there is still alot of dog hunting in alabama especially around the county we hunt in, and appearently we are the onlly club in the freakin county that doesnt run dogs (or so it seems ha) I cant remember the last saturday morning i went hunting and didnt have dogs runnin all over me.... the men who hunt there do typically care for their dogs as far as i know (enough to find them and keep em fed anyways). But WV hunter is right, alot of people just see them as tools. I know guys that wont feed them for a few days before a hunt because they believe that the dog is more likely to chase a deer if it is hungry.
I do not particullarly care for dog hunting either simply because 1) there is no controlling where a dog will chase a deer... They dont see property line paint to well for some reason and the main reason 2) Once the deer in our area hear a dog they go into serious lockdown mode... yeah you may see the one or two deer that are actually getting run by the dogs but i have been watching 4 deer in a pine thicket before hear the dog bark from 500 yrds away and immediatly bed up where they were standing and not stand back up for over an hr... they aint stupid.
To each his own however, not a hater of dog hunters, just the sport itself ha