I've been on a well managed hunt with deer dogs in the south.Deer doggin has been around for hundreds of years and is here to stay.

Hunting deer with dogs is illegal in my state. I've seen the same problems with rabbit and coon dogs that break off and end up wandering on my leased hunting ground or spookin deer on adjacent property.
One guy uses dogs for deer and one for rabbits,coons,birds,fox - NO differance.

A dog is a dog and does what it does which is not always what its supposed to do.That's usually when the problem begins.

Now - Should we lobby to outlaw rabbit,coon,bird,fox dogs/hounds - Of course not.Need education and enforcement - NOT more laws and bickering among hunters.

Everyone should Agree to Disagree or at least Compromise that there is or can be problems with dogs and doggers.

This needs to be done at least in this thread.Hope you all get the drift

Hatracked,

Florida has adopted similar laws that Georgia has. There have been threats, fires, and fights over access to property and it lead to the current rules where we have to register our dogs. But, as several others have posted, we are not all bad apples.

In the span of a hunting season, I will spend twice as much time hanging in a tree as I will dog hunting. In that time, I would usually consider the dog hunting much more work overall so painting us as lazy is just not fair.

Further, I am a firm believer in dog hunting areas and still hunting areas. In North Florida, I drive about 60 miles one way to get to the Apalachicola National Forest where we dog hunt. There are closer management areas to us but they are designated still hunt areas. I have no problem with this as it is just the way it goes.

Years ago when we hunted "open land", we did not have to trespass but as more and more of it was purchased, it became harder and harder to hunt without problems. We bought tracking collars, we used more trucks, and we tried harder and harder to keep up with the dogs. AsI stated in the first page of this thread, we even got down to small breed beagles so that we could cut them off and respect our neighbors.

The point is, you have painted us as all bad and it just ain't so. I spend more time still hunting but still enjoy dog hunting a few times a year and I do not see much difference either way.

If dog hunting is lazy, so is using a four wheeler to drive to a feeder and unload 100 pounds of corn a week. You also stated that if a dog runs through your property then the dog hunter is stealing someone else's deer. The same could be said for baiters. If your neighbor has planted a one acre food plot for supplemental feeding, then isn't a feeder full of apple corn on your property like offering a five year old a lollipop to get in the car with you?

There are *Deleted* among us in all forms of hunting. You hate unethical dog hunters. I hate people who trespass (knowingly) on our property and shoot deer. Duck hunters don't respect guys who chase ducks with boats and shoot them. Fisherman hate people who fill the livewell with dynamite or fish shockers. But, you don't need to throw a blanket over the entire group and pin a label on us. If that is OK to do, then you can also say all black people are lazy, all Hispanics are thieves, all white people are racist, all French people stink, etc., etc.

There is a compromise and ripping others that post here is not the way to do it. This thread is nine pages long and almost half of it is you telling dog hunters that they all suck and that we are law breakers and lazy. Try laying down ideas to better the situation. Make suggestions that make sense rather than spew piss and venom at annybody who is not on your page of the book. Most of us are open to it.

In Florida, we have to register if we own dogs. We also have to tag the dogs so that the owner can be located and HELD RESPONSIBLE if one gets away. You know what, we do it and we take it as being part of the game. Those of us that are ethical do not mind although it is a pain. We see it as a way to protect what we do and we are willing to pay the price for the bad apples.

In the midwest where the deer are big and the poaching is plenty, I like to still hunt. If they asked me to check in to hunt our property, I would not like it but I would do it for the good of the whole. Most of us on this site are that way. We are not the snuff drooling, beer drinking, inbread slobs you make us out to be.

I hunt pheasant with dogs. I have hunted coons with dogs. I have hunted quail, chukar, and even squirrell with dogs. I would not be considered a dog hunter by the guys in the deer hunting party I hunt with because I only go a couple times a year but I enjoy it. I would not call it "heritage" as others have but it is somethingI have done and enjoy.

I am not a slob or lazy. I am not a law breaker.

I pay for licenses, permits, stamps, and every other tax on my sport. I pay for turkey licenses even though I do not hunt turkey very much because I want the state to do what they have to to make hunting better for me.

I aim to protect what rightswe have left and most others here are the same way and I understand the other posters getting offended by your comments.

Try using sugar to collect the ants rather than vinegar... but as sour as your disposition is toward anyone that does not believe the same way you do leads me to wonder if vinegar is all you have.

if your goanna run dogs atleast have full controll of them and where they roam.. here in pa. i believe most have been told to shoot dogs running deer.. i know a few people who shot their beagles for running deer during rabbit season.. they are hard to break that habit of and are useless after that.. it was just the way most of us been brought up i guess.. it would never be legal in pa. to chase deer with dogs.. unethical here.. beside that,, you know how many dogs would be shot on private property here if they allowed it from the dogs crossing on to posted property?? i would have to respect the land owners rights and his decision to waiste a dog for tresspassing on his property chasing deer.. if you got no respect forland owners rights,,then he should have none for your dogs illegal doing on his property.. i don't know how the lease property works out though for them rights..

No problem - Even sarcastic posts and without ill-intentions can sometimes lead to pretty ugly responses in here; seen and delt with it numberous times

3 Days left in deer season i will ya"ll know how many deer dogs i find abandoned no collars after the end of the season

Field report for 12/30/06------6:00p.m.

Total number of deer taken--11 (4 bucks and seven does, one of the
was a beautiful 9 point with a split brow
tine on his left beam.)

Total packs of dogs -3 (probably about 20 total)

About half released in the morning and caught up by 1145(6 deer)
In the evening(about 1:00)we turned out the rest and we were caught up by about 4:00(5 deer). We had no problems keeping the hounds on our property as it was wrapped up real tight. Most of our standers carry a lead or two on them to gather up dogs til the drivers can get to them, it works great. We finished up early and helped the old timer drag his 9 pointer out of the marsh, he was real excited and it was a great deer. I would normally have still hunted until dark but I killed a nice sized deer the second hunt and really don't need much more meat than that. So I am back home early after the 11/2 hr tripand everything went about how it normally goes at our club, safe and organized and a plan in place to control the dogs. Sorry to dissapoint, I'm sure some thought I would be chasing dogs all over someone else's property right about now cussing and throwing beer bottles everywhere.

Anyway no more arguing from me on this thread, I am in too good a mood to do that again. I will continue to dog hunt how I do and if/when things change in my home stateI willdeal with it then as I'm sure myself and others like me will be here to contribute our input.

Hey guys,
Here in MN dog hunting is not allowed but I see slob hunters everywhere. I cant even count all the times I've found beer cans and food wrappers while hunting and its from the stand hunters. So I'm sure there are some slob dog hunters but we have a ton of slob stand hunters here in MN.But I stand hunt and I know a lot ofothers whodo anda lot of us don't litter but there are slobs in every group. I'm sorry if you gota hunt wrecked by some dog hunters but I've had plenty of hunts runed by stand hunters who set up to close to me, knowingly walked by my stand while I was in it, ect.

NEW61375,

Good deal. You sound like the type of dog hunter that I don’t mind at all. From your post you take the responsibility and the enjoyment of your deer hunting seriously. There are clubs like yours in SC that have a lot of land and are mostly able to keep control of their dogs. The problem down here in SC is that most of the dog hunters are not staying on their land. They don’t even try. The land leases down here are for the most part timberland in divided sections under the management of different companies. How a lot of the dogers down near my club operate, is that they lease a small parcel beside a good area or on each side of a good area. Now that good area is leased or owned by someone else, usually still hunting maybe a swamp, or farmland, etc., the dogs are run across the other land intentionally going from lease to lease or simply dropped on the road and pointed toward the lease on the other side. That would be two 10-acre leases separated by a thousand or more. And those are the better dog hunters in the area. The bad ones don’t give a dam who is on the land or has leased it. Darn it, but the ethical dog runners down here don’t support the ethical still hunters when they want to handle the situation. Not to long ago if you caught someone’s dog you would call the owner first, I still do, and they would thank you and you would probably not see them again. Now it happens repeatedly. The situation has deteriorated to the point that dogs are being shot indiscriminately. There are not enough law enforcement officers to handle the problem. I did find a novel way to chase them away; I started taking pictures of their trucks and such. My camera comes out and their guns go up, since they know I am waiting to bust them and have the evidence to prove it. I don’t like that it has gotten to this stage. This is what is being fought over in SC, not accidental trespass by the dogs but purposeful and indiscriminate use of dogs to hunt land with out permission. NEW61375, what would you say about someone letting 25 dogs loose on a 50 acre lease and chasing them for miles with guns routinely. I hope this might shed some light on the situation here. I hope your season goes well.

mello

Mello

That is real bad situation down there. I guess we are fortunate in that for the most part our situation is not nearly as bad. I'm sure there are isolated siuations in certain areas but for the most part our circumstances have not deteriorated to that point and fromwhat I have encountered our wardens seem to take their jobs and issues seriously. You would be surprised how quicklypenalties likefining, ticketing, arresting in some cases(DUI's) work in areas that have been reporting high #'s of complaints. When you start hitting people in their wallet they seem to take notice real quickly. That does shed light and give a little better explanation of the kinds of probelms you guys are facing. It is unfortunate that your law enforcement is not better funded to provide more support(police, wardens, etc) or come up with a specific plan of attack to enforce laws already on the books and start enforcing maximum fines and penalties on any violators. I have seen areas here that have had a few real bad guys get staked out and it has never taken the wardens long to find the troublemakers or lawbreakers and before long you see less and less of them because they are sick of getting ticketed or they are worried the local warden has called a couple of troopers to set up DUI checkpoints on roads leaving certain clubs. Well I will keep trying to present a good example here and do whatever I can to prevent the areas I hunt from turning into the "war zone" (for lack of a better description) like the one youhave todeal within your area/state.
Good luck during the rest of your season and have a Happy New Year(all).

NEW

NEW I applaud you for sticking to your beliefs. I myself use to hunt with dogs before I left to go into the Marines. Since I have been back I chose not to hunt with them. In Louisiana we have a month of still hunt only followed by a month of dog season. From my experience with our local dog runners is that they release their hounds in late October and won't pick them back up until the end of the season in January. Now I am sure that you don't do this with your dogs nor do most honorable dog hunters. Personally I have seen twice the deer without hunting with dogs then hunting with them. I have killed 10 times as many deer w/o, than with too. I love to hear a good hound as much as the next guy but, I also love hunting when there are none around. You have made the statement that the Ga. regs do not affect you. As of today you are correct but, that's not to say that within the next 5 years there could be a push to so the same things in your neck of the woods. That's what most people don't think about. Oh that doesn't affect me so I'm not going to worry about it. Then before you know it the same situation is snowballing right to you and all you had to do was pay closer attention back to when it didn't directly affect you, and that could have prevented it all together. In the state of Louisiana dog hunting will never be outlawed so, I don't get to worked up about it because there is nothing that I can do about it. We attend the local DNR meeting and are out numbered 5 to 1 in most cases. I have seen the ugly side of hunting in my 20+ years of hunting, I have seen dogs shot, & people beat up. I have seen bad hunting ethics from non-dog hunters and dog hunters. Most of the dog hunters that I know are very honorable people, they take very good care of their animals and do thier best to head thier animals off before they cross the property lines. There are a few that give them a bad name just as there are a few still hunters that give us all a bad name. Bottom line is we are all hunters and we should respect each others rights.

This is just my opinion, for what it's worth.