cut gear vs raw-dogging

We vest up all our dogs because a few years back we did not run catch dogs and they had to catch for us. They are still gritty sometimes but have learned that it is not their job to catch anymore but every now and then they will catch before the catch dog gets there. Even back then when our bay dogs caught we never had any get major injuries that crippled them or made it to where we had to put them down, just small knicks and they have caught some toothy boars. I believe that when you start with a vest from their youth they get used to it and helps with their heat tolerance. So we have yet to lose a dog in the woods with a vest. we always keep our dogs in mind with the heat and wearing vests and make sure where we are hunting there is water if there is bad heat. Now I have a few younger dogs that are loose bayers so we only run collars on them. I would hate to lose a dog because I didnt put a collar or a vest on em I would feel real guilty but thats just me. I am in the process of changing out our old vests and am going to get some new shorter vests for the bay dogs. As far as catch dogs go they are always vested.

I can only think of one occasion where a dog got punctured by a toothy boar and lost some blood, he had to be carried out but other than that one time like i said before we have never had our dogs get seriously hurt with a vest on.

Everyone runs their dogs different there is no real right or wrong way just as long as what your doing has worked for you. JMO