I just want to make one short point. If you are on public land and you see a dog that is not with a person, it could be a hunting dog. I hunt with squirrel dogs, and they usually hunt out to about 300 yards from me. They don't look like your typical lab or pointer. They are tough, muscled up red, yellow, black or brindle cur dogs that work with a hunter to tree squirrels. They work timber, and when they find a squirrel, they "bark treed" until the hunter arrives and harvests the game. If they saw you in the woods deer hunting they would probably come lick your face.
I hunt a popular deer hunting spot in strips of woods all along the WMA food plots because I know you can find squirrels in there. To me, a hunter has no right to shoot my dog if we are on public land along one of these strips while they are deer hunting, even if the dog is a few hundred yards out from me.
Dead giveaways of hunting dogs are blaze orange or green collars or tracking collars. If you see a dog wearing one of these, it's probably a hunting dog that has possibly cost as much money to equip and train as your treestands, guns, gear, etc..They are an effectiveconservation and hunting tool that does a goodjob of introducing people to the woods and helpingthem enjoy the woods and the outdoors. If you see a dogthat looks like it is running a deer track, that doesn't mean it is. It could just be working through scents and doing it's job to help the hunter harvest game.
You see, as a squirrel hunter and deer hunter, I don't believe in constantly staying out of the woods and sneaking into my spots early morning, leaving late and getting the heck out of there and staying the heck out of there until next year's deer season in order to reduce noise and scent. I actually like to use the woods for enjoyment. The way some deer hunters might act, I don't see how they ever learn anything about the woods because they sneak in and out, fill up their feeders and stay out the rest of the time. I like to take friends and show them things about woodsmanship, and we walk around, hunt our dogs and we talk and laugh while we are in the woods
I know, how dare I do such a thing because the woods should be left alone so as to leave deer and deer hunters alone.
I get serious about killing my deer just like anybody else and I get real careful for a short time about not leaving scent or making noise, but I don't do this all year long and I don't worry about others on public land because they have the right to be there just like me. I am in the woods quite a bit for about nine months out of the year with my dogs. I'd say that makes me as much of a woodsman as anybody and I don't think anybody has the right to tell me my style of hunting with dogs is unethical. Yes, we run game up a tree with a dogand then shoot it out. Then we take it home and eat it. And all during the year, you can find plenty of deer tracks all over the sameplaces that we run dogs. Running dogs in the woods doesn't alwaysaffect deer like you think. In fact, I have found some good places to hang treestands just from hunting with my dogs nine months out of the year. It's a great way to scout and you cover a lot of ground to help you understand deer movement a little better.
My reason for this post is just to remind PUBLIC LAND deer hunters to be aware of hunting dogs and that they are not out there terrorizing the woods or deer. They are hunters. That much you ought to be able to respect.
Private land is an entirely different ballgame and I realize that. I work very hard to make sure my dogs do not go on property where we do not have permission to be. And there are many just like me. Don't let a few bad dog hunters ruin our name in your mind. Would you want the few deer poachers out there to ruin the name of all deer hunters when you know the good ones outnumber the bad ones?
