This post in a way stems from a conversation I was briefly involved in on facebook where the subject began with the age old loose vs. rough dog discussion. I made a comment along the lines of "to hell with rough or loose dogs, use intelligent dogs" and my basis for this was that if you were working with smart dogs that you could talk to in the woods you essentially could get them to do as you asked in regards to baying/catching/calling off etc..... the responses were all over the place from guys saying "I agree" to guys saying "I would never call my dogs off a hog" and "why would I want to do that". At that point I left it alone as I didn't care to get in an argument about it and didn't want to have to post rebuttal to all of the responses BUT I did realize that there's alot of guys out there that hunt places that require them to kill every hog they touch and I get it so there was no reason for me to justify my initial comment as most of them would never need/want their dogs to call off of a hog in the first place. Having said that I also know that there are alot of guys out there that still work hogs like we do and figured this would be a great place to have this conversation so here are my questions for you.
1) do you hunt places where you have to kill everything you catch and if so do you believe that having dogs that you can talk to is important or not and why?
2) for those of you that hunt places where you are still able to work the hogs do you believe it is important to be able to direct your dogs and why or why not?
3) do you feel that being able to call your dogs off of a hog or hogs is a good or bad thing? do you think it hurts the dog or do you believe it helps the dog or neither...and why?
4) taking it a step further, (for those that use systems that can tone a dog) do you feel that toning a dog off of a track hurts the dog? If so why? (obviously I am not talking about puppies/young dogs, this is more directed towards the older seasoned dogs)
looking forward to reading some of your answers.
I do not hunt one single place where I am required to do anything with the hogs one way or the other. Some places I kill most we bay, some places I don’t even carry my rifle. The 2 ranches I work on and the immediate surrounding property we hunt, we do kill most of these hogs when we can because they directly impact our operation.
lots of dogs out there that could be really good that in my opinion are instead really sorry, because they are owned by somebody with a “hog hunter” mentality that cares nothing about anything other than seeing hogs die. I’ve killed plenty of hogs by now. For the last 2 years it’s been all about just how good can I make one. A dog that is. These days my motto is simple, I own cow dogs that will hunt hogs. All our dogs go both ways, so yes for me it is important to be able to direct them, and for them to listen the first time. Hog hunting and cow hunting are one in the same in how I approach it and how I expect my dogs to approach it. Then you add in the fact that we shoot over them, it’s damn important they know how to listen and better yet to pay attention for themselves. I can tell my dogs to get around a set of hogs or cows, or call them out, or load on the truck, or go to their kennel. At the end of the day it’s the individuals opinion whether that makes them a better dog or not, but it is a fact it makes it more enjoyable to own them when they have a handle and some manners
I believe it is more than a good thing to have the ability to call dogs out, you hunt long enough there will come a time where your either gonna put yourself in one hell of a bind, or you call the dogs out and save a lot of trouble. Whether you can recognize that time, and then put away your macho man pride and let that hog walk is your deal, but atleast the opportunity is there if the dogs will do it. I think dogs that will call off/out, are a better dog for it, a lot more longevity to this kind of dog rather than one that “can’t” or won’t.
Toning them off hasn’t hurt mine in the slightest. Kept them and me out of plenty country we had no business in. If anything it makes mine catch another gear on the next track.
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