behunting14,
Only an immature little boy would resort to name calling on a public forum. You do not represent me as a hunter, at all.

Hey New,
I don’t care for running deer with dogs. My concern is a selfish one, but so are everyone else’s.
Here are two posts from a thread in this page called “Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance.” I’m posting them here because I think they’re relevant to your wanting to get to some solutions instead of bickering. I think it is important for dog hunters to realize that they’re going to have to figure out a way to make the public happy or their privileges are going to be lost. I don’t dog hunt, but I don’t want to see dog hunting, or any other form of hunting taken away. It seems like to me, and I could very well be wrong; all dog hunters are trying to do is convince people that they’re wrong for not understanding or supporting dog hunting instead of looking for ways to make both sides happy.

Perhaps I’m not creative enough, but the only things that I can think of are running dogs on larger pieces of land and having some means of calling off the dog when heading out of a leased area. I know that sucks, but I’m not sure what else you could do. I’ve trained my dog to stay in my yard, but a few weeks ago he started fighting with two hunt club dogs in my back yard. I can’t really blame my dog, since there are two loud dogs running through his yard while my kids were playing. Now I’ve got a dog fight on my hands Not to mention that when my wife came home that day, I was planning to go out in my woods to hunt some deer that probably just got chased off. Am I selfish for not liking it? Maybe. Do other people feel the same as me? Most likely they do from what I hear and see. Problem is; if a bunch of people are saying the same thing, in regards to complaints, there is probably a reason.
I was humbled a while back when my father told me that he thought I was too hard on my son. That took me by surprise. One reason it shocked me is that I felt my father was hard on me. But the bigger reason was my mother told me the same thing a few weeks earlier. They are divorced and don’t speak to each other, which means… I’m probably too hard on my oldest son. I decided to be the man I thought I was and man-up. I took the action to look in the mirror and watch myself. I noticed that they were right, and I was wrong. I expected too much of him, since he was the oldest. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this…

Here are the posts;

First one…

I’ve never been dog hunting, where we ran dogs. I have brought my one dog with me hunting. But I own a house right next to a leased hunt club property in Spotsylvania VA and I can tell you that I don’t support that kind of hunting. The reason that I don’t is because I don’t want dogs running the deer on my property, and that keeps happening. My fathers property in Culpeper is the same way. I can be in my tree stand, on my land and watch your dogs run deer through and out of my property. Then you can hear the shots from over on the road, which isn’t hunt club property. This isn’t the only property that I hunt that is near leased land that dog runners use, and from what I’ve seen, this is common.

You fought and got the right to retrieve you dogs from others property without permission, but I can’t retrieve a dead deer that ran onto hunt club property without permission. You know property boundaries are not being respected. But now it is illegal to cut the collar from the dog. The Berkley hunt club, really close to my house won’t let anyone join… But they’re sure happy to use my private road to drop off and pick up their dogs.
I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but you guys are going to have to start being respectful of other people and hunters before you’re going to be getting much backing from a lot of people.

Second post;

SouthernDoghunter,
Have you stopped to think about why your preferred type of hunting is under attack? I have; and it isn’t because you kill a deer that was pushed from its bed with a dog. It is because people are sick of having hunting dogs on private property. You keep saying “the dog can’t read.” You need to stop saying that because it makes you sound ignorant. That is not a conversation ending statement. If I can’t have my dog outside not on a leash, why can you? Hunting dogs end up on private or public property time and time again. That is a fact, and it keeps happening. Then the hunter says something that doesn’t sit well with the people who are bothered by it; “the dogs can’t read.” Yeah, no crap, and neither can the hunter, is probably what they’re thinking.

My dog is my responsibility, not the landowners on either side of me. My youngest child can’t read either, and he too is my responsibility. You can’t set a dog free on a small piece of property and expect him to stay on it. It is your job to figure out a way to fix the problem, not the people or hunters who don’t participate. If you elect not to, your privilege will most certainly go away. Like it or not, if you don’t get creative and respectful you won’t be doing this much longer. I hope you’re able to see that, and I hope that your privilege doesn’t go away, but that is on you.

Good luck,

KP