Return to cast, what does it mean, training for it, builda call back dog box

[treeingratterrier]

Returning to cast points is one of the oldest rules in the foxhound rule book.  We used to hunt huge ranches down here with wolf dogs and had 10 mile races at time.  Lots of times we lost dogs to out of shape, pads off, deer chasing, laying down in tanks, javelinas wreck a game tree or a bay up or even mama cows chasing dogs out from baby calfs.

We used to build a call back dog box out of cow pannels and use dog snaps to build it into a square with a trap door, we always carried it in front of the 4x8 wolf dog box we used in fullsize 4x4 trucks when we hunted south of George west and especially into old mexico.  Basically we would get a 68 to 72 dodge roadrunner car horn new from the dealer or from J C whiteny and place it in the giant run around pen we had all of the wolf dogs in it, once or twice a week we would toss some special meat inside it and flip the trigger for the beep beep horn, soon a dog would be inside it eating the special treat with the horn honking, it made so much noise all of the hounds would gather around to see what the trapped dog had to eat, we got him out and turned off the horn honker trigger and tossed some more meat inside it to get all of the dogs used to the sound and going inside it and plus marking it with hound urine and caca and rubbing from the common kennel.  Lots of times we were on 24 hour call and had to leave with hounds in a race or still returning to cast and used this all of the time to get one hound trapped in it so if others were out they would come up to the trap honker and hang out so the landowner or dog boy could go back and get them all inside the hunting truck dog box.  Make sure when u build one now u add shade, a self feeder and water box as no telling who might find it and try to turn you in for abuse or some dumb dog hating charge, we add to start adding fire ant bait as well down at the ranch when they hit bad, put your name on the trap and ask them to call you if a dog is inside it or haNGING around it.  I lost my trigger with light, had a guy down at a Radio shack build one for $10. one could add a car 12 volt battery and a solar charger off a deer feeder and leave it out for month on the same place.  I wish somebody would build one and get Uglydog supply to stock it and help get this dogs back before they pass a dog lease law in texas, its got to the point that people need to be bull whipped in public who hunt with no name colars, way way bad to the poor dog and anybody who hits a dog trying to find his way back to cast.  Right before i came over here 2 got killed in front of my kennel from hog hunters not caring enuff to buy a collar with name tag, one was a nice black and tan hound and other was lep, both ran over when i came back from airport, they had new TSC collars on and had starved bad before trying to eat roadkilll..  Who can make one for all of the doggers on here???  Regular horns dont work, to many idots will try to lure or steal or mislead your dogs, the beep beep was unquie and the dogs knew it.

[Noah]

Man sounds interesting... but I'm lost...  you talkin' about a conditioned catch trap for hound dogs or what???

[treeingratterrier]

Man sounds interesting... but I'm lost...  you talkin' about a conditioned catch trap for hound dogs or what???

 

Like a hog trap with a horn on top of it connected to a 12 volt car battery, it hooks up to a timer that blows the horns 3  45 second blasts 4 times every hour, one could set it up to a deer feeder timer as well, the morning after the dog is not back u pull it out and set it up and drive home, usually the dog shows up middle of the day and is back the next night, used them for cow dogs, terriers, bird dogs etc for years, they used to be sold in the dog magazines 40 years ago for coon dogs. You try to get one dog in it usually and the rest of the pack if lost will hang there instead of running out roads trying to return to cast.  We used to have terriers we left down at the river tied to a tree and he would bark out any dog that did not return after a grey fox or coon race.  This helps with PR on the farmer or landowners side as well as they know you are trying to get the lost dog back, they know you have permission to be there and it gives them a number to call and something to do if they are riding around on the ranch checking water or cattle.  I have seen whole packs of hounds come back 2 weeks after being lost due to 200 jets coming in for touch and go landings and a week when the viet nam war naval air station was going on down here, so many low flying planes would show up from the gulf to practice it would wreck dogs and men in the woods, you can not hear for hours when they used to do that around beeville golaid and kingsville in the 60's and 70s, we just set out a horn honker an dsomebody would drive out at lunch or supper and check for the dogs that were still coming in from us not finding them that night when the practice jets came in.  We set them out in mexico for hounds that got away where we could not get to them due to no road and hired a hand on a buro to go check it and put feed out around it and come back to river to call us to come get th ehounds hanging around, lots of foxhounds would not load for anybody but the actuall owner or somebody they knew.  Usually th ebest strike dog as well every time, the idiots were easy to get stolen seems like now!!!lol

[dub]

Sounds complicated to me. Just throw your jacket behind a bush with a water bowl near it. The dog will be there. I heard someone say to record a pig squealing and a bay. Then just play it in a loud speaker and the dogs will come running.

[jagdtank]

shirt and water bowl always works for me. I learned it from my dad with his coon hounds they usually will be curled up right on top it when you pull up.

[treeingratterrier]

yes, that works for the easy ones who come back to cast but not for many who never find the shirt and lay donw somewhere wrecked or out of hearing from the wind blowing the wrong way that night trying to call them in,  if you never tryed it hard to prove how good it works with dogs, kinda like having a air horn added to ones truck to go back the next night and trying to get dogs used to the air horn honk to know its there owner and come into the air hound sound for loading up.  I got tired of climbing trees and hollaring and burning up horns and used this honker deal so could go to work or go home an dget some sleep beofre work or even get dogs to come out of a big ranch we had no permission or was hard to get around on, lots wont go hunt up a shirt but will come into a know beep beep horn or even a air horn sometimes especially if u can not go there every day.