ORIGINAL: ButchA

Rick, let me try to explain....

I own two black labs. They are not hunting dogs, but just basic family pets. They are obedient and listen to me and won't take off to parts unknown if/when we venture into the woods for a nice walk. The female lab (Holly) is now too old to go out into the woods or on long walks. She's content to stay home curled up on the doggy bed in the living room. The male lab (Sonny) is 3 years younger and he can still get out and go anywhere with me.

I guess the problem I see is that when I am hunting east of the Blue Ridge on public land, I always run into a bunch of deer dogs running around. Lord only knows where the owner/owners are. I had one dog stay with me and follow me around for a while too. I had no idea who's it was, but it said "CH-7" on its collar. Cute li'l dog too... This was in Cumberland State Forest, BTW...

See that is what is strange... some people just dump off their deer dogs on public land and let them run amok! I took my male black lab (Sonny) with me one time to Amelia WMA and wanted to go rabbit hunting (yeah I know a black lab going rabbit hunting?). But I just wanted to see what he would do, how well he would handle being in Amelia WMA, etc...etc..... Sonny never took off or chased anything or worse, ventured off Amelia WMA onto someone's property. He stayed with me the whole time and cruised around sniffing the ground, about 25-30 yards in front of me. If he started getting too far ahead, I'd whistle, and he'd come right back to me. We didn't see anything (as usual at Amelia WMA) but we had a great time trying to hunt for rabbits.

Lastly, getting back to that deer dog in Cumberland SF (that had the collar CH-7), I remember stopping my hunt for a bit, packing my stuff up, and putting the dog in my truck, right next to me on the seat. The dog loved me for doing that. I drovedown that particular road that I was on and the deer dog was on, and we found a few pickup trucks with cages in the back of them. I stopped and let the dog out, 'cause that's where he's gotta be from. But the dog didn't want to leave my truck and started licking my hand. So, I picked it up and carried it over to the other trucks. Then quickly got in my truck and drove off. I couldn't even think of shooting the dog because he disrupted my hunt... I just tried to return it to its owners. ....my good deed for that day.

If deer dog owners would be a little more responsible for their dogs then a lot of other hunters wouldn't be so critical of them. Just my .02 cents....