"Home of REAL Treedogs"

Hello, hello, hello to all my friends and faithful readers of FULL CRY magazine! October already and man do we have a lot to talk about! There are some great hunts coming this month and there are sure to be some big name dogs and handlers at these events. I look forward to seeing the familiar faces that I do every year as I travel across the country to these events. In the meantime there have been calls flooding into my house from folks wanting to talk dogs. And I will be honest with you, I LOVE IT!! Never talked a good cur story that I did not like and it keeps me fired up throughout the season. I often times get e-mails asking me if I have ever hunted with a certain dog, or what I know about this dog or the other. Well the truth is, if I know about a dog, (meaning) if I have hunted with that one particular dog more than a couple times and feel that I can make an educated opinion about it, I will do my best to give you the skinny about the dog. But keep in mind that will only be my opinion and nobody else. Now, if I have only hunted with a dog one time at a competition at one time or another I will most likely not form an opinion of that dog. I see some folks in this sport that are quick to make an opinion of another person’s dog weather they have hunted with it or not. Or because they hunted with the dogs sire and saw something they did not like they will say his offspring is just no good. And I could go on and on, but to give you a short story that pertains to why I don’t give opinions about another dog just seeing it one time.

I was at a hunt several years back and was a spectator on a cast with a dog that was being promoted as a good reproducing male dog at the time, I had heard of this dog well before I ever had hunted with him and was interested in possibly getting a pup of his. The conditions that day were just right to tree some squirrel and my anticipation of what this power house stud dog was going to show me was high. I sat quietly in the back of the van as I listened to the cast members talking over where they were going to hunt at that morning. When one of the cast members sitting to my left leaned over to me and said, I might as well just withdraw my old female now hunting against that dog. He went on to tell me that a dog like that is hard to beat, he is in FULL CRY every month, full page adds and so on and so forth.. Well to make a long story short, the big name dog did not win the cast nor did he put up what I would consider a decent fight. However the other cast member with the dog he wanted to withdraw got to brag to his buddies how his old dog beat the pants of such a big name in the sport. I was let down or a little upset to say the least, the handler of the big name dog had told me that his dog had been acting sickly the last couple of days, I thought to myself…yeah right, I have heard that before. When I got to the club house folks were asking me what happened and what I thought of the big name cur dog that I saw that morning. I guess what I said was “I won’t be booking a pup out of that dog no time soon”. And over the next few months I told folks the same when they had asked me about that particular dog. About a year later I went back to the same clubhouse for a NKC squirrel hunt and happened to draw the same “big name” dog that I had seen act so poorly the last time. The dog I was hunting at that time I would consider a very nice older dog that knew his way around a squirrel woods, I had been winning my fair share of hunts with my dog and looked forward to gaining my bragging rights after I too beat this “big name” dog. Once the owner of the big name dog recognized that I would be hunting against him that day, he apologized to me for the way that his dog looked the last time I saw him. He went on to tell me that he took his dog to the vet after that hunt and had to give him medicine for a stomach virus that he had. I told him no problem and I looked forward to hunting with him again that day. The hunt started out neck and neck split tree here and there and then the big name dog showed me why he had such a big name. The dog was on fire, closing my dog out on trees and I just could not catch up. Nor could I catch the big name dog making one mistake throughout our two hour cast. After the hunt we stood by the pickup truck signing the scorecard and as I reached my hand out to congratulate the winner of the cast, I told him that it was me that must apologize for underestimating his dog. And I went on to apologize for the negative things that I had said about his big name dog. He did not seem to upset with me, and basically did not act very surprised at all. His response to me was that it happens every where he goes with the dog. He said that most of the folks saying these things about his big name dog had never even hunted with him, but took others folks opinions of the dog and added a little bit each time the stories were told. So from that day until now, I will not make quick opinions of any dog out there seeing it perform just one time.

Moving on to other business, like I said before I have had so many calls over the last month it is hard to keep track of who is calling and what it pertaining to. My wife has told me time and time again to get a notebook and set next to the phone so that when folks call to talk dogs, I can write down the name and where they were calling from. Every month that I write this article I ask my wife who was it that called from West Virginia, or who was it that called from Arkansas. Her answer is always typically the same, “how am I supposed to know!” If I leave you out of the article it is not intentional and I will not forget anymore, I will start writing things down. I did talk to Mark Morrison on the telephone the other day; Mark is a dedicated Cur dog enthusiast and loves to hunt tree dogs. Mark and I had quite a rather long conversation and went to the bottom of the barrel on a couple of topics. We seen eye to eye for the most part on everything we talked about. Mark is getting more and more involved in the OMCBA and I believe is going to write a guest column for David Carr here in FULL CRY. I will be looking forward to reading Mark’s column. Mark also just made another new addition to his kennel with the purchase of World Champion Tree Dog C&S Hardwood Misty. I owned Misty for a couple years so we shared stories about the times I had with her. I am going to try and make some plans to hunt with Mark down south this year, he hunts out of one of those Kawasaki Mules, you can sure cover some ground with one of those things.

Maybe Santa can load one of them on his sleigh for me this Christmas. I will keep my fingers crossed. I also spoke with Merle Sealy on the phone. I have not spoke with Merle since last squirrel season and was beginning to wonder if he had feel of the face of the earth. Merle let me know that he has been busy with a home he and his wife had purchased. He has some new kennels and has everything set up just the way he wants. He plans on hunting some pups out of Hardwood Lake Jake and His Rosa female this season. From the ones that I have seen, he will have no trouble getting them started! Good luck Merle and call me whenever you want to take a hunt. Remember, bring your best (ha-ha).I spoke with Greg Helwig, he is gearing up for squirrel season and is sure to have his IN State Champion Squaw in tip top shape for the hunts this season. She is truly a nice female and Greg is one of the best guys in the sport, I wish him all the best. I spoke with Doug Cox of Holton IN. Doug Hunts extremely hard and he is looking forward to another great season here in Indiana. I spoke with Frank Cox of Bristow IN; he thanked me for the kind words in my last article about the World Champion Redman. Redman never will need any introduction amongst Cur dog enthusiast, do your homework and you will find out Redman was one of the greats. It’s my pleasure Frank.

I had a conversation with Mark Gaietto, what a great guy. Mark is a hard hunter and has handled some of the best this sport has ever had to offer. I call him the spoiled brat of the Cur Dog world (ha-ha I’m sure he will like that one). He told me that Jukebox Bud is doing real well and he was going to be hunting him this season. I drew out with Mark one time and we had a good cast of dogs and a good hunt ever since that day we have stayed in touch, I am planning on setting up a hunt with him and Chuck to get a look at what this coyote hunting is all about. Apparently they have some of the best coyote dogs in Ohio as well. I have always wanted to see what hunting coyotes was all about. Mark has invited me more than a few times and I have never had the opportunity to go. Maybe this year I will get the chance.

Well that is going to about wrap it up for this month’s Out and About. Hopefully I will see most of you at the NC&FBA World Hunt at Elnora Indiana on October 14-15. I will be located directly behind the club house with the rest of the clan like we are every year. OH, I almost forgot AMY THOMAS now paging AMY THOMAS how busy has she been! I have seen her all over the place; she is doing a great job for C&H Publishing, Keep up the good work! Also I have included to pictures, one of Jeremy Cornett of Dillsboro IN and his dog Trigger and the other of Justin Jump of Aurora IN and his new female pup Harley.

Until next time, take care of yourselves and one another and KEEP LOOKIN UP!

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