What to do with Clay?

[Encino Man]

Clay is a 8 + or - year old BMC. He's been a great start dog and for the past 3 years I have mainly hunted him solo, baying and shooting hogs or occasionally using a catch dog with him. He's one eyed but doesn't really affect him much. He can not be put in a dog box with another dog. No amount of electricity or other methods will stop him from growling or starting a fight with other dogs. He can be hunted with a pack of dogs though, but I have 2 young pups who have started to out start him and he will not go to a bay until you are within 100 yards or so of it. Just wont honor them. He is great for day time hunting in the heat of summer. I like to take him around stocks tanks in the afternoons. He has never over heated and I have killed many big boars over him. I currently have a couple of liters of pups out of him and don't want to just keep him for a stud dog or just feed him and not use him since I am more focused on younger up and coming pups/dogs. He would be perfect for somebody wanting to hunt a one out bay and shoot dog. But I don't know of anybody looking for one especially one on the down hill side. So what would you do?

[t-dog]

Man that’s a tough one. I’ve been in similar situations and I did exactly what you suggested. I put the dog with someone that could use them. You really have to be able to trust them or people these days will volunteer to take him only to sale him for a price the following week. You could always sale him with the stipulation that you can breed to him if you need to. If you haven’t tried it yet, you may haul him when you hunt the young dogs and cast him first. Don’t let the young dogs go until he’s gone. My thoughts though would be to advertise him and let someone put him to use that can benefit from him. It doesn’t really sound like you need his experience at this point or that he’s going allow you and the pack to benefit from it. Somebody out there needs what he brings to the table.


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[Judge peel]

The way I see it is. He was great until he wasn’t so I wouldn’t get rid of him unless a decent hunter wanted him. To me it would appear that the style of hunting your doing made him the way he is. I mean you don’t want some young hot shot coming home every night sitting in your chair changing your tv and guzzling down your beer. Kinda the same thing only it’s a dog


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[t-dog]

Lol that’s a good analogy judge. I agree that he is a product of his environment/experience. I would have to be selective but it would be important to me that he got to continue hunting. He’s still a good dependable dog and he still has the fire, I couldn’t take that away from him. I had a real similar situation with my old Yonder female. She was still good and still had the want to but she was up in age and the younger dogs were doing a good job plus I had some that were ready to start that needed her hole. I loved, respected, and appreciated her and it felt like I was abusing her to leave her at home when I loaded up. A buddy had a young set of dogs that were struggling and so I let him take her. It was a win all the way around. She is a yard dog now that she’s retired at about 12 or 14 years old. His wife claimed her lol.


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[chestonmcdowell]

Find you a trustworthy kid old enough to hunt that you can put under your wing. That way he’s always there because I bet as soon as he’s down the road you’ll be wishing you had him at times. If those young dogs might of trashed a time or to I’ve had it take a while for dogs to start honoring their bays.

[make-em-squeel]

Why dont you just sell him for a cheap price or free to a good hunting home to someone who needs a dog that will find a pig?

[Austesus]

I agree with several of the other comments. I lost my lead dog to a fight with my bulldog a while back. At the end of the day the responsibility was on me because I allowed certain things to happen that shouldn’t have, but I shot the bulldog after that. I had nothing else striking pigs at that time and had young started dogs that really struggled. I tried for months to get doings going again and really just wasn’t having much luck. A buddy of mine that lives a few hours away called me up out of the blue and asked if I was interested in a finished dog.

Of course I asked about the dog wanting to know which one it was, but told him I probably couldn’t afford the dog. He tells me it’s his copper dog, she was around 6 years old and has been wrecked by some big boars over the years and started to slow down. He had swore for several years that he would never get rid of her, and she had built a good reputation around his part of the state for being a true jam up dog, but he had 30-35 dogs on his yard and had some younger dogs coming on good and she just couldn’t keep up with them anymore. He said she was too good to sit on a chain and he wanted her with someone he knew would take good care of her and keep her in the woods. He didn’t care about money and was more interested in working out a trade. I had a project 88 K5 that that I hadn’t touched in a few years and so we traded for that. He really didn’t need or want the truck, but he knew I didn’t have the money to pay what she would be worth and he was really just trying to help me out. Turns out she was a perfect fit for my yard and is great for starting young dogs. It worked out great for both of us and he’s happy knowing that one of his best dogs is getting well taken care of and still hunting.

We just wrapped up a big annual hunt that we do March 4,5, and 6. And he was glad I brought her out to hunt with him again. I think it’s important to place the dog with the right person. This guy wouldn’t have put that dog with someone that he didn’t know or trust. Like me, he runs rough dogs that are pretty much straight catch. So he needed to know she would be with someone that hunts dogs like that and will do everything possible to get to her as fast as possible when she stops one.


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