# Missing Hounds



## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

I just read this over on KSL.com and thought I'd pass it along. I don't know the houndsman personally but I know his frustration. There have been many instances over my years of running hounds where some one has picked up one of my dogs and hauled them off the mountain thinking they are doing me a favor. They are not.

I, like most houndsmen, have spent thousands of dollars on tracking equipment so I know where the dog is and most of the time I am generally within minutes of picking it up. The range of these tracking units is about 5 miles depending on the terrain, and there is nothing more frustrating than watching one of my dog's progress on my GPS tracking screen hit a road then shortly disappear because I know some do-gooder has hauled it off.

I have also had people remove my tracking collars off the dog I assume out of curiosity then discard it. One guy even removed the collar, hauled it back to his camp, then denied he had it even though the tracking unit was pinging me right at his trailer door (apparently he didn't know how to shut it off)!

Bottom line, if you come across a dog wearing an antennae collar, PLEASE leave it alone.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=34826025&ni...-sal-mountains-during-bear-hunt&s_cid=queue-3


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Kevin D said:


> I just read this over on KSL.com and thought I'd pass it along. I don't know the houndsman personally but I know his frustration. There have been many instances over my years of running hounds where some one has picked up one of my dogs and hauled them off the mountain thinking they are doing me a favor. They are not.
> 
> I, like most houndsmen, have spent thousands of dollars on tracking equipment so I know where the dog is and most of the time I am generally within minutes of picking it up. The range of these tracking units is about 5 miles depending on the terrain, and there is nothing more frustrating than watching one of my dog's progress on my GPS tracking screen hit a road then shortly disappear because I know some do-gooder has hauled it off.
> 
> ...


I'm suprised you said that but it's good to know. We found a dog while hunting whitetails in Idaho. She had clearly been out for a few days. The tags had an address on it so we took her down to Grangeville and looked up the owner. He was pretty happy to see her.


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

longbow said:


> I'm suprised you said that but it's good to know. We found a dog while hunting whitetails in Idaho. She had clearly been out for a few days. The tags had an address on it so we took her down to Grangeville and looked up the owner. He was pretty happy to see her.


I understand what you are saying, I try to show appreciation to anyone that picks up one of my dogs even though I may be a bit annoyed cuz you never know. Most of the people that have picked up one of my dogs have thought the dog has been missing for several days, even though I had just turned it out that morning. Many people think the dog is starved, but bear dog in prime hunting shape will appear to be just skin and bones because they have run all their fat off. If you feel their muscles, however, they would be rock hard. I don't know if this was the case in the hound you picked up longbow, so I'll trust your judgment.

There are two types of tracking collars out there, GPS and telemetry. Batteries on the GPS collars only last about 36 hours, but they will have a small blinking LED light on the collar showing it is still putting out a signal. If you pick up a dog and see the light blinking on the collar, definitely leave it alone cuz the collar is working fine.

Telemetry collars won't have a blinking light but their biggest advantage is the batteries last 16,000 hours, or about two years running continuously. Most houndsmen have switched to GPS collars because they are more precise so telemetry collars aren't used as much anymore. I strap both types of collars on every dog I turn out just to be safe, but there are a few hold outs that rely totally on the old style telemetry collars.

Still, as a rule of thumb, unless the antennae collared dog is in imminent danger, leave it be.


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## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

I get annoyed when I'm hunting deer and some houndsman is 5 miles away from his dogs that just spooked all the deer in the area! ;-)


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

utahgolf said:


> I get annoyed when I'm hunting deer and some houndsman is 5 miles away from his dogs that just spooked all the deer in the area! ;-)


True, and I get annoyed at someone setting up next to me in the duck blind and sky raking incoming flocks. Or someone walking into my treestand while I'm bow hunting. Or water skiers cutting across my stern while I'm trolling. Nonetheless, I realize that these are just some of pitfalls one must endure in sharing a public resource......:sad:


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