Dog Outing

Tuesday afternoon I took the dogs and headed to Carroll County. The leaves are coming down and the squirrels will soon follow. We rambled the woods and bush for an hour and a half. Pee Wee barked up a tree early after we got there. There was an open field between me and the woods he was in. Before Bear and I could get there, he met us in the field.

This brings me to a dilemma. He doesn't know what he is doing. He knows he is a hunter and he hunts. But he doesn't know how or even what he is hunting. According to a friend of mine who raises and trains mountain curs, I need to get an expensive Garmin GPS that will attach to him and show me where he is all the time. When he trees, I mark it on the Garmin, catch Pee Wee, and take him to the tree and tie him while I search for the squirrel.

The question is if it is worth it to put in 600 bucks into a device to train this dog. Not only is that a lot of money, but how long I will have a place to hunt is also in question. The land in Carroll County may be sold. My siblings and I now own it and we are in the process of determining what we will do with it. I want to keep it, but I am just one vote. Without it, I have no place to run dogs in search of something for them to bite. Let me take that back. I still have Hillbilly Heaven, but the loss of Hodge Ski Lodge would seriously constrict my rambling room.

When we finished our romp over the place, Pee Wee didn't want to get in the truck so I locked the gate and took off at over twenty miles per hour. Pee Wee loved it. he was out in front and pulling away from the auto. That dog is amazing and indefatigable. I turned in at the bottom where we sometime make a round in a forty acre section that is thick in small trees. He came back, and I once more tried to get him. But he wanted to hunt some more. He bolted down the bottom and stopped about eighty meters away. He looked back at me and looked into the bush. He knew I wanted him in the truck, but he wanted to hunt some more. 

He hit the bush and I sat down away from the truck and waited. He made a loop and a few minutes later came sheepishly out of the trees and crawled into my lap. I wasn't mad. How could I be. He just has a lot on energy and a big drive to hunt. i gathered him in my arms and carried back to the truck so he couldn't bust off again. As soon as we started moving, he was from window to window with that high intensity look trying to find something to bark at. Since he couldn't find anything to bark at, he barked at nothing. Yeah, he is that full of it.

I walked 2.11 miles on our hunt. That was my exercise for the day. The dogs had fun, and I know where I am with my canine project.