Some hunting dog owners like to romantasize about the times of old when food was often put on the table of peasants and commoners by the dog they owned. A meager existence for some, made easier by 1 or 2 dogs. The dog was a valuable tool and had purpose and meaning and celebration and thanks was given to a successful hunt which fed a family or two and the dog for a day or two. Today we are like the royalty of that period that owned many dogs and hunted them for sport and adventure but with no real life or death struggle made easier by a good hunting dog or more stressful do to the extra mouth or two to feed.
I feel very fortunate to live in this day and time but I fear this comfort we know now and have been raised in could one day only be a memory. I don't romantisize about the peasants from days of old, but I do think they knew many things we as a people might wish we had retained one day. Seems so many things are moving in a direction that will bring about a challenge to this way of life we have known. Maybe you feel it maybe you don't but my spirit does. This is a large reason I raise and hunt the type dogs I do. It is why I don't want specialty dogs and why I hunt them all styles and all ways. It is why I hunt them as much as I do. For me it is a fine time to breed for dogs that would be an asset to a family rather than a hindrance of to many mouths to feed and to many dogs to do a job if such a way of life as we enjoy now is to play itself out. For reasons such as this and for personal fun filled enjoyment, I choose to catch the pig and do my business efficiently, quickly, quietly, and with a knife or rope. I see it as good practice for a time I hope is not needed. My knowledge, confedence, and respect for such dogs is forged in the hunts and my relationship with them is obtained and grows on the yard. I'm a catch dog man, it's only those that posses the courage, heart, and willingness to catch on their own that interest me.
Kinda like some gun maker said, only an accurate gun is an interesting gun. For me, only a catch dog is an interesting dog.
excellent post...
I like a certain cur dog...and it is the only kind that interests me as well...
I am one who feels as much as I see...that is one reason why I didn't take my sons hog hunting as much because this way of life is fading...as a young kid I hunted dogs most days and sometimes twice a day in the summer months...a quick round in the morning before hitting the fields and right after lunch between 12 and 2:30 pm before hitting the fields again...I didn't want my sons to grow up missing the hunts so I figured if they didn't hunt much they couldn't miss what they didn't know...
