Old # 14

[GloryDaze]

So my buddy took the family fshing this weekend on the Current. Yesterday they took out at Pultite and this old hound dog comes running up to him and his family. Funny thing is, the dog has a #14 shaved into the hair on it's side and then painted black. The dog's owner comes over and my buddy asks him "what's he got that number shaved on him for" The old man tells him- it's used to chase coyotes, it's how they can tell what dog belongs to which owner.

Now, I'm telling my buddy the old man was yanking his chain- who has ever heard of coyote and dog racing and he swears the guy was telling him the truth. Can someone tell me if you think the old man was yanking his chain, or was he telling the truth?

I have the pic but can't get it uploaded just right-

[Gavin]

There are a bunch of running dogs in Shannon County...Sounds like your buddy ran into one. They run whatever with them...Coyote, Fox, Deer. The number is so they can bet on em. Cheers.

[GloryDaze]

Bear with me here, obviously the city boy coming out in me:

Ok, so is the winner the dog who catches the coyote, fox, or deer first? Or do they expect the dog to outrun the animal? “Hold on fellas, Mr. Fox just had a false start….one more of those and it’s a DQ…”

What exactly are they betting on?

[Gavin]

The dogs chase stuff till they or someone kill its. Its a coordinated group poaching activity.

[Guest]

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[ozark trout fisher]

I had a hound come into my campsite on the night before rifle season, there were so many rifle shots that night that it sounded like a small skirmish was going on. I have also had dogs chase deer across the current while wade fishing, one deer jumped across within 20 yards of me.

At the conservation area I hunt in the Southern Ozarks, I have had encounters with deer dogs nearly every year for the last eight years I have hunted there. It is getting so bad that I may have to choose a different area, somewhere outside of the Ozarks, next year. Last year I had two hounds run right below my tree stand just a few minutes after legal light started, right at prime time. The year before, I had one hang around my campsite in the evening after I got back. They were all hounds, and they all had radio collars, and it was the November deer season in southern Missouri... So I think it's a pretty safe assumption that folks were dogging deer, on public land no less.

I really wish local law enforcement and the MDC would watch out for that more. Deer doggers kill the experience for hunters and they hurt the deer population. Considering that there are none too many deer in south central and southeast Missouri as it stands, I think it's a pretty big problem.

[fishinwrench]

Running coyotes with Greyhounds is a big group sport in Oklahoma. They turn the hounds loose on a Yodel dog from 50-100 yards away and then track them via 4WD's or ATV's and CB radios. It's cool to listen to them over the radio, and even cooler to be a part of.

Those dogs are awesome...and FAST !

[Bird Watcher]

It's big sport over here on the west side of the state too. Anywhere we have prairie, there are usually some coyote hunters around. Most of them that I run into don't kill the coyotes anymore. They just let the dogs catch them and then they turn them loose. It's a heritage thing. They grew up listening to dogs run coyotes and coons. It seems like a real social event with sometimes multiple generations of the same family participating.