Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1910

I wanted a horse and a German Shepherd and never got them...

Folks used to dump dogs out on our road because there wasn’t any traffic and no neighbors close by so it was easy to do...I was able to keep a few plus a few that were given to me...

Once I got the idea to hunt with dogs I very seldom hunted without them...

We caught lots of game...I learned where to hunt in the drought or when it flooded...

I learned by the sound of the bark what they were running...

A certain bark for rabbit...
The same bark for jack rabbit and deer...
Different bark for snapping turtle or snake...
A different bark for treed game...
Armadillo was a muffled bark in a hole...
They bayed snakes and killed them on command...I didn’t let them kill a poisonous snake over 3 ft. Long...
My dogs killed skunks on command...something I shouldn’t have done...for more than one reason...

Used body language and hand signals to stalk game...verbal commands or a hiss to get the dogs attention during a stalk...the idea was to sneak up on something that was close to the big rose hedges and then make a mad dash to catch it before it could make it to safety...

I always had a dog with speed that ran down rabbits...one that struck and a smaller dog that flushed game out of rose hedges or caught in the hedges...they all caught together on coon or feral cats etc...

I sometimes hunted twice a day if I wasn’t working in the fields and not in school...

I about always hunted by myself and it was some of the best times in my life...when someone came along I had to tone it down on how I hunted...when alone with my dogs I was a lot like my dogs...I yipped and I hollered and clapped my hands and just brought out the best from dogs...kind of like that sayin...dancing like nobody is looking...I hunted my dogs like nobody was looking when nobody was looking...the dogs hunted best that way...I could about sick them on anything and call them off just as quick... I kind of hate to say it but they would take a beating for me and not back up until the job was done...

I took puppies hunting that could barely keep up...

I think a kid can be a better dog man than a grown up if given the opportunity...

This is a story I always wanted to tell...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

Last edited by Reuben on 06-17-2020 at 03:34 AM

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Registered: Aug 2013
Location: Seneca, Mo
Posts: 5823

Thanks for sharing.
I witness nearly daily how dogs and even very young pups respond and how the grand children communicate with the dogs. There is nothing like the special relationship between a child and there dog.
Just yesterday a friend of ours brought down his 2 boys to pick out a young puppy for that they can mess with this summer and to start hunting this fall. The youngest is very bashful and never said a single word in the time he was here but yet picked out the puppy he wanted and the pup also choose him. I sat in amazement once more (I've seen this before) as this little boy who never said a word very calmly and gently patted his upper leg and a pup who had not been paying any attention stopped playing with the other dogs turned and ran across our yard and sat at the boys feet.
Your story reminds me alot of Chey's of a dog named Cruiser and Dalton's of growing up with Buck and Willy. He and those dogs hunted everything that moved to the point I told him if he shot it he had to eat it, which he did by frying up bags of random critters lol.

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Registered: Apr 2015
Location: church hill tn
Posts: 5636

This is the kind of post that brings joy into my heart, I could read this post over and over and have a big old smile on my face every time. I am smiling as I write this and will smile when I read it again tomorrow. It's 5:24 am and I just got home from night fishing for crappies and resting a bit before going to bed, no doubt I will think of your post as I go to sleep. I can just see you and your little pack of dogs having a blast without a care in the world. Oh to have those days back! Keep on posting my friend, your stories mean a lot to some of us and bring back some fond memories. Dave

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Dave Richards Treeing Walkers Reg American Saddlebred and Registered Rocky Mt. Show Horses

Last edited by Dave Richards on 06-17-2020 at 12:29 AM

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Registered: Jan 2013
Location: Marietta
Posts: 10790

Never forget the first coon our dogs treed. Well it was summer and by time we got time showing it to everybody in town it had an Oder lol.



Tar

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Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5106

I sat on the front porch of a city house and talked to a dog every night. I didn't know what was out in them woods to chase and the dog didn't either. But I told him I would find out one day. That dog taught me a lot and all he did was sit there and listen. Like most kids with a dog in the city. There came a time when that dog wanted to roam more than I could let him. He had to go and we gave him to a man that had a small farm about 20 miles away. We would visit about once a month and the old man would tell me about the coon that dog treed. Not sure I had ever seen a real coon back then. But I knew someday I wanted to be out there chasing them also.

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Registered: Sep 2004
Location: East Ky.
Posts: 109

There is nothing like the relationship between a boy and his dog. My first dog was half beagle half black & tan. I couldn’t been happier if he was a registered world champion.

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Larry Mullins
Plotts, they just get the job done.

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 1910

Thanks everyone...weekend before last I went to visit my sister and our grand niece was there from across the street...we were happy to see a youngster around as most older folks do...we started talking and my brother-in-law and sister were saying that our 9 year old grand niece had a way with the dogs...we looked out the window and on the back porch Melinda was just sprawled out between two dogs and all three just looked as happy as could be without her saying a word...

An example on how the dogs worked a cottonmouth moccasin...

A dog located a snake and would bay it...the snake tries to slither away and the dog grabs it by the tail and gives it a quick yank and the snake coils up and the dog keeps baying until the other dogs show up as well as me showing up...
I then would jump in and out like I was timing the jump rope to jump in as best I can describe it...the dogs would do the same...the coiled snake would strike and recoil and the dogs jumped back and as the snake was coiling to strike again the dogs crowded the snake and I did the same...
Once the dogs had the timing down and the snake struck again and while extended the big dog would grab the snake at the mid section and would shake the snake pretty hard while he backed up...within a few seconds the snake was pretty much dead...the snake would have its guts slinging out of both ends...a dog of mine never got bit doing this...if the snake was bigger I would kill it myself...

When I first started hunting with the dogs I carried a hoe and later I had one with a broken blade and I made a spear out of It...with the hoe blade broke off I straightened the hook in the vice and sharpened it with a grinder...later I added a slingshot to my arsenal that my uncle gave me...he also showed me how to make them...I got a little older and started carrying an old Remington 22 auto...I liked shooting rabbits in front of the dogs...I did ok if the rabbit was running straight away from me or even quartering...the dogs caught way more than I could kill...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Apr 2015
Location: church hill tn
Posts: 5636

Your posts have been enjoyable, they brought back so many memories of my own childhood, coon hunting with my day and my friends dad, hunting and fishing every chance I got. Those were the days, not a care in the world, just one good day after another. No health issues, no worrying about rioting and other problems facing the USA and the WORLD. Thank you for your post, it was refreshing. Dave

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Dave Richards Treeing Walkers Reg American Saddlebred and Registered Rocky Mt. Show Horses

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Registered: Dec 2019
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 246

This sounds like the dogs I had as a kid. I had a half poodle and fiest a half Alaskan husky and border collie and a pure bred lab. They all would tree anything that would climb. They wouldn't run a deer to far they would be back in 20 minutes. But would burn a rabbit up as long as it stayed in the hard woods. When I went hunting I came back with something one time they caught a otter the first me and my dogs had ever seen. And they where possum treeing machines they even treed a few coons.

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