught 2 good boars in 1 hour before that runner took us for a journey. You should have seen my dogs the next day. They would not come out their houses. Their eyes and ears were raw from stick cane. Their feet were all tore up and raw. Bay dogs weren't too bad, but both my pitts were bad off. One just started feeling better today and the hunt was last Sunday. His feet were pussing up in a couple areas. The boar was about 275lbs, big black hog w/ big mane. One thing is for sure, he was a smart hog. He had a pattern going on where he ran, which is probably why he wouldn't bay. He never left his territory which stretched for about a mile in 2 patches of woods mixed with thick stick cane. Both were divided by a 10 yard ditch he kept swimming. He was old, wise, fast, and apparently was well conditioned. You know, I was tired of directing the chase in my head and planning his next move. I can't amagine how he felt. Talk about a poker game. I've never heard or seen a hog hit the water as hard has he did the last time he crossed that slu, I know he was tired. I know my dogs did their jobs. We were under-gunned. Good luck to em next year. I'm fixing to have 4 different catch dogs for him to figure out. He doesn't realize what he's fixing to be dealing with! Ha...
