THE GOING GETS TOUGH

You really think it's the dogs not the hogs. I tend to believe that the hogs have changed a great deal since I started hunting and trapping hogs in south Louisiana forty years ago. To me the hogs were shorter legged, longer and not near as athletic as the critters I run into know. I don't think you can breed the Russian out of today's hogs. I think they are only going to get genetically closer to the Russian boar. In the wild which Boar hog is going to breed more sows, the aggressive and athletic boar or the more docile domestic cross boar. I can remember catching hogs that were really close to domestic farm pigs. I tend to think that is why hogs a spreading up north now. The true Russian boar can tolerate subzero climate conditions. The old feral hog couldn't take the weather conditions in the winter in Ohio or Michigan. I am amazed when I ride up on horseback on a sounder of hogs and they turn and burn, the five border collies we use for cows can't get close to them. I have seen dogs getting bigger and more specialized. Who twenty years ago can remember anybody having dogo's, pit bull, great Dane and all the catch dog crosses there are now.. You might have a pack of ten to fifteen dogs. It was all gritty cur type dogs, they found the hogs, bayed the hogs and then caught the big critters. I don't think we had a dog much over fifty pounds. The big dogs were a handicap in the swampy areas we had to hunt on. Just something for you fellas to mull over. Everyone needs to be careful in this heat, don't just think about your dogs, make sure you have water or something to drink in the woods with you. Doesn't do you a bit of good to have a cooler full of ice five miles from were your at. I pack a gallon igloo water bottle my four wheeler every time I am out.